Five Minutes
by Galindaba
Summary: Lily Potter is about to leave for her honeymoon and can't help but think about how her life has changed, how Lily Evans' life evolved after that fateful day when she parted ways from her best friend and started to grow closer to the boy she had vowed to despise forever... A story of Lily Evans and James Potter, their friends and their enimies...
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Cover Image by anxiouspineapples. Absoloutly my favourite artist for James and Lily! :) Check out her stuff.**

**Hello reader!**

**Ok. So this is my uber long Lily and James story, you've been warned. I hope you give it a chance. It's just how I think things may have gone down and how they may have gotten together. It runs from the end of their fifth year to the end of their seventh year. (For the years after that I'm writing a different story. Well, same story just a different document...I hope that makes sense.) I've tried to make sure I don't overstep on the things we already know but I do warn you, for the purpose of this story, I have had to move something around but I promise you it still fits in!**

**The story doesn't just focus on James and Lily (though it is mainly about them). It has sections based around other characters so that it is more rounded and because there is more to the story then just those two. After all, what someone else does can affect the path we choose. The other sections are from the point of view of Severus Snape, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Dumbledore, Voldy-Mouldy and Lily's friends. It's all in third person so you know exactly who you're getting at the start of a section.**

**I've tried not to invent too many new characters and some of the ones I use are actually from J.k Rowlings EPIC books. (I love them!) I have had to create their personalities though but all credit does go down to that genius of a woman though. (I love her!)**

**I've got to warn you that later on it does contain swearing, violence, (but I think it's moderate and not too gory. Might be though I'm not a great judge of that), and has references and mention of sex because as they mature so does my writing because, well, I've matured too. UNI STUDENT! :)**

**I'm gonna stop trying to sell it now because to be perfectly honest if you're gonna read it then great! Thanks for the support! It means a lot. But if you're not than I promise I won't take it personally...**

**Also, I'm not too great with grammar and spelling so please don't get mad if I've made a mistake which I probably have. Quite a few of them.**

**Anyway, I'm gonna shut up now and let you read.**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

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**Prologue**

'Lily? We're gonna be late! The port-key is set to leave in five minutes! Lily?'

James Potter ran up the stairs in his brand new home in Godric's Hollow, which he shared with his newly wed wife, Lily Potter. He swung himself round the top of the stairs and ran into their bedroom to find Lily sat crossed legged in the middle of the bed, finishing her packing. He walked over to her and climbed on the bed, quickly pecking her on the cheek, and sitting next to her.

'Still packing?' He said with a slight chuckle. He loved the fact that she took so long to pack. It was rather amusing to watch her keep changing her mind. Packing and unpacking. Again and again. He loved it.

'Yes! And don't make fun of me!' Lily Potter said pushing her new husband off the bed. After falling in a heap on the floor James peered over the side of the bed to glare lovingly at Lily, his round glasses barely hanging on his face. Lily laughed and leant over to correct them, but before she could get there James leapt on the bed to engage her in a furious tickle attack. She squealed with laughter and tried to push him off with no success.

'James! Stop….it… Ahh!' She managed to squeak between breaths.

'Not until you apologise for pushing the love of your life of the bed!' James laughed, still tickling her with no intent of stopping.

'Never!' Lily cried dramatically which sent the pair into fresh peals of laughter. She eventually pushed him off of her and the pair of them, still laughing madly, settled themselves on their large double bed.

A minute later, after their laughter had subsided, Lily was lent on James shoulder, James cheek on her head and stroking her long, flaming, red hair. He loved her hair. It was always so smooth and silky. He could have stroked it all day, but they were set to leave in five minutes. Five minutes. James suddenly jumped up leaving Lily to flop down on the bed.

'Oh, I really hope there was a reason for you doing that James!' Lily mock scolded.

James tilted his head on its side and smiled at her looking straight into her emerald green eyes.

'Yes, my dear, there was.' James replied, still smiling at his new wife. 'Hate to break it to you love, but, we have to go in five minutes and you're not finished packing. What exactly have you been doing anyway? I mean, I know you're usually a really slow and picky packer but, this is really slow. Even for you!'

Lily sighed and gazed off towards nowhere in particular. She had actually been thinking instead of packing.

'You ever wonder how we got here so fast?' she asked James seriously, looking him dead in the eye.

James looked at her questioningly and then replied, in all seriousness 'Err, yes.' But James, being James, had to continue. 'You see, we are _magic_. And can therefore, _apparate_, which is the fastest way to travel. I thought you were smart Lils!' he said with a bit of an evil grin on his face.

Lily sighed and looked at him exasperatedly. 'You know what I mean James!' she said. 'I mean, it just seems like yesterday we met on the Hogwarts express!'

'You know what Lils, love, I think you mean 'It just seems like yesterday when I was still calling you an obnoxious, stuck-up, vindictive, self-loving, irresponsible toe-rag'.' James said with a smile.

'I never said vindictive, but, yeah,' Lily laughed, 'that too! I didn't mean all those things you know. So, I'm sorry that if at the time my words hurt you!' she said with a bit of a sheepish look. James waved her apology away and replied, 'Ahh! Don't worry about it. I never understood all of those words anyway. Especially toe-rag. Really Lils, I think you just made that one up, to be honest!' They both began to chuckle lightly.

After they'd stopped, Lily took on a good natured, serious looking face and spoke again 'OK, now. Seriously. When did it all change? When did I stop calling you all of those thing?'

'Err, Lils,' James replied with a bit of a mischievous grin 'you still call me all of those things.'

Lily sighed, 'Ugh James! Seriously! When did you notice a change?'

James began to think, after a few seconds of thought, Lily began to grow impatient.

'JAMES!' She shouted in his ear.

'Jeesh Lils! I'm meant to go deaf when I'm 102! Not now!' He replied with a laugh and his hands over his ears.

'Well you were taking too long to answer me!' Lily whined.

'What?' James replied with a confused look, 'You asked me three seconds ago!'

'Well that's three seconds too long!' Lily retorted

'What?' James replied for a second time, 'That makes no sense!'

'Just answer me!' Lily said with a pout, bottom lip out.

'OK,' James replied pushing her bottom lip back to stop her pouting, 'I don't really think there was a day when you just stopped insulting me. I think it was more of a gradual change. It happened over a couple of years.'

'Really?' Lily said with a surprised look 'A couple of years? So it started in, what, sixth year?'

James paused for a second. He didn't want to answer this question because if he told her where he thought it really all changed, she'd suddenly become really upset.

'James?' Lily asked, searchingly.

'Err, yeah,' James replied, 'let's say that. Come on you better, err, carry on packing. We've got to leave any minute now.' He turned away from Lily and started to walk out of the room, his head down, ruffling the back of head to make his scruffy, jet black hair even messier.

'James…' Lily said tentatively to James' back. James stopped, sighed, put on a giant cheesy grin and turned around to face Lily.

'Yes my love?' he said so goofily, Lily couldn't help but give a small giggle.

'What did you mean when you said, 'Let's say that'?' she asked curiously.

James looked down and sighed, 'If I tell you, you'll just get upset. And, to be honest, I'd rather not have you mad with me when we're about to leave for our honeymoon. You're not as fun when you're mad.' James said.

'Look,' Lily replied, annoyed, 'I promise I won't get mad! I'm just curious to know when you thought our relationship changed. That's all!'

'OK,' James said with the air of someone finally giving in, he couldn't deny her anything, 'If I tell you, you promise not to get mad?'

'I promise!' Lily said excitedly. She loved getting her own way.

'Well, I think that our relationship changed, after…after, deep breath James, the incident in fifth year after our DADA O.W.L's. That was when we both made some important decisions which affected our relationship.' James revealed slowly and cautiously. He peered at the shocked and distant look on Lily's face. 'I knew I shouldn't have told you.' he sighed shaking his head. 'Just forget I said anything! ….Well, Lily love, you should finish packing. We need to be leaving in _five _minutes!'

James winked at her and left the room calling over his shoulder, 'Remember! Five minutes! Or I'll call Sirius and take him on our honeymoon!' He paused. 'Actually, I think I'd just go alone! Hurry up love!'

But Lily hadn't heard a word he'd said after he had mentioned the incident. She had to agree with him. Their relationship had gradually, very gradually, changed during the years that followed the incident…

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**Reviews are not necessary but always welcome!**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Ok. Prologue down, this is chapter one and it's prety obvious where things start from so please read and enjoy and, if you feel the need to, tell me what you think! (And just remeber that I'm not too great with spelling and grammar so...yeah)**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

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**Chapter One**

Lily Evans entered the entrance hall of Hogwarts castle, crying. She was attracting many stares because the sobs she was letting escape her lips were bouncing of the walls and creating a rolling echo. She was so upset, that she didn't think she had any more room in herself for any other emotions. She was proved wrong when she heard the whispers follow her down the hallways and up the staircases. She then was overcome with embarrassment. No-one had ever seen her as distraught as this before and nobody was making it any easier on her. 'Lily Evans is crying', 'What do you think the Marauders have done now?', 'What's _Potter_ done now?' were the murmurs she was able to catch wafting through the hallways before the taunts began. 'Cry baby!', 'Want your Mummy?!', 'What happened? Forgot your exam was today?!' people scoffed as she ran past them weeping. She slipped constantly on the stairs and in the halls, blinded by her tears, until she reached the entrance to the Gryffindor common room.

After eventually squeezing out the password between her many sobs, Lily stumbled through the portrait hole, attracting many stares and odd looks, and raced quickly towards the girl's stairway. She was crying buckets and could hardly see where she was going, if she was putting one foot in front of the other, but that didn't stop her. All she knew was that she had never felt more betrayed in her entire life. More hurt. More upset. More vulnerable. She just couldn't believe it. Couldn't believe him. How could he do this to her? Lily just wanted to hide her face.

After falling over many times because she couldn't see through the tears which were toppling down her face uncontrollably, Lily finally made it to the fifth year girl's dormitories. She slammed the door behind her and flopped, face down on her bed, crying helplessly into her pillow. There was a deafening ringing in her ears. She kept hearing that awful, awful word, over and over again. Usually she could just grit her teeth and ignore the name calling and the taunts which had stemmed off of her birth status. She was used to it like all the children of her heritage in the school were. She was used to the prejudice and the insults, especially from the Slytherin's. She knew that they thought they were better than her. That they thought birth status mattered and if you weren't a pure-blood, you weren't worth knowing. That they thought she was scum. She'd been called that terrible name by them many times in the past. But this time it was different. This time, it was her best friend who had uttered that unforgivable word.

Lily just didn't understand it. Why would Sev hurt her like this? They'd known each other since they were little. They had played together. He was the one who told her who she really was. He was the one who told her she was a witch. He taught her everything he knew about magic. They were best friends. Lily thought that would've counted for something. Evidently not. All she'd tried to do was help him. Any friend would do that. Any good friend would appreciate it, even if they didn't want it. It was usually comforting to people to know that their friends were with them, supporting them, helping them. So why didn't Sev?

Lily knew that Sev had a thing about proving himself. Especially against Potter. He just had to be….better. It seemed stupid to Lily, but she'd never pointed that out. Firstly because she thought Potter was an insufferable toe-rag and believed that if by some miracle Sev proved himself better than him, Potter would learn a lesson and stop being such an arrogant and cocky idiot. And secondly, she didn't want to ruin her friendship with Sev. She guessed that didn't matter now. They were no longer friends. At least, she was no longer friends with him.

There was a timid knock on the door. Lily quickly sat up and wiped her tears away leaving raw red eyes behind. She then took a deep breath and tried to compose herself. She didn't want anyone to see her like this. Vulnerable.

'Come in' Lily croaked. Two of her dorm mates and friends, Emmeline Vance and Hestia Jones were the ones behind the door. Lily was hardly surprised. They had always had a suspicious knack for knowing when Lily was upset.

'I thought you'd be here. Are you alright?' Hestia spoke softly.

'Yeah' Lily replied with a quivering bottom lip. Hestia raised her eyebrows at Lily and gave her a sceptical look. She knew she was lying. She always did.

'No!' Lily cried, bursting into fresh floods of tears. She couldn't help it. Emmeline tipped her head on its side and gave Lily a sympathetic look whilst Hestia walked over to Lily's bed and sat down, pulling her into a comforting hug. She let Lily cry into her jumper for several minutes gently rocking her back and forth, back and forth, back and forth in a very soothing manner.

Suddenly, Emmeline's soft, dreamy voice broke through Lily's tears, 'You know Lily, when the phoenix finally breaks free from its cage, it is free to find a new master.'

Lily looked up, her tear stained face now holding a look of confusion. She then began to laugh. It was just like Emmeline to say something like that. A philosophical analysis of the situation at hand. Her diagnoses' always cheered Lily up.

'Thanks Emmeline.' Lily said compassionately. 'I really needed...that.'

'No problem Lily.' Emmeline replied with a simple smile. 'You know I'm always here for you.'

'What about me? I'm your best friend!' Hestia said making Lily laugh even more.

'You too!' she giggled

Lily smiled back at Hestia as she got up and walked with Emmeline out of the room. She then flopped back down on her bed and curled up into a ball, just wishing today hadn't happened. Wishing Severus hadn't said what he had said. Wishing they could still be friends. Best friends. Like they'd always been. Wishing there was a way, anyway, she could forgive him. But there wasn't. She quickly fell asleep, her thoughts whirling around her head, with the word 'Mudblood' ringing in her ears.

* * *

'Ok. So now our O.W.L's are over and done with, I suggest we have a massive party in the Gryffindor common room! Who's with me?' Sirius, a tall, thin, toned and handsome boy, asked the group as a whole, his arms stretched out in front of him expectantly. The giant grin on his face suddenly slipped away as he realised his friends were hardly paying attention to him. Peter Pettigrew, a small plump boy with watery, blue eyes and blonde, straw-like hair, was sat picking grass and tearing it to shreds, thoroughly amused. Remus Lupin, a tall, thin but muscular boy with light brown hair, light brown eyes and more scars then you could care to count, was laying on his front reading a book. Lastly, Sirius' best friend, James Potter, another tall, thin, toned and handsome boy, with scruffy jet black hair and hazel eyes framed by black circular glasses was leant against the beech tree, asleep.

Sirius quickly shook him awake.

'It wasn't me!' he shouted as he came to with a shocked but sleepy look on his face. Sirius burst out laughing at his best friends' reaction and James pushed him over annoyed that he had woken him.

'That's a guilty conscience if ever I've heard one.' Remus muttered without looking up from his book.

'Well can you blame me?' James replied, a little irritated.

'Good point.' Remus said with a little smirk and a nod of his head, 'especially after what you've just done.'

'Yeah. Good point.' Peter, who had stopped playing with the grass, repeated, now paying full attention to what was going on around him.

'Stop being a suck up Wormy!' Sirius snapped at Peter. Peter looked down miserably. Sirius rolled his eyes and tried to make his point to the rest of the group the only way he knew how.

'Guuuuuuuu-uuuuys! Come ooooonnnn!' he whined annoyingly, 'Let's celebrate! The exams are over!'

'No they're not.' Remus said, finally looking up from his book, 'There's still the practical DADA, Potions and Divination for those who took it. They're nowhere near finished.' After looking at Sirius disgruntled face, chuckling and smirking, he returned to his book, shaking his head.

'Ha! Well that told you!' James said, standing up and stretching, 'You're an idiot sometimes, you know Padfoot.' he continued stretching and yawning. He then gave a huge shiver, ruffled up his hair again and leant against the beech tree, arms folded, legs crossed.

After a few seconds, Sirius bounced back. 'Ok then, let's have a practice end of exams party! Who's with me?!' Sirius shouted attracting the attention of many other people surrounding the group.

'I am!' Peter said immediately, looking up at Sirius with a strangely mixed look of adoration and admiration. Sirius looked at him, creeped out. He then rolled his eyes and waved Peters support away.

Sirius then turned expectantly towards Remus, 'Moony? How about it? Little pre-party? Hey? Hey?'

Remus sighed, marked his place in his book and threw it down on the grass. 'Yeah why not?' He said sitting upright and stretching his arms. 'Anything to shut you up!' he snickered.

'Great!' Sirius shouted, ignoring Remus' last comment, 'That's what I like to hear!' He said grabbing hold of Remus' shoulder and shaking roughly.

'So, only you left Prongs!' Sirius exclaimed shaking his shoulder length black hair out of his glittering grey eyes. 'Prongs?'

But James was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

Furniture was flying everywhere. The drapes on the four-poster beds were ripped in several places, trunks were strewed across the floor. Almost everything was broken. The pillows were slashed and the duck feathers that had previously filled them were everywhere. The treasured possessions owned by the other boys in the dormitory were either broken, torn or destroyed with no possible way of repair. Severus Snape was in a storming rage. He was tearing the room apart in fury at his own stupidity. A few ours ago, he had called the only girl who had ever stood by him, his best friend, the girl he loved, a filthy name. He'd been regretting it ever since.

'Ahh!' he screamed kicking the post on his bed and shaking his greasy curtains of hair out of his sallow skinned face, 'Why?' He carried on screaming and punching every available object in sight. He then picked up one of his dorm-mates Charms book and ripped the pages out throwing them in the air and then throwing the binding so hard there was now a dint in the wall.

He flopped down onto the nearest bed with his bony elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. Lily's face kept popping into his mind. The hurt look on it made him angry. His own stupidity made him angry. Her voice was ringing in his ears. All he could hear was her saying that awful name Potter and his gang made up, 'Snivellus'. Just thinking the name made his hooked nose wrinkle and brought a sneer to his mouth. Every time he repeated it in his head he hated it more and more. He hated the name when Potter and his gang said it, but to hear it coming out of Lily's mouth? It was like a knife cutting out his heart. Severus didn't think he could ever un-hear it.

He had no idea what to do. No inspiration had struck him. He wanted to just go back in time to right before he made that terrible mistake and make sure that the incident had never happened, but he had no way of doing it. He had no idea how to make this right and even if he did have a way, he wasn't sure Lily would forgive him so easily. But she had to! They'd been friends forever. He loved her and she would one-day, in Severus' mind at least, love him back. They'd be together always and he would protect her from Potter and his gang. He had to make this right, but how?

The fact he didn't know how made him fly into a rage again. He shouted and yelled. He kicked and punched. He broke things and tore them apart leaving only shards of remains.

He was about to throw his tatty second-hand transfiguration book at the door when one of the boys who he shared the dormitory with walked through the door whistling happily and holding a Fanged Frisbee. He suddenly stopped dead and took a look around what used to be a rather neat dormitory, in total shock.

'What you been doing Snape?' he yelled loudly and angrily gesturing to the room in shock. 'This isn't even your stuff!'

Severus stormed across the room and pulled out his wand. He pushed the boy roughly up against the wall and poked his wand, hard, to the boy's neck, his black eyes shining dangerously.

'If I were you,' he whispered very, very softly but extremely threateningly, 'I'd leave now, unless, that is, if you want to suffer immense pain and torture!' Snape stepped away from the boy still pointing his wand towards his neck. The boy quickly backed out of the room with one last look of loathing pointed towards Severus.

Severus turned away from the closing door and looked down towards his wand. He tucked it away in his robes and began to pace the room. He was thinking. He was trying to think of a way to make this right. To undo what he had done. But he kept drawing a blank. He had no ideas, no way to resolve the situation. His brain just wasn't working. He had no inspiration. Lily was always his inspiration. Lily. His mind finally kicked into action. All he had to do was think about Lily. What she would do. What she would want _him_ to do. He had finally realised what he had to do to fix this. Only, he didn't want to. He had never wanted to do this. His reasoning behind it was silly. Childish. He didn't want to say sorry because he saw it as a sign of weakness. But if it meant regaining Lily's friendship, he would do it. This was his best friend. The girl he loved. The only one who accepted him for who he was. The only girl he wanted to be with. And because of this, he would apologise to her and beg for her forgiveness. And he would get it. One way or another.

* * *

Mary Macdonald had just reached the entrance to the Gryffindor common room when out of the shadows, Severus Snape emerged.

'Where is she?' he asked Mary quietly, a little bit of a desperate glint in his black eyes.

'Where's who?' Mary replied just as softly, a twinkle of braveness in her eyes.

Severus marched forwards forcing Mary back against the wall. 'You know who I mean!' he said dangerously, 'Where is she?'

'Upstairs I expect.' Mary said back daringly. She didn't want to say too much. She had never liked Severus Snape and couldn't stand talking to him. She didn't like to waste her time.

'Go get her.' Severus muttered demandingly to her, moving to the side so she could get to the portrait of the Fat Lady which hid the entrance to the Gryffindor Common room.

'No!' Mary said with a note of resolution in her voice. 'Haven't you done enough? Just leave her alone now.' She stalked off towards the painting of the Fat Lady leaving a stunned Severus behind her.

'Password?' the fat lady said dully.

'Transmogrification' Mary whispered so Severus wouldn't hear her. As soon as she had said the password the portrait of the Fat Lady swung open revealing the Gryffindor common room. Mary was just about to step over the thresh hold when she heard Severus behind her say, 'I'll sleep here then! If she doesn't come out, I'll sleep here until she does!'

Mary closed her eyes, paused and the turned around. 'Fine.' she said, giving in and just wanting to walk away, 'I'll go tell her you're here, but I'm not promising you anything' she turned back towards the common room and walked through. Before the portrait hole closed she sneaked a look back and saw Severus begin to pace back and forth. She then knew he was serious about sleeping outside until Lily came out.

Sighing and rolling her eyes at what she had to do. She looked around the common room in search of any sign of Lily. After searching thoroughly for ten seconds, Mary concluded that Lily wasn't in the common room. She decided to check the fifth year girls dormitory thinking Lily had probably gone to bed early. She made her way through the crowded common room towards the girl's staircase. She climbed the spirals with heavy feet until she finally reached the dormitory she was after.

Mary gently pushed the door open to see Lily asleep on her bed still in her schools cloths. She looked over at her sympathetically. By the look of her eyes, Lily had been crying and had probably fallen asleep whilst doing so. Mary made her way silently over to Lily's bed and sat down on the edge of it.

'Lily. Lily. Lily?' Mary whispered quietly, gently trying to shake Lily awake. Lily moaned softly and rolled over in her sleep.

'Lily?' Mary tried again, desperately attempting to break through Lily's state of unconsciousness. She looked around the room searching for something to help wake Lily up. She knew Lily was a deep sleeper. She had shared a dormitory with her for five years now. Mary knew it was almost impossible to wake Lily up if she didn't want to be woken. She sighed. In all honesty she didn't wish to disturb Lily. Mary had seen what had happened earlier that day and didn't want to be the bearer of bad news. Or what Mary thought would be considered as bad news. Lily just looked so peaceful when she was asleep. Like all her troubles had gone away. Like the day had never happened.

_If she doesn't wake up this time, _Mary thought,_ I'll leave her and Snape can just make himself comfy outside! _

'Lily.' she said one last time defeated. Lily didn't respond so Mary got up, patted her gently on the shoulder and started to walk out of the room. Before she could reach the door however, she heard a quiet voice behind her call her name.

'Mary?' Lily whispered softly with a bit of a crack in her voice. Mary turned around to find Lily sat up on her bed and rubbing her already red eyes.

'Hey Lily.' Mary said quietly, 'Sorry I woke you!' she apologized sincerely.

'Don't worry about it!' Lily yawned, 'Did you want something?' She asked Mary giving her a very curious look.

'It can wait. You go back to sleep' Mary smiled kindly.

Lily gave a little laugh. 'You know as well as I do that that is not going to happen! You've peaked my curiosity and you know I'm going to annoy you until you tell me what you wanted! Now, what was it?' Lily asked giving a small chuckle and looking Mary straight in the eyes with raised eyebrows.

Mary began to shuffle uncomfortably, looking down at her feet and avoiding eye contact with Lily. She gave a massive sigh and quickly blurted out 'Snape's pacing up and down outside the portrait hole waiting for you so he can talk to you and he's _threatening_ to sleep out there until you come out. He's saying he'll stay outside _all night _if he has to!' Mary finished talking, regretting every word she had said, regretting she had told her for Lily's face had changed dramatically. From a face full of curiosity, laughter and friendliness to a face of worry, sadness and vulnerability.

'I'm sorry Lily. I should have just left it. I'll go tell him to go away if you want.' Mary said to Lily's blank face. She began to walk out the room with all intentions of going back outside the portrait hole and telling Severus where to stick it and to leave Lily alone. But once again she was stopped by the sound of Lily's voice. Only this time, it wasn't a soft whisper layered with sleep. It was a harsh voice full of anger.

'No.' Lily said with as much conviction as she could muster. 'No.' she repeated, '_I'll_ go talk to him. _I'll_ tell him to leave me alone from now on. I will.'

And with that she grabbed her dressing gown, quickly put it on, reached round the back of her head, pulled her hair out from where it had been tucked into her robe and flounced out of the room leaving an utterly stunned Mary behind.

* * *

At eight o'clock that evening, you could still find three of the marauders underneath the beech tree by the lake. Peter Pettigrew had fallen asleep on the grass, Remus Lupin was still reading his book, and Sirius Black was pacing back and forth stroking his chin with his thumb and his forefinger looking around in mock suspicion. He had just finished a long line of questions aimed at Remus regarding James' sudden disappearance.

'Well he can't have gone too far Sirius.' Remus said for the tenth time that evening in a non-committed fashion, not really paying attention to Sirius' antics.

'But he's probably lost without us!' Sirius yelled dramatically with an over the top look of worry on his face, 'He's probably, wondering around somewhere in that big, bad world, all alone, waiting for us to come and find him!'

Remus looked up at Sirius from where he was lounging on the ground, 'Sirius?' he asked with an exasperated expression, 'It's Hogwarts. He knows this place like the back of his hand. I doubt very much he's lost and waiting for us to find him. Plus, it's been two hours! If you were that worried you would have gone and found him yourself by now.'

'Well…..well,' Sirius sputtered trying to find something else to say back. Something witty. Something clever. 'Well, maybe he's fallen into a hidden pit of snakes!' he stated as a matter of fact.

'Again Sirius,' Remus repeated with a great sigh, 'It's Hogwarts! Where would he even find a hidden pit of snakes to fall into?'

'The Slytherin Common room! Duh?!' Sirius said with a wave of his hand as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

'Come on, Sirius! James wouldn't go down to the Slytherin Common room. He hates it down there! Says it's full of scum and cowards. You know that! Plus, it's not a really a hole you can fall into. First you need a password and secondly…'

'Well….' Sirius interrupted. 'Maybe….what if…' Sirius stammered.

Remus shook his head and marked his place in his book. 'OK!' he said, giving in, 'If it'll shut you up we'll go with you to find him.' He then stood up and shook Peter awake from where he was sleeping on the grass. 'Let's go then!' He concluded.

'Good!' Sirius replied as they set off looking both relieved and worried, 'Let's check the lake first because he may have been kidnapped by the giant squid!'

* * *

'LILY! OPEN UP! LILY! DON'T IGNORE ME LILY! LILY!' Severus bellowed at the portrait of the Fat Lady, hammering his fist on it angrily.

'Really young man! I'm trying to sleep!' the Fat Lady said in a very shrilly fashion.

'Stay out of it!' Severus snapped sharply and continued banging on the portrait loudly.

'Humph!' the Fat Lady muttered haughtily before walking out of her frame to go and visit her friend Violet and complain about Severus Snape.

Severus didn't notice her disappearance and kept hitting the portrait violently. 'LILY! I KNOW YOU'RE STILL THERE LILY! ANSWER ME! GET BACK OUT HERE! LILY!'

'Lily's not home at the moment. Can I take a message?' James Potter said appearing a few feet from Severus leaning against the wall with his arms folded, legs crossed and a mischievous sparkle in his eyes.

'What are you doing here Potter?!' Severus spat his voice dripping with venom, a look of loathing pasted all over his face.

James pushed himself off of the wall using his broad shoulders and walked over to where Severus stood. He put his hands in his pockets and raised his shoulders. He exhaled a long breath and relaxed his shoulders. 'I _live _here?!' he said sarcastically, raising his eyebrows and widening his eyes.

Severus glared at him through narrowed eyes before turning away from him and beginning to hammer on the empty portrait of the Fat Lady again, yelling 'LILY! OPEN UP! LILY! LILY! LILY!'

'Who you trying to find?' James said cheerfully with a little smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. He was now the other side of Severus.

Severus turned around and gave a grinning James a truly evil look. 'Sod off, Potter!' he drawled slowly and maliciously.

James face dropped in mock sadness, 'And I thought we were friends!' he wiped a fake tear from under his right eye and sniffed dramatically.

Severus tried to ignore him and continued his banging on the portrait of the Fat Lady. He kept calling for Lily even though he knew in his heart that she wouldn't hear him now. He kept trying though, and it wasn't until James gave an almighty yawn that he gave up unwillingly. He turned to face James and looked him up and down with hatred. He loathed James with every fibre of his body. He hated him. Hated him. He caused misery in Severus life and because of that, he blamed James for anything that went wrong. Just like now. He blamed James for ruining his friendship with Lily. For dissolving Lily's trust and faith in him. Severus didn't want to blame himself or Lily for the decay of their friendship. He wanted to blame James. He had to blame James for this as he did for everything else that had ever gone wrong for him.

_Potter caused this! _Severus thought. At this thought, he quickly drew his wand and pointed it at James heart. Fortunately, James had lightning fast reflexes and had done the same thing. They were standing so close that there wands were crossed.

James had a cocky grin on his face. 'Sword fight?' he suggested jollily, his face brightening up and his head nodding slightly.

'You shouldn't be trusted with a wand!' Severus spat at James in contempt, giving him an ice cold stare.

James wasn't fazed by this however. He looked up thoughtfully before nodding his head. 'Funny. That's what my Mum said when I first got my wand. I blew up the toilet.' James said seriously, not a hint of humour in his face.

'You disgust me!' Severus sneered at James looking him up and down in deep revulsion.

'Thank you!' James said chirpily smiling widely.

They stood staring at each other for over five minutes. Severus sneering with venom, James grinning like a mad man. He was waiting for Severus to make his move before he did anything. He didn't have to wait too long.

'Stupefy!' Severus yelled waving his wand in a large motion.

James quickly dodged the spell. 'Petrificus Totalus!' he said dully with a lazy flick of his wand. His spell hit Severus square in the chest clamping his arms and legs to the side of his body. He fell backwards landing with a thud of the hard, stone floor as if he was a statue, though his eyes were still moving. James tucked his wand back into his robes and crouched down next to Severus.

'Way too easy!' he laughed, flicking Severus' cheek, 'You know, you should _really_ learn how to use that wand, Snivellus. It might come in handy one day!' He stood up fluently and looked around wondering where he should put him. Just then he spotted one of the many Suits of Armour dotted around the castle, and grinned lopsidedly to himself.

After dragging Severus over to where the suit of armour was located, James quickly detached the armours body from its legs, placing it on the floor. He then reached into his robes and took his wand out again. He used it to levitated Severus into the suit of armour carefully, making sure he didn't make a sound, because all students were meant to be in their common rooms by 9.30 and it was now an hour after. Once Severus was placed inside the legs of the suit of armour, James jammed the bodice on, then the head.

'Look at that! Perfect fit!' he said patting the shoulder of the suit of armour that now contained a statue-like Severus.

At that moment, Sirius and Remus strolled confidently round the corner, laughing quietly with each other. Peter was scurrying behind them chuckling nervously and looking around him as if he was scared he was going to be attacked. He soon spotted James and smiled a genuine smile, as if, now James was there, there was no possible way he would ever be in danger. In Peters mind, if James was there, he would be safe.

Realising he should tell the other two James was there, Peter began to tug Sirius' sleeve tentatively. 'Padfoot?' he said quietly, 'Padfoot?' Sirius snatched his sleeve from Peter's loose grip, looking at him as if he were dirt on his shoe. Peter tried again. ' Padfoot?' he said a little louder grabbing Sirius' sleeve again.

'What?!' Sirius snapped, annoyed with him for interrupting his conversation with Remus. Peter pointed towards where James was inspecting the suit of armour which still contained, unbeknown to Sirius, Remus and Peter, Severus Snape.

'PRONGS!' Sirius bellowed loudly across the corridor. James turned around sharply.

'Shhhh!' Remus whispered.

'Prongs!' Sirius shout-whispered.

They all met in the middle, next to the empty portrait of the Fat Lady.

'Prongs! Where you been mate?' Sirius asked jovially punching his friend gently on the shoulder.

James looked around confused. 'Err…here?' he replied raising his eyebrows.

'No! I mean, where'd you go earlier today? One minute we were all under the beech tree, next you'd disappeared. We spent hours looking for you.'

'We searched the kitchen twice.' Remus said, glancing at Sirius, 'Half an hour both times.'

'Good to know you truly care Padfoot!' James smirked, patting Sirius on the head like a dog.

'Had to make sure you weren't hiding in a cake or something.' Sirius said seriously as if this was a real concern of his and truth be told it was. Who would ruin a perfectly good cake by hiding inside of it?

'Sirius freaked out. Thought you'd been kidnapped.' Remus said, a smile tugging at his lips. 'By the giant squid' he added.

James raised his eyebrows at Sirius and began to laugh. 'You…thought…..kidnapped…..GIANT SQUID!' he managed to say between snorts of laughter.

'Remus!' Sirius whined, pushing Remus, who was also laughing gently. James had an infectious laugh.

'Well you did!' Remus said pushing Sirius back.

'Anyway,' Sirius muttered loudly, trying his hardest to change the subject, 'what were you doing with that crummy old suit of armour?' he asked nodding to where the armour in question stood.

'Oh!' James said mischievously, 'Just giving our favourite Slytherin a new place to sleep. Might be a bit uncomfortable, but I doubt he can feel it anyway!'

Sirius nodded in false understanding an impish grin spreading across his face. Remus looked up to the ceiling, pretending he hadn't heard anything and Peter was trying to copy Sirius' smile.

'Shall we, err, get inside the common room now. We are over curfew you know.' Remus reminded the other three.

'Well we can't.' James said as if that were obvious.

'Why?' Remus asked.

'The Fat Lady's gone!' James said pointing to the empty portrait frame.

'Oh' Remus sighed.

'Well! Let's make ourselves comfortable! She won't be back for a while!' James said sitting down in the middle of the hallway.

'You're gonna sit there?' Remus asked, 'Not against the wall?'

'Well it's not like I'm in the way of anyone!' James laughed.

The rest of the boys followed his example and they ended up sitting in a circle laughing and joking about what had happened that year.

'….and he woke up in the great hall!'

'…..with only a towel!'

'Now _that _was funny!'

'Really?'

'It was funny for us!'

'Yeah! Snivellus didn't know what hit him!'

'That would be you five minutes later.' Remus pointed out.

'I know! With my beaters bat!'

Sirius and James laughed continuously about the cruel tricks, pranks and random hexes they had performed at the expense of Severus Snape that year whilst Peter tittered along and Remus pretended not to hear.

Suddenly there came an almighty crash from the end of the hall. The suit of armour at the far end of the hall that contained said Slytherin had fallen over.

'Damn!' James whispered to himself, standing up, 'I forgot the suits of armour had personalities!' he said to his friends before taking out his wand, walking swiftly over to the suit of armour, stunning it, and standing it up again.

James walked back to his friends. 'Stupid thing was trying to reject Snivellus. Can't say I blame him. Who'd want to have that slime-ball inside them?'

The other three marauders were staring at him with their eyes wide open.

'What?' James asked confused.

Sirius was the first to break into peals of laughter, then Peter joined in, tittering nervously and, as usual when it came to these sorts of things, Remus ignored it.

'What?' James repeated, now annoyed he wasn't in on the joke.

'You put Snivellus in a suit of armour!' Sirius laughed.

'Well you already knew that!'

'We hadn't put it all together till now!' Sirius said laughing loudly, speaking for what he assumed was the whole group.

After five minutes of waiting, the laughter died down and James sat down again in the middle of the hall with his friends. However, he didn't get to stay sat down long because a few seconds later, the transfiguration teacher and the head of Gryffindor House, Professor McGonagall, rounded the corner. She was walking furiously fast towards the marauders, who had stood up quickly, her tartan dressing-gown swishing rapidly from side to side.

'What is the meaning of this? You were all meant to be in your common room two hours ago!' She said heatedly, her hands on her hips and her eyes darting back and forth between the faces of the four boys.

'Actually, it's not _quite_ been two hours yet.' James said looking at his watch, 'More like an hour and fifty-seven minutes.'

'Don't push me Mr Potter!' McGonagall said sternly, her eyes flashing dangerously. 'Now, why are you boys sitting in the middle of a corridor laughing like nymphs instead of sleeping in your beds?'

Remus, Sirius and James looked sideways at each other before stepping sideways to let McGonagall see the empty portrait of the fat lady. Unfortunately, Peter didn't get the hint and was left standing in front of the portrait looking quite lost as to what was going on.

'Mr Pettigrew? Are you boys telling me that you're not in your common room, because of Mr Pettigrew?' McGonagall said sceptically.

James quickly pulled a cowering Peter out of the way to reveal the Fat Lady's portrait.

'Is there a reason I'm staring at this portrait?' McGonagall sighed.

The marauders looked at each other, confused, before turning towards the portrait hole to find that the Fat Lady was asleep in her frame.

'Oh…' they said collectively.

'I suggest you all get to bed now before you all earn yet another detention.' McGonagall said with a severe look at all the boys before turning around and walking away.

'Come on then.' Remus said dejectedly turning towards the portrait hole.

Sirius sighed, 'If we must!' He walked quickly after Remus, beating him to the Fat Lady.

'Yeah alright!' James said, following him and dragging Peter with him, who was still looking lost.

'Err…' Sirius muttered, looking towards Remus for advice.

Remus rolled his eyes and tapped the frame of the fat lady's portrait lightly, waking her up. 'Sorry to wake you,' he said politely. But before he could say the password, the Fat Lady started moaning.

'And what time do you boys call this?' she asked looking straight at Sirius who was directly in front of the portrait hole.

'Well, James is the one with the watch.' he said cheekily, a smile tugging at his lips, 'Prongs?'

'Well, this time _is_ called eleven-forty, but, she asked what time _we_ call it. So, I'm gonna say…nine-twenty. This way, we're 10 minutes early!' he said batting his eyelids at the Fat Lady.

'Yeah!' Sirius exclaimed, 'We're not late, we're early!' he said turning back to the fat lady nodding and smiling.

'Why are you being so cheeky?' she asked disapprovingly

'It's in my nature!' Sirius said with a shrug.

The Fat Lady sighed and rolled her eyes. Remus took this time to say the password causing the portrait hole to swing forwards and grant them entrance to the Gryffindor common room. The fat lady's portrait swung shut with her muttering wildly under her breath. Damn boys.

* * *

**Reviews are not necessary but always welcome!**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	3. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter two!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Two**

'_Pass me the Quaffle!'__ James shouted to his team mate. He quickly swerved right to catch it. _

'_YES! Got it!' he shouted placing it under his right arm. James ducked under one of the opposing team's chasers, dodged a Bludger and rolled over in mid-air to evade the greasy fingers of the other team. He then zigzagged his broom, left then right, left then right to avoid having the Quaffle being snatched from him._

_*POP*_

_Suddenly, what James thought was the Quaffle under his arm, popped. James looked down and saw the remnants of a red balloon float down gently. He sat in mid-air for a few seconds just staring at the shrinking shards of red balloon. Why had that happened? He could have sworn that that balloon was a Quaffle. A solid, red, firm ball. He'd have bet his life on it. He'd have bet Sirius' life on it!_

How strange, _James thought. He looked up and found himself staring at nothing. Everything was pitch black. There was nothing, nothing to be seen. No Quidditch pitch, no Quidditch balls and no Quidditch players. He flew around the darkness looking for some sign of life. Anything. Just when he was starting to lose hope he saw something flickering in the distance. He zoomed towards it as fast as he could. It was a small candle. He reached out and touched the flames. _

_At that moment, the flames turned into an Ice-cream. But not just any flavour ice-cream, James favourite flavour ice-cream; double chocolate-chip. The sight of the ice-cream was mouth-watering to James. He picked up the ice-cream, and was about to take the first lick when he heard a small voice shout his name._

'_Prongs__!' the voice shouted softly._

'_Prongs__!' louder._

'_PRONGS__!' The voice reached an ear-splitting volume._

_James looked around in surprise. Then he looked down at his ice-cream which had turned into Sirius' head._

'_Padfoot__?' James asked, freaked out that his ice-cream had just turned into his best friends head. 'What you doing?'_

'_What am I doing? What are you doing? If you're gonna eat ice-cream for breakfast the least you could do is save me some!'_

'_Breakfast?'_

James woke with a start. The echo of his growling stomach had woken him up. He groaned and rubbed his eyes, looking at his surroundings. Remus, Sirius and Peter were all missing and it took James a few moments to realise where they all were. Peter was singing merrily, (and out-of-tune) in the shower and Remus and Sirius were at their practical DADA. James and Peter's practical's were in in the late morning and James had completely forgotten. Luckily, the exam timetable had worked out in his favour. Today, all of the fifth years would be taking their practical. Surnames A through to M were scheduled to take the exam in the early morning, and N through to Z were scheduled in for late morning. The girls would take theirs in the afternoon. James wasn't particularly worried about his practical. He was sure of himself because he was naturally smart. Some would call this arrogance but James simply called it confidence.

After around five minutes James' stomach rumbled again. He decided now would be the time to get out of his warm bed. He kicked his duvet off and swung his legs over the edge of his bed giving an almighty yawn. He grabbed his school clothes from the end of his bed and pulled them on slowly and lazily, yawning again.

'Peter?' James shouted at the bathroom door as he pulled on his school robe over his uniform. James didn't hear an answer but assumed Peter had replied as he had stopped warbling.

'I'm gonna go get some breakfast.' James continued, 'I'll meet you down there!' James waited for Peter's reply but didn't hear one. Assuming he was ok with it, he sighed, turned around, and walked out of the room.

James dawdled down the stairs, still rubbing his eyes and yawning. Once at the bottom of the boys staircase, James ambled through the empty common room with his hands in his pockets and over to the portrait hole. He was all ready to open it when he heard a sharp intake of breath. He turned around and saw a small red-headed figure sat on the bottom step of the girl's staircase.

'Evans?' James questioned with a smirk at the sight of her, sauntering arrogantly over to where she was sat and leant against the wall in his usual position; arms folded and legs crossed. 'What you doing here? You're usually at breakfast by now.'

'A girl can break her routine you know!' Lily snapped irritably at him.

'Whoa! You can't break your routine.' James said seriously, 'I'm meant to go down to breakfast and ask you out. Then you're meant to chuck whatever's in your hand at me, usually pumpkin juice. You can't break the routine! You'll confuse me!'

'Well that's not hard to do!' Lily sniped. She turned her head away from him quickly, rolling her eyes.

'Then I'll have to break my routine too!' James continued with another smirk and a sigh as if it was a great strain on him. He then collapsed down onto his knees in front of her and said dramatically loudly, 'Dear sweet Evans! Apple of my eye, keeper of my soul…go out with me eh?'

'Not if you paid me!' Lily replied, her jaw stiffening.

'You'll go out with me eventually.' James went on surely clambering back to his feet and clapping the dust of the carpet off of his robes.

'No I won't.' Lily said adamantly, but still not moving from where she sat, 'You're a prat. An obnoxious, arrogant prat.'

He ran a hand through his scruffy hair and stared down at the pretty red head with longing. James took a deep breath putting up the façade that he had perfected over so many rejections; the façade that he didn't care when he did. But his perfected expression had a gaping hole in it as he was unable to stop himself staring at her which irritated her.

'Will you stop staring at me?' she hissed at him.

'Only if you go out with me.' James retaliated.

'Go out with one of your adoring fans!' Lily snapped referring to the gaggle of girls that usually followed James around, all eager for him to ask them out. Only he never did. Only Lily.

'They're not as fun to annoy.' James smirked.

Lily rolled her eyes again and turned away from him, wishing on one hand that he would leave. On the other hand, if he left, the portrait hole would open and she would be bombarded by Severus. She wasn't sure which was the lesser of the two evils.

James had been watching her again, waiting for a sarcastic retort of some kind. But it never came. And he saw something in her face. An expression he had never seen before and, he had a feeling, it had nothing to do with him. Whatever it was, it broke his heart to see her like this.

'Alright Evans! I'll play nice 'cause I'm curious!' James said eventually, sitting down next to her on the step. 'What's up?' he asked sincerely.

Lily looked at him with a strange expression on her face. How could he switch from an annoying jerk to someone who genuinely looked concerned in less than two seconds? She looked into his eyes suspiciously as if she believed that he was going to play one of his pranks on her. But all she saw was concern. And the tone of his voice had just made her want to tell him everything. Everything.

_Don't be stupid Lily! _She told herself sternly, _this is Potter you're talking about! He's an arrogant, obnoxious, stuck-up, self-loving, irresponsible toe-rag! He doesn't really care! _Lily had just about made up her mind to tell James to go away when a voice in the back of her head changed her mind. _He could help you, _the voice said, _just tell him the situation!_

'OK!' Lily said, resigned, 'Fine. I'll tell you…' She paused, unsure of how to word her situation. After a few minutes silence and several coughs from James, she began again, 'Well, last night, Severus came up to the portrait hole to apologise for calling me….you know. He wanted us to forget about it and be friends again. Well, I told Severus I didn't want to be his friend anymore because of….you know….and he just wouldn't accept it. He said he was going to _sleep _out there until I forgave him. I didn't believe him. But this morning when I was coming out of the common room, he was waiting for me, so he could apologise again. I couldn't believe he actually slept out there! He was there all night! And don't tell me he wasn't because I know he was. I saw the remains of one of his rages. There were parts of one of the suit of armours all over the floor! It's just…he won't or can't accept that I don't want to be his friend! No matter how many times he apologises, I _won't_ forgive him because, well, I just _don't want to! _I don't want to be his friend anymore!'

Throughout Lily's little rant James went through a number of emotions. Guilt for causing Lily to lose her best friend. Happiness she didn't want to be his friend again. Compassion for her pain in losing a friend, and humour about the suit of armour being strewed across the floor.

Lily stared at James face, waiting for him to reply when she saw all of the emotions he was feeling flash across his face. It was a strange sight for her to see in 10 seconds. After a minute or so, Lily pinched James on the arm to remind him of her presence.

'OW!' James yelled in shock, rubbing his arm, 'What was that for!'

'You were taking too long to answer me!'

'You never asked me a question!'

'Fine! You were taking too long to respond! Better?'

'Much. So, I still don't really get what the problem is.'

'Haven't you been listening?' Lily sighed exasperatedly.

'Incessantly!' James replied sincerely

'Well than you….' Lily paused, confused, 'Incessantly?' she said sceptically, 'I'm surprised you know such a word Potter.'

'Well I am _full _of surprises!' James said proudly.

Lily rolled her eyes and muttered some incoherent words under her breath.

James sighed, 'So, what _is _the problem'

'Well, Severus is still out there!' Lily said as if it were obvious.

'And…' James said still a little confused.

'And,' Lily continued, 'I don't want to see him! Actually, I don't want him to see me!'

'Well, I could distract him whilst you slip by! You know, bit of a duel!' James suggested with a mischievous grin.

Lily rolled her eyes. 'No!' she said sternly, 'Just because I don't want to be his friend anymore doesn't mean I want you to go and hex him into oblivion, you bullying moron!' Lily snapped standing up and going to sit on one of the sofas in the common room muttering to herself.

James caught some of her words and scrunched up his eyes, regretting what he had said. He would never get into her good books if he carried on like this. And he desperately wanted to be in her good books. After a few seconds of thinking and deliberation, James had an idea that may inch him closer to those coveted good books.

'Y'know Evans,' James said looking at Lily who was looking resolutely down at her knee's, 'There is another way that you can get out of the common room without Snivellus,' Lily gave him a sharp look, 'Sorry, Snape. Well, I can get you out the common room without him seeing you.'

'What?' she said exasperatedly, 'How?'

'I have my ways' he replied with a small shrug of his shoulders and a smile tugging at his lips.

Lily looked at him, interested, 'No tricks?' she asked suspiciously.

'No tricks!' James said honestly holding his hands in the air.

Lily paused before eventually and cautiously saying, 'OK….'

'Wait here!' James said before he ran up the boy's staircase.

Lily watched him dash up the stairs and out of sight. She started to play with her fingers, deep in thought. She wondered what James was doing.

_Knowing Potter, _she thought, _he's probably got something up his sleeve. _She didn't trust him at all. He had never given her reason to.

Upstairs, James was sat on the floor rifling through his trunk to find his treasured invisibility cloak when Peter came out of the bathroom half dressed. He squealed in surprise at the sight of James making James jump up and quickly pull out his wand, pointing it straight between Peter's eyes. Peter went cross-eyed to try and keep James' wand in sight.

James grinned at the sight of one of his friends and put his wand away. 'Wormy!' he exclaimed happily going back to his search, 'Have you seen my cloak anywhere mate?' James asked Peter, still rifling through his trunk.

'N-n-no.' Peter stammered, as if nervous he was actually talking to James, 'I, I think Pa-Padfoot had it last.'

'Thanks mate!'

Peter smiled, his eyes shining. _He called me mate! _Peter thought happily.

'Ah! Found it!' James said reaching under Sirius bed to retrieve his treasured invisibility cloak. 'Hey Pete? Can you help me with something?' he asked standing up.

'M-m-me?' Peter stammered in surprise, looking around him as if he expected to see someone standing next to him.

'Well yeah,' James said sincerely, 'Unless there's anyone else you know called Peter!' he smiled jokingly.

'What do you want me to do?' Peter asked willingly, looking up at James like a sweet little puppy dog who would do anything to please his owner.

'I'll explain on the way down!' James said turning and walking towards the door, 'You coming?' he asked Peter. Peter quickly scampered after him smiling happily.

James suddenly stopped and turned around catching Peter by surprise.

'You might want to put your shirt on.' James said wisely.

Peter nodded his head vigorously and scurried up the stairs to fetch his shirt. A few seconds later he came back fully-dressed, cloaked and all, and they both walked down the rest of the staircase, with James filling Peter in on his plan.

* * *

*_Tap_* *_tap* *tap*_

Remus sighed, and rolled his eyes.

*_Tap_* *_tap* *tap* *tap*_

Remus took a deep breath and barred his teeth, gripping his wand and the book of defensive spells he was studying.

_*Tap* *tap* *tap* *tap* *tap*_

Suddenly there was a huge bang and a great big cloud of black smoke erupted from the end of Sirius' wand. When the smoke finally cleared up, it was revealed that a great big chunk had been taken out of the table. Sirius inspected the hole, shrugged his shoulders, and went back to tapping the table with his wand.

_*Tap* *tap* *tap* *tap* *tap* *tap*_

'Will you _please STOP?__' _Remus said through gritted teeth. He turned his head slowly to look at Sirius who was swinging backwards on a chair next to him, grinning and tapping the table in front of him with his wand sending brightly coloured sparks everywhere.

'Stop what?' Sirius asked still grinning at Remus, still tapping on the table with no particular rhythm.

'Tapping the table!'

'Fine!' Sirius sighed dejectedly, pouting like a five year old girl who had just had her favourite doll taken off of her. He looked around at his surroundings for a few seconds, bored. He was just wandering what he should do when inspiration, (or an annoying instinct), struck.

_*Cluck* *cluck* *cluck*_

He had begun clucking his tongue.

_*Cluck* *cluck* *cluck* *cluck*_

'_SIRIUS!' _

'Fine!' he said, rolling his eyes. After staring at nothing in particular, Sirius was bored, _again, _so he began to hum quietly under his breath for lack of something to do.

'Hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm!' He hummed a little louder, '_hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm! _HMM-HMM-HMM-HMM!_HMM-HMM-HMM-HMM'_He then stopped humming all together allowing Remus to breathe a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, Remus' joy was not to last. Sirius had just stood up and decided to take his little tune, full scale.

'DUH DUH DUH, DUUUUUUUUUH!DUH DUH DUH _DUUUUUUUUUUUUH!_DUH DUH DUH….'

'Will you _just, _SHUT UP? Some people are _trying _to study!' Remus snapped angrily.

'What's the point?' Sirius scoffed, falling back into his chair with a thud.

'Just because you've taken your exam already doesn't mean the rest of us are going to stop revising!'

'Well it should!' Sirius pouted.

'Why should it?'

'Because I'm really bored! And I mean really _really __really__REALLY _REALLYreally _reallyreallyreally R-E-A-L-L-Y…'_

'Why are you still here Sirius?' Remus asked tiredly interrupting Sirius and putting his quill down.

'Why else? I'm keeping you company!' he smiled jollily nodding his head and widening his eyes like a mad man.

'Well thank you!' Remus smiled sarcastically and nodding his head enthusiastically, 'Now leave!' he said his face dropping to a deathly stare.

'Fine!' Sirius sniffed dramatically, wiping a fake tear from his eyes, 'Be that way! All I've tried to do is be a good friend and keep you company so you don't have to face this scary exam all on your own and so that you don't panic too much and so that you know where at least one of your friends are, but noooo!' Sirius took a deep breath, '_You _want me to _leave._ You don't want _my _company and…'

'Sirius!' Remus said cutting Sirius of abruptly, 'Will you _please _leave!'

'NO!' Sirius said pouting again.

'SIRIUS!'

'Fine!' Sirius said defeated. Sirius got up, grabbed his bag shouted, 'See-ya, Moony' over his shoulder but before he could leave, Remus was called into his exam.

'Be here when you get back!' Sirius said sitting back down, 'We'll go and get breakfast! I'm _starving_!'

Remus shook his head and breathed a sigh of relief that he was finally getting away from Sirius. At least for the duration of his exam!

* * *

Severus was pacing back and forth outside the Gryffindor common room. He'd waited as he had said, all night, to try and apologise to Lily again. He thought she would at least hear him out again after that, but when she had first tried to exit the common room and had seen him, she had turned around and walked straight back into Gryffindor tower. Severus had been watching the portrait hole religiously ever since.

'Will you stop staring at me!' the Fat Lady said shrilly, 'It's very unnerving!'

'Oh shut it you fat prune!' Severus snapped angrily at the Fat Lady stopping suddenly. She raised her painted eyebrows and stalked out of her frame.

Just then the portrait swung open revealing the Gryffindor common room.

'Lily?' Severus said quickly, stopping his pacing and looking up sharply, 'Oh!' Severus sneered as he saw Peter Pettigrew emerge from the portrait hole.

At the hateful look on Severus' face, Peter shrank back before being seemingly pushed and tumbling out of the Gryffindor common room, landing on the floor.

'Trip over your own feet?' Severus sniggered cruelly.

Peter stood up nervously, his face as red as beetroots. 'N-n-no!' Peter stuttered 'I was pus-OW!' he yelled hopping up and down holding onto his foot.

Severus was sneering disgustedly at Peter and was about to say something when Peter suddenly ran off as if he was being dragged.

'OW!' Peter whined when they finally stopped outside the great hall, 'What was that for?'

'For almost giving us away!' James said throwing off his invisibility cloak to reveal Lily and himself.

'What?' Peter asked rubbing his arm with a very confused look over his mousey little face.

James rolled his eyes. 'Ah! Don't worry about it Pete!' James smiled, waving his hand carelessly at Peter before turning to face Lily. 'Breakfast m'lady?' he asked her, bowing ridiculously and motioning inside the great hall. Lily shook her head and rolled her eyes at James' behaviour before turning and walking over to the Gryffindor table. James wiggled his eyebrows at Peter and then followed Lily in. Peter followed James.

'This seat taken?' James asked, reaching where she had sat down and indicating the seat next to her.

'Yeah!' Lily said sarcastically, 'My invisible friend Greg is sat there!'

'OK!' James laughed sitting down. Peter sat down next to him

'You just squashed Gary!' Lily cried on mock surprise.

'Thought his name was Greg?' James asked slyly.

'What did I say?' Lily said with one eyebrow raised.

'Gary!' he laughed.

'Well, I meant Graham!'

James just continued to laugh. It took Lily few seconds to work out why.

'I mean Gary! Graham! Greg! Finally!' she said quickly before grabbing the jug of pumpkin juice and pouring herself a goblet full. After James' laughter had died down, he too poured himself a goblet of juice. They both grabbed their breakfasts silently, James shooting sideways glances at Lily every so often. After a two or three minutes, due to a compulsion that rose inside of him every morning James took a deep breath and was about to ask her out again, ('Hey Evans. Want to make your world complete and go out with me?), when he knocked over his pumpkin juice, spilling all over his trousers.

Lily burst into hysterics at James' 'accident'. 'HA! It looks like you wet...ha!'

James glared mockingly at her before burst into laughter also. Lily's laugh was just so infectious to him, that he couldn't help it. Suddenly, James made a snap decision and through his jam-covered toast at her. It hit her nice clean, white blouse and left a sticky red stain behind. She gasped and looked at James, shocked, then picked up her bowl of cereal, dumped it over his head, _covering _him with cheeri owls and milk and making him gasp as well before sending them both into peals of laughter. Soon everyone around them was laughing along with the pair of food fighters. At the entrance to the great hall, however, there was one person who wasn't laughing; Severus Snape.

When Peter Pettigrew had left the Gryffindor common room, seemingly alone, Snape thought something was wrong. He knew Peter went nowhere without his bodyguards. He knew Lily didn't want him to see her leave. He put two and two together. He wasn't stupid. She had used a disillusionment charm. And James Potter had helped her, using Peter Pettigrew as a decoy. James Potter would do anything to get on his sweet Lily's good side. Severus turned on his heel and swept angrily away, his head down, muttering wildly to himself. _How dare she! _he thought madly, _eating with him, having _fun _with him! HOW DARE SHE! _

Severus was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't notice Sirius and Remus walking the other way. Sirius and Severus shoulders knocked into each other causing them both to be turned around roughly.

'Hey Snivellus! Think you owe me an apology here!' Sirius said annoyed.

Severus looked around and sneered at Sirius before saying, 'Go to hell!' and walking away.

'I have been!' Sirius shouted to Severus' retreating figure, 'In fact I live there! With my Mother, Father and my butt kissing brother!'

'Why must you always have the last word?' Remus asked Sirius curiously.

Sirius shrugged his shoulders making Remus roll his eyes. The two of them turned around and walked over to the great hall and were greeted by the smell of an amazing breakfast. Sirius and Remus spotted James over at the Gryffindor table drenched in milk and cheeri owls. They strolled casually through the Great Hall to where James was sat when they suddenly stopped at an unexpected sight. Lily Evans was sat the other side of him. Lily Evans and James Potter were laughing with each other and having fun. Both Sirius and Remus raised their eyebrows, looked at each other and walked cautiously towards the unusual scene.

'Morning!' Remus said to the pair of them sitting down on the opposite side of the table. Sirius followed suit and sat next to him immediately grabbing the closest piece of food he could lay his hands on and stuffing it in his mouth.

'Shoo wharfs goon none 'ere?' Sirius asked, spraying James with bits of muffin.

'Ergh! Say it, don't spray it!' James said in disgust.

'Sorry!' Sirius swallowed wiping the crumbs away from his mouth with the back of his hand, 'So, what's going on?'

'Nothing.' James said shrugging his shoulders.

Sirius and Remus looked curiously at James and Lily, (who was serving herself some more cheeri owls), for a second. Remus was about to say something to them when Sirius cut in.

'Ok!' he said nodding his head and grabbing a crumpet.

'What?' Remus asked him with raised eyebrows.

'Well, he said nothing! Any reason not to believe him?'

Remus sighed. There was no point in arguing. Once Sirius' mind was made up, there was no changing it. There was no room to change it. Remus grabbed some sausages and eggs and began to eat.

'So!' Sirius said happily, 'Gonna ask me how my exam went?' he wiggled his eyebrows happily.

James sighed, 'Go on then! How'd it go?'

'Well…I rocked! First they asked for some simple defensive spells then they got to the big stuff and I'm telling you, I was AWESOME! And not just normal awesome, I was AWESOME, awesome! You know what I mean! And anyway, I think that we should have that pre-party tonight to celebrate my awesomeness!'

'No. Wait until tomorrow.' Remus said calmly.

'Why?' Sirius whined.

'Well because we only have two days until the exams are actually over.'

'Really?' James asked. 'That's not long! We'll be leaving in five then.'

'Well done Einstein!' Lily muttered under her breath wishing now she was sat somewhere else. Yes the food fight had been rather fun but now all of the marauders were there she wanted to leave. They were all arrogant idiots. Believing they were 'awesome'. Thinking they had the audacity to disrupt the whole of the Gryffindor common room for another one of their stupid parties. Idiots.

'Who's Einstein?' James questioned her.

'Never mind.' she sighed snappily, 'I've got to go and study for my practical this afternoon.' and with that she got up and flounce away.

'Bye Evans.' James said as he watched her walk away, tilting his head to check out her slim retreating figure as he did so.

'You know, if you ever want anything to happen Prongs, you should probably start calling her _Lily._' Remus whispered so that only Sirius and James could hear him.

'Who said I want anything to happen?' James whispered back grabbing another slice of toast.

'It's pretty obvious. You ask her out every day, you talk about her non-stop your always showing off in front of her and you always….'

'Alright, alright! I get the picture. But nothing will ever happen. You know that. She hates me.' James said depressingly.

'Didn't look like she hated you completely from where we were sitting…' Remus muttered quietly.

'Maybe…' James replied with a bit of hope in his voice. He grabbed himself another slice of toast and was reaching for the jam when he caught sight of his watch. He quickly dropped his food and grabbed Peter's arm before getting up and dragging him out of the great hall.

'Where'd James go?' asked Sirius, who had been too interested in his food to listen to James and Remus' conversation.

'DADA practical exam.' Remus answered with a sigh.

'Ok.' Sirius said jovially stuffing a whole sausage into his mouth and chewing with it still open.

'You're disgusting, you know that?' said a repulsed Remus.

'Thanks!'

* * *

All morning, Lily had been in the library studying. She was one of the smartest girls in the school for a reason and she wanted to keep it that way. It was a comfort to her anyway, to study. She liked the silence that studying brought especially in the library. The peace, the serenity. The respect most people had for studying. The feeling that no-one would interrupt you.

'LILY!'

Well, almost no-one. Lily turned her head to see Severus Snape marching up to her at a rather rapid pace. She quickly tried to pack her things away before he could reach her. Unfortunately she was not successful.

'Lily. Look, I'm really sorry. Lily? LILY?' Severus was becoming impatient with her. He never liked being impatient. He also didn't like being ignored, especially by Lily. To grab her attention he snatched the book out of her hand which she was currently trying to fit into her already full book bag.

'Give me that back!' Lily said through gritted teeth.

'Not until you accept my apology! You of all people know how hard it is for me to apologise so why won't you forgive me?'

There was a pause where Lily thought about her response. 'Fine. Keep the book! I'll borrow Hestia's.' she said dismissively as she continued to pack away her things.

Suddenly Severus slammed the book down so hard on the table it made Lily jump as well as everyone else in the vicinity. Severus' cold black eyes locked down on to Lily's emerald green ones. They stood there for a few minutes just staring at each other. Severus trying with all his might to look as though he was pleading, and Lily noticing something she had never seen before. In the few minutes she was looking into his eyes, she felt as if she was looking into his soul for the first time. It was as if she was only really seeing the true Severus now. His eyes were black and cold, as if they had no feeling in them at all. She saw no remorse and no emotion. All she saw was a pit of darkness. Not the Severus she had once known, but the Severus he had become. And she didn't like what she saw. She had no desire to forgive him or be his friend ever again.

'Lily you have to forgive me. We are _best friends_!' Severus whispered forcefully.

'No,' Lily whispered back, 'we're not.' She quickly grabbed the book Severus had slammed on the table along with her other belongings, and walked out of the library without so much as a look behind her.

* * *

James Potter had just finished his Defence against the Dark Arts practical exam and was feeling pretty proud of himself. He was certain that his recent performance in defensive spells had earned him an O in his DADA O.W.L's. That would bring him up to around nine Outstanding's so far. _Three more to go! _thought James to himself. Some people in the school didn't like to guess what grades they had received in their recent exams, but James was different. James didn't need to guess. He knew. Now this arrogance would make some people unbearable, but in James this trait made him the kind of person everyone liked, except the minor few. But James wasn't thinking about that now. At the moment he was flying high and felt nothing could go wrong.

He turned the corner and made his way to the beech tree outside when he saw Sirius in the middle of a furious battle with Peeves the poltergeist.

'It's is my duty to report any misbehaving's to the proper authorities!' Peeves was saying in his usual annoying voice.

'Oh shut it Peeves! You're the one who causes half of the 'misbehaving's' around here and you know it!'

'Yes. But I have never, ever tried to sabotage a house's points before!'

'Please. You did that to Ravenclaw yesterday!' James laughed, walking up to where the two were arguing.

'Ah, Potty boo boo!' Peeves mocked before drifting through the wall closest to him.

'Why does he always leave when you show up? Can't I have one good fight with the pest?' Sirius said with a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

'Well ever since he found out I was the one who gave the anonymous tip to Filch about where he stored his ink pellets he's kind of just started to ignore me.'

'Why would you do that? We love to irritate Filch as much as he does!'

'Ah something he said to me really bugged me so it was the only way to pay him back. A prankster is nothing without supplies! You know that.'

'You know that means that he has something big planned for you right?' Sirius asked James with a raised eyebrow and a curious look on his face.

'No he doesn't.' James said as they began to walk down towards the lake and the beech tree they had proclaimed as theirs in their early Hogwarts years. It was a beautiful day and everyone in the school was taking advantage. Well, the ones who didn't have exams were taking advantage. People were laughing and playing in the sun. Some first years were sliding down one of the many hills using their history of magic books as a sled; the third years were experimenting with the tickling charm by casting it on some unsuspecting second years; and the fourth years were sat under…

'OUR TREE!' Sirius shouted making a couple of the younger student who were near them jump. 'THEY'RE SITTING UNDER OUR TREE!'

They stood there for around five minutes with their mouths open and a look of shock across their faces, before someone spoke again.

'What _are _you doing?' Remus asked appearing behind them with Peter trailing after him with a look of shining admiration on his face.

'Some one's sat under our tree.' James said to Remus whilst Sirius was just pointing dumbfound at the five people who were surrounding the beech tree.

'Why don't you just, I don't know… ask them to move?' Remus said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

James and Sirius looked at each other and then back to Remus. They then shrugged their shoulders and walked towards the beech tree.

'So you're taking my advice?' a surprised Remus said as he followed two of his best friends. They never took his advice.

'No.' Sirius said kicking the beech tree as they passed by it. 'Why did we pick that tree anyway?'

'Because the whomping willow kicks back.' Remus replied with a little chuckle.

'It wouldn't kick me! It worships me!' Sirius said smugly sitting down on the grass. He had picked a spot which still kept the beech tree in his eye line so he could check when the fourth years had moved. His friends followed suit and sat next to him.

'So how did your exam go?' Remus asked James curiously. James was about to answer when Sirius cut in.

'Do we _have _to discuss the exam? Can't we plan our partay?' he whined stretching out the word party for emphasis and his own amusement.

'Yes the party!' Peter squeaked bouncing up and down before looking towards Sirius for a look of approval. He didn't get one.

'The exam went great Remus!' James said ignoring Sirius' idea to plan the party. 'He asked me to banish a Boggart and use the body bind curse on someone…'

'Someone?' Remus asked surprised, 'My examiner asked me to bind a bird…'

'Well he technically did ask me to bind a bird but it flew off as I was shooting the curse so I put the bind on our favourite person instead.'

'Who?' Peter asked excitedly.

James smiled simply as Sirius burst into peels of loud laughter knowing that James had cursed Severus Snape in his exam. What was better was that he would get a good grade for doing so instead of a detention.

'James…' Remus said shaking his head.

'I was an accident!' James said feigning innocence before adding, 'The first time…'

'What do you mean the first time?' Remus questioned suspiciously.

'Well, he had just gotten up when my examiner asked me to stun a living being in the room.' James explained, 'What was I meant to do?'

'Well I stunned my examiner!' Sirius interrupted smugly.

'WHAT?' Remus and James yelled causing Peter, who had begun to fiddle with the grass, to jump.

'Yeah!' Sirius replied to their yells, 'She was stunned to see how breathtakingly gorgeous I am!'

The boys laughed in amusement at Sirius' self-importance. They sat in the same spot for another half an hour chatting about nothing of any real substance before Sirius noticed that their tree had been vacated. Without any warning, he scrambled to his feet and quickly scampered over to the beech tree. Remus and James exchanged looks of confusion before following Sirius to see what had caught his eye. Peter began to trail behind the three running boys. He was the most unfit and therefore found it hard to keep up with his agile friends.

When at last all the boys had reached their beloved tree, they all collapsed in their usual spots; James leaning against the tree, Sirius sitting across from him, Remus on his stomach next to Sirius and Peter sitting crossed legs a little way out from the gang as if he didn't belong there. It wasn't too long before he started to play with the grass again and the conversation had turned to the party Sirius wanted to throw in the Gryffindor common room.

'It should be big!' Sirius cried with enthusiasm lacing his voice.

'All our parties are big Sirius.' Remus said with a bored expression, his nose in a book.

'But this one should be MASSIVE!' he said excitedly his eyes lighting up like a small child's on Christmas day.

'You know what we need for a massive party?' James asked his friends with a mischievous glint in his eyes. They all looked at him curiously before he smirked and continued, 'Supplies!'

* * *

**Reviews are not necessary but always welcome!**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	4. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter three! This is the last chapter I'll post at the minute but I will be posting more, (date at the bottom), because it's worth it for at least just one person to read. Knowing someones read and liked what I've done so far will make my day!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Three**

The next day was the last of the exams. In the morning, the whole of the fifth year had taken their potions exam and in the afternoon there was the divination exam for those who had chosen to take that subject. James Potter and Sirius Black were two of these people.

'Why did we take divination?' Sirius asked James as they sat down to eat lunch in the great hall.

'Well I didn't want to you forced me!' James said grumpily. He hated divination.

'Why?'

'If I remember correctly, you were at that time going out with a Miss Jessica Cartwright from Hufflepuff.' Remus said knowledgably sitting down next to James with Peter sitting on his other side.

'Oh yeah!' Sirius said with a nostalgic look, 'I forgot about her.'

'I know!' Remus said through slightly gritted teeth. 'I had to break up with her for you because you had already gone off with Lauren!'

'But she was my first love!' Sirius said clutching his heart dramatically.

'Of that day.' Remus muttered under his breath.

'Whatever!' Sirius said waving the conversation away with his hand. 'Have we got all the supplies for tonight?' he asked his fellow marauders.

'Almost!' Peter piped up, 'Me and Moony were going to go and get the rest when you and Prongs are in your exam.'

'Excellent!' Sirius said smiling at Peter who felt elated and what he considered praise. 'What's left to get?' Sirius continued.

'The second case of butterbeer and the last of the jelly.' Remus recalled, 'They are in the kitchen. Well the jelly is. The butterbeer is in the passage.'

'Awesome!' Sirius said, 'This is going to rock! Right Prongs? Prongs?' he shook his best mate who seemed to be in some sort of a trance.

'Huh?' James said groggily as if he had just woken up from a deep sleep.

'The party will rock!' Sirius said excitedly.

'Yeah, yeah it will.' James said with an inward sigh.

He had just been thinking about a certain red headed girl. Yesterday he had actually had a conversation with her that had miraculously not ended with her calling him all the names under the sun even though it had begun that way. He was delighted. That small civil conversation they had had, had been the highlight of his week. If only he could find a way to keep that energy. There had to be a way. He was tired of her rejecting him and breaking his heart. It had done him no good over the past five years and had caused him nothing but pain. She had cursed him with her wand and with her words, telling him to grow up every time he tried to ask her out. He kept replaying the moments they had shared together the previous day and had started to see a little bit of hope. Maybe, there was a chance for him yet. He just had to figure out a way…

'OI!' Sirius said clicking his fingers in front of James glazed over eyes. James snapped out of his trance once again and blinked rapidly at Sirius who was looking at him with an exasperated expression. 'You were thinking about her again weren't you?' he said with a bored tone in his voice.

'So what if I was?' James shrugged and began to eat a sandwich, 'It's not against the law is it?'

'No but…' Sirius paused, 'it's just you could have any girl in this school. Merlin knows you've had enough offers but you just reject them all! I mean, don't get me wrong I love offering a shoulder to cry on to the girls that you reject but… it's not… it's…' Sirius looked to Remus for a bit of help.

'It's not healthy.' Remus completed. James snapped a look at him before turning back to look at Sirius who had continued.

'You spend all your efforts on asking Evans out and you're always so upset when she shoots you down. You've got to get over her mate. In case you haven't got the picture by now, she doesn't want you.'

James looked at Sirius as if he had been stabbed in the back. He looked around at his other two friends to see them looking down at their food not daring to make eye contact with him. So this was how they all felt. He knew it was just because they didn't want to see him hurt again and in their eyes they were only trying to help, but through James eyes, you could see a whole other picture.

'Thanks guys, but…' James started hearing a collective sigh, 'It doesn't really make a difference if you think I'm being stupid or whatever. The fact of the matter is I don't want anyone else. I just want her.' he said before putting down his sandwich and walking away from the table.

'Well that could have gone a lot better.' Sirius muttered to Remus who nodded in agreement. 'Who knew interventions were this hard?'

* * *

For the rest of the day, James hardly spoke to his friends and everyone in the school could feel the tension even if it was hardly noticeable. Sirius Black was trying to get James to talk to him again during the line-up for their divination exam but James had just made up the excuse that he was trying to do some last minute studying.

'Without your book?' Sirius asked him with his arms folded. He hated it when he and James weren't talking. He had only tried to help his friend move on but he was starting to think that an intervention wasn't really the right way to go.

'I'm just going over things in my head.' James said before walking to the back of the line to join all the P surnames.

Sirius looked over to his friend trying to think of ways to help him move on. If you knew Sirius, it was difficult for him to think for too long.

James, at the back of the line, however, was trying to find a way to win Lily Evan's heart. He believed the key to his problem was in everything she had ever said to him so he stood there and ran through it all. The rejections, the insults, the curses, everything.

Time flew by and before James knew it, it was his turn to go into the exam. He walked into the classroom and looked around seeing a giant teapot and some ugly yellow cups.

_Great__,_he thought to himself, _reading tea leaves! _

He grumpily walked over to the chair opposite his divination teacher and examiner, Professor Linkam, and sat down.

'Mr Potter!' She said jollily giving him a small smile, 'You may have gathered we are reading tea leaves for this exam. I am just going to pour myself a cup and drink it and then I would like you to carry out the appropriate method for reading tea leaves please.'

James nodded and sat back in his chair watching her. She poured herself half a cup of tea into the hideous yellow mug and drank it before setting it down on the table in front of James.

'Proceed.' she said to James taking out some parchment and a quill to takes notes with during his examination.

James picked up the mug and swilled the dregs around the giant cup before draining it. He then looked at the bottom of the cup to see a ladder and a sun. He began to think back to his divination book. He had only flicked through it once and hadn't opened it again since the beginning of third year. He and Sirius always 'forgot' their books and spent the lessons making up crazy predictions instead. He had however remembered hearing Emmeline Vance, the class's top student, talking about a ladder in her tea leaves and tried to remember what she had said.

'Err…'James began causing Professor Linkam to look up expectantly, 'I see a ladder.' he began, still trying to remember Emmeline's words. What else had been happening in that class? He and Sirius were predicting their own deaths. That was all he remembered. _Think James think! _he yelled internally to himself, _you know this. Something about climbing…THAT'S IT! _He thought happily.

'The ladder means you are going to achieve success.' James said to a nodding Linkam, 'And I also see a sun. This means your future is bright and you will be very happy!' James said making it up. It had to be close though. What else could a sun mean?

He put down the cup and looked across the table to Professor Linkam who had taken the cup and was now examining it herself. She glanced up and smiled at James. 'You may go.' she told him and without hesitation, James got up and walked straight out of the door to find Sirius and Remus waiting for him.

'How'd it go?' Remus asked breaking the ice.

'Good I think.' James replied if a little stiffly before walking away towards the Gryffindor common room. It wasn't long before Remus and Sirius had caught up with him and were walking either side of him.

'We're sorry mate.' Sirius said with his head down.

'Yeah. We didn't mean for it to come out like that it's just…'

'We don't want you to be hurt anymore!' Sirius cried dramatically causing the trio to laugh at everyone who had stopped in shock.

'I get that.' James said honestly, 'But as my friends I would really like it if you just supported my decision instead of trying to stop me. No matter what you think or what she thinks, I won't stop trying.'

'All right.' Remus said causing James to look at him in surprise. 'But maybe you should try a different way of trying to get her to go out with you. I mean every time you ask her she just tells you to grow up and…'

'That's it!' James yelled triumphantly, 'Thanks Remus! I know what I have to do!' He said before almost sprinting to the Gryffindor common room leaving two very confused boys behind him in his wake.

* * *

Lily Evans was packing her trunk ready to leave in two days. She liked to be prepared and have everything organised and ready before hand. It was just who she was. To some people it may have seemed stupid but to her it was necessary. This way she could enjoy her last few days without worrying about the fact that she hadn't packed. She was in the middle of folding one of her school skirts when one of her friends and dorm mates walked into the dorm room.

'How was your exam?' Lily asked her whilst continuing to pack.

'Eh.' Hestia shrugged before beginning to pack her own suitcase. 'I had dumb tea leaves to read. The signs were success and happiness.'

'So you'll have those in your future then?'

'Not me. Professor Linkam.' Hestia said as if it was obvious.

'Oh, sorry. I'm sure you'll be successful and happy to though!' Lily said reassuringly to her best friend.

'Yes I am sure I will!' Hestia replied confidently.

Lily gave a small giggle and continued to pack. 'What are you doing this summer then?' she asked curiously.

'Are you kidding? We're going shopping!' Hestia said shocked, 'We always go shopping!'

'How could I forget?' Lily laughed. They never went shopping. They always planned too but their summer holiday plans never seemed to coincide.

They both continued to talk, laugh and pack. After a few minutes, Mary McDonald waltz into the room in a bit of a frenzy.

'What are you wearing?' she asked her dorm mates frantically before pulling out every item of clothing she had.

'For what?' the two girls asked in unison, looking at Mary as if she had gone mad.

'The marauders party?'

* * *

It was dinner time and there was a buzz of excitement over at the Gryffindor table. Everyone was excited about the 'secret' party the marauders had decided to throw. It was the main conversation starter. Over at the Slytherin table however, Severus was completely the opposite. He had no excitement in his life anymore. Lily Evans was the one thing about his life that he actually liked. He hated his father, and his mother was no better. He had nothing left in his opinion. Not now she'd gone.

'Why so glum?' Mulciber, a fellow Slytherin asked him moodily. 'Did you get a letter?'

'A letter?' Snape asked interested. 'What letter?'

'It's in the dorm.' Avery replied in a bored voice, 'I'm going to do it. There's no higher honour than being asked personally.'

Snape looked at him confused before rising from the table and leaving the great hall. Before he walked out of the doors however, he turned and looked back towards the Gryffindor table where he spotted a wave of shiny red hair. He looked at Lily wistfully, wanting nothing more than to turn back time and stop himself from calling her that terrible name. There had to be a way of undoing this. There just had to be.

He turned away with a defeated sigh and walked slowly towards the Slytherin common room. When he reached the entrance he said the password and entered the main room of Slytherin's dungeon. He walked up the staircase to his dorm room where he saw the letter Avery had been talking about, lying on his pillow. He picked it up with trembling hands and read his name on the envelope. He turned it over and saw the seal; a skull with a snake protruding from the mouth. This could only mean one thing. He was being recruited.

He tore the letter open and read it taking in every word;

_Severus Snape,_

_I require you to join my ranks. You will be a great addition to my cause. If you refuse, I cannot be responsible for your fate._

_Lord Voldemort._

Severus gulped and began to write his response.

* * *

That night, the marauders threw one of their famous parties. There was a tonne of jelly, which was shaped like a lion, and butterbeer. Everyone was having a great time. They all went in turn to congratulate and thank the marauders for another awesome party.

All four of them were sat on the sofas around the fireplace in the common room. They were laughing and chatting, drinking butterbeer, eating jelly and, in Sirius' case, snogging some girl.

'So what are we all doing this summer?' Remus asked his friends.

'I'm going on holiday with my mum.' Peter grumbled miserably picking at his cake.

'Ah, you'll be fine!' James said reassuringly, 'Where you going?'

'Bulgaria.' Peter muttered unhappily. The other three laughed, (Sirius having kicked the girl to the curb at a start of a conversation with his friends as they were more important), and James and Remus told him not to worry. Sirius told him to remember his souvenir causing Remus and James to look at him disapprovingly.

'What about you Prongs?' Remus asked curiously looking towards where James was lounging on the sofa.

'Same as last year mate. One day out with mum and dad to the Quidditch match then back home to wait until Hogwarts starts again. Since Voldy-Mouldy started gathering followers, Mum and Dad have been working non-stop so I'm stuck with Linda.' Linda was the Potter's house elf and was very protective of her youngest master. When he wasn't at Hogwarts she would secretly follow him everywhere to ensure he was safe.

'What about you Moony?' Peter asked.

'Nothing much. I'll be in the basement for the most part.' he grumbled under his breath so that only his friends could hear.

'That's tough Moony.' James said patting him on his back, 'You can come to mine if you want? I could use the company…' James suggested before trailing off at the look on Remus' face.

'Thanks, but, you can't handle me on your own. You'll need him with you.' he said jerking his thumb towards Sirius, not noticing the expression on Peter's face at being left out.

'That could probably be arranged!' Sirius said mischievously but not letting on what his intentions for the summer were. All he did was wiggle his eyebrows and wink at James who rolled his eyes at is best friend's antics. He would be at James' place all summer anyway. The previous summer he had practically moved in.

Suddenly, there was a loud bang and James, Remus and Sirius turned to see Peter with soot over is nose and his mousy hair standing on end. He coughed slightly with a shocked look on his round face.

James, Remus and Sirius began to laugh at Peter's accident and it was a while before they could stop laughing enough for Remus to scourigify Peter clean.

Across the room Lily Evans was watching the marauders with a disgusted expression. She couldn't believe that they would just sit laughing whilst their friend was covered in soot. Not only were they bullies to anyone who got in their way but they also treated their own friend like dirt too. Although Lily had never understood why Peter was part of their group, she had never thought that they would befriend him just for a laugh, but from where she was standing, that's exactly what they seemed to have done. Whatever glimmer of decency she saw in James Potter yesterday had been wiped away from what she had just seen.

She looked at her watch and saw that it had gone midnight. She put down her butterbeer and walked over to the girl's staircase before walking up and going to bed. She had only been there under protest anyway. She had made a deal with Hestia to stick it out till twelve and now that was done, she was going to bed.

Just as Lily had entered her dorm room, McGonagall walked through the common room portrait hole and instantly silenced the tower. She looked over to the marauders who all stood up quickly.

'Well?' She asked them expectantly with her hands on her hips.

'Ok…' James sighed at her, before addressing the common room, 'BED TIME CHILDREN!' he yelled to the students who instantly groaned. But, as it was James Potter who had told them too, they all made their way up to their dorm rooms and went to bed.

After about five minutes, the entire room had cleared and the only ones who were left were the Marauders and McGonagall. She looked at them again tapping her foot and waiting for an explanation.

'Well?' she asked again looking at them with questioning raised eyebrows.

'Err…' the boys said collectively.

'We saved you a butterbeer?' Sirius said handing her a bottle.

She took it and almost split a smile before returning back to her serious expression. 'Clean up!' she said before turning around. With a swish of her tartan dressing gown, she left the Gryffindor tower and the four boys in the mess their party had created.

'Better get started then!' Peter squeaked grabbing a bag to put rubbish in.

James, Sirius and Remus looked at him as if he had gone out of his mind. 'What?' Peter asked them in a clueless fashion.

'We are wizards Wormy!' James said and with a flick of his wand the common room was now neat and tidy. 'Let's go to bed.' he yawned before walking up the spiral staircase. The other three followed suit and climbed up after him to the fifth year dormitory.

Once upstairs, they all changed for bed. When they had, Sirius remembered something. 'We haven't planned our end of year surprise guys!'

There were murmurs of 'oh yeah!', 'I forgot', and 'let's get to it' whilst they all clambered onto James bed with all thoughts of sleep forgotten.

* * *

The next day flew by and before the school knew it, it was the last day of the school year. Some students spent their days packing and taking one last look around the grounds. Some spent their time with friends who they wouldn't see for the whole of the summer. Some said goodbye to girlfriends and boyfriends. One person however was sitting on a flight of steps trying to convince himself he had made the right decision.

The day before last, Severus Snape had received a letter from the man every witch, wizard and magical creature had come to fear. For the past six years, Lord Voldemort had been gathering followers and more power. His cause started out small and no-one took any particular interest in it. They didn't view him as a threat. For the past year however, most people had begun to fear the man more than ever before. He was no longer a meaningless face but a source of freight. For the past year, the Daily Prophet had been printing more stories, at least one every couple of months, about his antics and his follower's antics. How they were torturing muggles, killing muggleborns and causing who they viewed as blood-traitors to disappear. He was now a cause for concern in the wizarding world who were secretly cursing themselves for not fighting back sooner.

Voldemort had sent letters to various Slytherin's in fifth year most of which were all too enthusiastic to join up. Severus Snape however had thought long and hard about his choices before making his decision. All his fellow Slytherin's were already death eaters, aspiring to be one, or just supporting the cause. One of the boys he shared a dorm with, Avery, had been thrilled to get his letter. He had immediately written a response accepting Lord Voldemort's offer, and after an hour or so thinking about it, so had Severus.

The minute he had sent his reply, he had felt a sense of elation and purpose. He had found something to fill the void that his broken friendship with Lily Evans had left. But the next day he had realised that nothing could fill that gap. Nothing could ever replace what he had had with Lily. He soon became ashamed of his decision and wished he could take it back. The thing he had done to put his mind off Lily had only caused him to think about her more and the disapproval she would have over his decision. The only thing he could think of to help ease his guilt was the fact that he could try and keep her safe from Voldemort's clutches. He could direct his attention away from Lily and try to keep her alive from within. It wasn't much, but it was all he had left.

This is the conclusion Severus Snape had come to whilst sitting on one of the many staircases in Hogwarts. He got up and entered the great hall where all the students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry were now gathering for their final meal. The next day they would get up in the morning and head straight to the Hogwarts Express meaning that this was the last time the whole school would be together before the start of the summer holidays.

When entering the great hall he immediately looked up to see the Gryffindor colours hanging from the enchanted ceiling. This meant that they had won the House Cup again instead of the Slytherin's. Severus rolled his eyes in what could only be described as an angry expression before walking over to the Slytherin table. He sat down just in time to hear Avery complaining to Mulciber about the House Cup and who it was being awarded to.

'Damn Gryffindor's! Mudbloods and blood traitors the lot of them!' he spat disgustedly giving the table in question a dirty look. 'Always win the Cup! It's because Dumbledore was a Gryffindor, not because they deserve it!'

Snape nodded his head solemnly in agreement but quickly stopped when his attention was caught by a swish of red hair. He quickly blocked out Avery's conversation with their fellow Slytherin, Nott, and began to watch Lily walk over to her seat on the Gryffindor table facing away from him.

As Lily sat down she could feel a gaze penetrating her back. She quickly turned around and saw Severus looking at her hungrily. She rolled her eyes and turned back to her fellow Gryffindor's who were surrounding her. She turned to listen into her dorm mate's conversation. Mary Macdonald, Alice Prewett and Emmeline Vance were discussing the types of dragons that were native to Romania as Emmeline was going to be going there this summer on holiday with her family. The other person joining in this conversation was Hestia Jones who was also a fifth year Gryffindor and Lily's best friend.

'The Chinese Fireball dragon isn't really native to Romania though is it?' Mary asked before flashing Lily a small but friendly smile.

'No but they do have them there!' Alice Prewett, the last girl in the Gryffindor dorm was saying to Emmeline in reassurance who was nodding her head.

'They also have the Swedish Short Snout over their too.' Lily said casually, 'Maybe you'll see one of them?'

'Maybe…' Hestia said thoughtfully agreeing with Lily. She then sighed sadly, 'I can't believe I won't see you till next year!' she said hugging Lily tightly, completely turning off topic and talking solely to her best friend.

'Technically just later this year. Err… Hestia?'

'Yes?' Hestia replied still hugging Lily tightly.

'Can I have a bit of air please? I'm kinda suffocating over here!' Lily said breathily before Hestia finally let go of her apologising.

'So got anything big planned this summer?' Lily asked Mary politely whilst rubbing her shoulder.

'Not really.' Mary replied, 'Just going to see the family!'

'Yeah same here!' Alice said smiling sadly, 'No big plans. Boredom is a great feature of my upcoming holiday. We fit together like two peas in a pod!'

'Well we could always meet up if you'd like?' Lily suggested to her two dorm mates. She wasn't that close with Alice or Mary but they was still her friends and if they wanted too they could meet up with her and Hestia. That is if they actually arranged it properly this year instead of just talking about it. It might be nice to do something this summer anyway. After all, she had no-one at home anymore after what had happened with Severus.

'Yeah sure!' Alice replied excitedly.

'I can't, sorry.' Mary said as she got up, 'Thanks for the invitation though!' Mary smiled at Lily before leaving. Lily didn't mind. They really weren't that close. They never hung out with each other. It was usually just her and Hestia with Alice and Emmeline joining them occasionally. Two sets of best friends who sometimes made a group.

When Mary had left, Alice immediately asked, 'What should we do?' causing Hestia to reply 'Shop!' immediately.

Lily rolled her eyes. 'You always want shop Hestia!'

'And what's wrong with that! It's a tradition!' Hestia exclaimed.

'Well I do need some new school robes and stuff…'

'Not for school supplies!' Hestia said exasperatedly, 'For clothes and perfumes and stuff! We can all meet in Diagon Alley.' she turned to Alice, 'Last year I went round muggle London and bought some awesome muggle clothes!' she turned back to Lily, 'We can do that right Lily? You can show us some of the best spots'

'Yeah sure!' Lily replied. That would be fun. Not that she knew where the best spots were.

'That sounds nice!' Emmeline said quietly.

'Ohh! You can help us make plans!' Alice said happily. Soon all four girls were in deep conversation about what shops they would like to visit and what clothes they would like to buy.

'Pft! Shopping!' Sirius said catching a few words from the girls' conversation as he and the marauders walked past, 'Never will understand a girls fascination with shopping!' he went on to say as they all sat down a little way a way from Lily and her friends.

'Me either mate!' Remus said clapping him on the back before turning to James, 'You ready?' he asked.

'Absolutely!' James replied looking up to the high table where all the professors were sat. Dumbledore began to rise and all of the marauders looked at each other with a slight nod before discreetly taking out their wands.

The hall fell silent as Dumbledore began to address the students. 'Another year has ended at Hogwarts. I hope you have all learnt something this year. Don't worry though; you have the whole summer to forget what that was!' he said to a few appreciative chuckles. He had his arms open in a welcoming fashion and began to speak once more.

'Before we begin our end of year feast I would like to award the House cup. Now unfortunately, the House point system was altered a few days ago by an anonymous source.' he said smiling at the marauders, who glanced at Sirius, who shrugged innocently.

'What?' he said earning a few laughs from around him.

'Fortunately,' Dumbledore continued, 'we have been able to rectify the problem and are able to give you the correct results. In fourth place with 360 points, was Hufflepuff!' he said smiling towards the Hufflepuff table who were clapping slightly.

'In third place, with 385 points, was Slytherin.' There was a small spattering of applause echoing around the hall. The Slytherin's didn't bother to join in. They hated to lose.

'And finally, as you may have guessed from out tasteful decorations, Gryffindor has won the House Cup with 420 points leaving Ravenclaw in second place with only 415 points. As you can tell, this year, it was very close.' The hall burst into applause for Gryffindor's victory. Only the Slytherin's had a problem with them winning the cup.

During this applause, the marauders looked at each other and nodded their heads before simultaneously pointing their wands up to the enchanted ceiling. Suddenly there was a loud crack above and everyone stopped clapping. Instead, they looked up to the ceiling expectantly. No more than five seconds later, it began to rain. But this wasn't normal rain. No. This was a very sweet rain. Everybody soon realised what was happening and jumped up to grab what was falling from the sky. Every individual grabbed something different for the marauders had enchanted the ceiling to rain everyone's favourite type of sweet. Some received chocolate frogs and some liquorice wands. The strangest sweet to rain down in the hall was on Dumbledore's plate. He chuckled and everyone stopped their jumping and excitement to see what he would say to the marauders.

'Lemon drops.' he said simply, 'How did you know?' he popped one in his mouth and smiled at the marauders. 'You do realise that traditionally, desert comes after the meal?'

'What can we say?' Sirius said to Dumbledore shrugging his shoulders, 'We've never been ones for tradition!'

'And on that note,' Dumbledore smiled, 'enjoy!'

Magically, on every table, amidst the many sweets, a luxurious meal appeared with everything you could ever want to eat on it. The students lurched forwards and filled their plates with all the food they could seize. The hall became loud with the excited chatter about the marauders end of year surprise.

'I must say I think we've out done ourselves!' Remus said happily, tearing into a leg of chicken.

'This just means we will have to get better next year then doesn't it!' Sirius said stuffing his mouth with some mashed potato and allowing the world to see.

'Ugh, shut your mouth Sirius, that's disgusting!' Remus groaned causing James to laugh. 'You wouldn't be laughing if you had to face that!' Remus said seriously to James.

'Probably not but at the minute this is very funny!' James laughed happily.

Remus rolled his eyes and carried on eating his leg of chicken.

When the whole hall had finished eating their meals and stuffing their pockets with the sweets that still lay on the table, Dumbledore stood up once again.

'Thank you all for another pleasant year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I hope you all have a good summer and I expect to see you all back here in September ready to learn! I urge you all to stay safe during this summer and not to do anything foolish!' he looked at the marauders. 'I will not dwell on the topic but I ask you all to be aware of the dark forces that dare to threaten our world. Now, no dawdling and of to bed. Pip, pip!'

All the students got up and bustled out or the hall making their way to their respective common rooms to have a good night's sleep. After all, they had a train to catch early the next morning.

* * *

The next morning, the students of Hogwarts got up early to catch the school train. Some were all ready to leave for Hogsmeade station the minute the clock struck eight, some however, had lost certain precious items that couldn't be replaced.

'Where is it?'

'You had it last!'

'No I didn't

'Yes you did! In detention the other day!'

'I haven't had detention in over a week!'

'You had one yesterday!'

'Oh yeah…'

The marauders were tearing apart their dorm room looking for their beloved marauders map. During Remus' annual packing check, they had discovered that no-one had a clue where the map was.

'All right, where did you see it last?' Remus asked Sirius who the marauders had concluded had had the map most recently.

'We already said that he had it in detention!' James' said annoyed with his hand over his eyes in exasperation.

'Why did you have it in detention?' Remus asked curiously.

'To see where the professors were so I could sneak out!' he said as if it was obvious.

'Where did you go?'

'Room of requirement.'

James and Remus looked at each other and then at Sirius waiting for him to realise what they had figured out. Peter looked lost. They looked like this for barely thirty seconds before Sirius realised where he had left the map.

'Oh!' he cried before sprinting from the room to retrieve it.

The three boys who were left in the dorm went through one last check that they had gotten everything before leaving their trunks on their beds and heading down to the carriages that were to take them down to the Hogwarts express.

They were just about to step into a free carriage when they heard echoing footsteps behind them. They all looked back to see Sirius running towards them with the map in his hand. 'Found it!' he was yelling.

'Now how'd we forget about him?' James muttered to Remus who chuckled appreciatively.

They all hurried into the carriage which pulled off immediately after all four boys were settled. On the way down to the train, they discussed their recent successful prank and all the others they had pulled during the fifth year. At the time they hadn't seemed harmful, especially the last one, but James was starting to see what Lily meant by calling him a bully. He tried to not let it worry him.

They had soon arrived at the station and were boarding the Hogwarts express where they found their trunks in a compartment towards the back of the train. They all sat down, Peter near the window, (because he suffered from travel sickness if he wasn't), Sirius next to him, Remus opposite Sirius and James opposite Peter. When the train pulled of Sirius pulled out a pack of exploding snap cards and laid them on the table that Remus had just conjured. Soon, the boys were involved in a furious game of exploding snap which Peter was watching like a puppy. James however, was paying no attention, so wasn't aware that Remus was losing to Sirius. All of a sudden, a loud bang was heard and Remus' eyebrows were singed as well as the sleeve of James school robes which had been resting on the table in close proximity of the pile of cards.

'OW!' he yelled astonished at what had just happened. Sirius laughed at him and told him to be more careful before healing the burn and returning to the game.

James rubbed his arm, which, although it had been healed, still stung slightly. He secretly hoped Sirius didn't want to become a Healer because he never quite finished his patch ups. He'd get his mum to look it over again when he got home if she was there. He looked out the window and watched the world whiz by just thinking about her words. The previous day he had come to a conclusion and was determined to follow through, though he saw no obvious way to do it. He didn't want to lose himself in the process and had decided to just start small. This way he could carry on being his imaginative self and pulling the famous marauder pranks. He would however stop playing nasty tricks on random people, (Slytherin's), or bullying them as _some_ people called it. He would start paying more attention in the lessons, although he didn't need to. And he would stop pestering her. Maybe this way she would see the changes he was trying to make and finally agree to go out with him. James Potter had decided it was time to grow up.

* * *

**Reviews are not necessary but always welcome!**

**I'll post the next few chapters on 24/11/2012**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	5. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter Four! **

**Hope you enjoy it!**

**And thank you to Forbular for my review! Did make my day! :)**

* * *

**Chapter Four**

Lily Evans' summer was dull to say the least. She had no-one to talk to or go out with as her plans with Hestia and Alice had been torn to shreds due to unforeseen circumstances. Hestia's mother had been taken ill and Alice's parents had decided that it was high time they went to see some of their relatives in Ireland. So instead of going shopping with her friends like Lily had planned to, she was now forced to sit in her room all day and do anything she could find to amuse herself. She spent most of her time reading some of her favourite stories, watching video cassettes on the new VCR that her parents had bought and writing to her friends, sending her letters off via owl, though she barely received any in return.

Earlier in the summer, her mother had suggested that she take a walk down to the shops with her sister Petunia to fetch some tea, but Petunia had flat out refused to go. She was two years older than Lily and although they had been very close before Lily had been accepted into Hogwarts, they rarely spoke now. She had become to hate her sister and all that she had become, her hatred stemming from the jealousy she had for her sister's magical abilities. So Lily's older sister ignored her during the summers she spent at home and just pretended that she wasn't there.

As Lily had fallen out with Severus during the final week of Hogwarts as well, she didn't have the friend down the street and by the river who she would usually hang out with. The fact that she was no longer speaking to him didn't stop him from pestering her in his attempts to apologise again. The first week she had been home, Lily decided that she would go to the park that her and Petunia used to play in, only to find Severus waiting there for here. At the first sight of him, she had doubled back and gone home again. The second week of her holiday, he had begun to throw stones at her bedroom window every night just to try and get her attention. He stopped this after a fortnight had passed because one of the stones he had thrown had broken her window and had had to be replaced. In her fourth week at home, she had given up going out of her house if it wasn't into their garden, as she soon realised that he had begun to sit on the wall each day to wait for her to appear. In Lily's mind, she had hoped that by the fifth week of the holidays, he would have gotten the message, but he hadn't.

When her owl arrived from Hogwarts that week, with her school list and O.W.L results, Lily noticed that he was still sitting on the wall just outside her house. She sighed and shook her head whilst opening the kitchen window to let the owl through. This didn't go unnoticed by Severus and he immediately leapt of the wall to go and talk to her. Before he could get there however, she had closed the window and turned around so that her back was facing him.

She went to sit down at the table where her family was still eating breakfast and began to tear open the letter.

'What's that sweet-pea?' her father asked her, looking over his morning paper to see what she had in her hand.

'It's my letter from Hogwarts and my O.W.L results.' she said nervously. Whilst she took out the pieces of parchment with trembling hands, Petunia scoffed and left the table. Lily looked after her and sighed before returning to her post.

She read her exam results first:

_Ordinary Wizarding Level Results_

_Pass Grades:_

_Outstanding (O)_

_Exceeds Expectations (E)_

_Acceptable (A)_

_Fail Grades:_

_Poor (P)_

_Dreadful (D)_

_Troll (T)_

_Lily Evans has achieved:_

_Ancient Runes: O_

_Astronomy: O_

_Arithmancy: O_

_Charms: O_

_Defence Against the Dark Arts: O_

_Herbology: O_

_History of Magic: O_

_Potions: O_

_Transfiguration: E_

'How'd you do?' her mother asked her excitedly, trying to catch a glimpse of the piece of parchment she had in her hands.

'Better than I thought, but I didn't get what I wanted.' She said glumly, handing the letter to her mother.

'But you've passed everything! You have an Outstanding in all your subjects!' she said scanning the page and smiling proudly as she did so.

'Not in all of them.' Lily said sadly, 'Look at the bottom of the page.'

'Transfiguration; E,' read Lily's mother, 'That's only one grade from the top one though sweetheart! That's still excellent!'

'Pass that here than Heather!' Lily's Dad said putting down his paper and holding out an outstretched hand for Lily's exam results.

'Oh honestly, Richard! We just read them out!' Heather said to her husband, shaking her head as she handed over her youngest daughter's exam results.

'I still like to see them!' Richard said happily as he took the piece of parchment, beaming down at it as if it was the best thing he'd seen all year.

'What else did you get then sweetie?' Heather addressed her youngest daughter, trying again to read the letter Lily now had her hands on.

'Just my usual letter telling me when term starts and a list of new books to get.' Lily said quietly, concentrating on her letters.

'Let's see then.' Heather said caringly, prying the letters from Lily's small, dainty hands.

She read the first one out loud;

_Dear Miss. Evans,_

_Please note that the new school year will begin on September the first. The Hogwarts Express will leave from King's Cross station, platform nine and three-quarters, at eleven o'clock._

_A list of the school books you will require for next year is enclosed._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Professor M. McGonagall_

_Deputy Headmistress_

'Well that was interesting!' Richard said sarcastically as his wife finished reading the letter. At Heather's glare his eyes widened and he returned to reading his newspaper, attempting to hide his face.

Rose shook her head and read the next letter which was in her hand.

_SIXTH-YEAR STUDENTS WILL REQUIRE:_

_The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 6 by Miranda Goshawk_

_An Advanced Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch_

_Advanced Potion-Making by Libatius Borage_

'Only three new books! That's good. We'll go get them on Friday. How does that sound dear?' Heather asked her husband who peered over the top of his paper meekly.

'What was that?' he said timidly causing Lily to laugh. She found it funny that her father was still scared senseless of his mother even after years of marriage.

'I said we'll go and get Lily's new books on Friday.'

'Yes, yes. That's wonderful!' Richard said putting down his newspaper and looking absolutely thrilled about the prospect of visiting Diagon Alley again.

'How many subjects do you take this year then?' Heather asked her daughter who had stopped stifling laughter.

'We can choose between five or six I think…' Lily replied before getting up and going to her room so she could laugh freely.

That Friday, the Evans' went to Diagon Alley returning with Lily's new book, two new sets of school robes and a fresh potion making kit. So Lily spent the rest of the holidays memorising her new school books as she had nothing else to do.

* * *

'Young Master James. Your breakfast is ready.' Linda the house elf said before apparating back downstairs to the kitchen to clean up.

James sat up in bed. His feet were where his head had started and his quilt was on the floor. James looked around his large room. It had posters of Quidditch teams on the walls as well as pictures of his family and friends. There were two very large wardrobes with matching chest of drawers next to them. There were also matching bedside tables. On the wall opposite his king-size four-poster bed was a large door which led to a grand en-suite bathroom. James looked up to the ceiling at the beautiful glass chandelier which hung in the centre of his room. Suddenly a huge snore came from James left. He looked over and a few yards away was another king-sized four-poster bed. He picked up his pillow and threw it over to the other side of the room to the other bed. From beneath the blankets of this bed, emerged a figure with thick dark hair which handsomely framed his face.

'What'd you do that for?' Sirius asked James groggily, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and throwing the pillow back at James.

'Breakfast is ready!' James said swinging his legs of his bed and stretching.

'Oh boy!' Sirius yelled jumping quickly out of bed and running down the long hallway to the huge grand staircase. It resembled the staircase which featured in the Parisian opera house where his great-great-great grandmother and grandfather went on their honeymoon. They had had it copied because she fell in love with it. It took them to the grand foyer which would lead to several reception rooms, libraries, galleries and living rooms then, eventually, one of the dining rooms next to the kitchen.

James chuckled at his best friend's behaviour. He had gotten used to it this summer as Sirius had decided to run away from home revealing his curious plans for what he would be doing in the summer; staying with the Potter's. Sirius had shown up to the Potter Mansion on his seventeenth birthday after he had been disowned by his parents. The year before, on his sixteenth birthday, he had done the same thing and turned up at the Potters to stay with them for the summer. But this year, as he was now seventeen, he had officially left his family home and family.

His parents, unlike Sirius himself, were great believers in Voldemort's cause and when they had found out that Sirius was _not_ going to join the Death Eaters and join any resistance going, it had been the last straw for them. Sirius said he had pulled the last straw years ago and had already planned on running away as soon as he hit his seventeenth birthday, (when his large inheritance from grandfather and his part in the black fortune would transfer to his account), much to their surprise. So Sirius went to the only place he had ever felt like he belonged. The only place he had ever felt loved for who he really was; The Potter's

James' Mum and Dad were all too happy to take him in, feed him, and clothe him. They loved Sirius, but mostly they loved the fact that their only child now had some company during the school holidays.

James reluctantly followed Sirius downstairs wishing he could return to the warmth of his own bed. He had been having a wonderful dream about Lily. She really was the girl of his dreams. He walked through the right half of the Potter Mansion until he entered the dining room to see a Hogwarts letter on his place-mat. He rubbed his eyes again and walked over to it. He picked it up and looked across the table to see that Sirius had already ripped his open and was reading intently.

'O.W.L results?' James asked Sirius who nodded. 'How'd you do?'

'Got O's in Defence, Herbology, Charms, Astronomy, Muggle Studies, E's in Transfiguration, Potions and Divination and an A in History of magic.'

'That's great!' James said ripping his letter open to look at his own grades.

_Ordinary Wizarding Level Results_

_Pass Grades:_

_Outstanding (O)_

_Exceeds Expectations (E)_

_Acceptable (A)_

_Fail Grades:_

_Poor (P)_

_Dreadful (D)_

_Troll (T)_

_James Potter has achieved:_

_Astronomy: O_

_Charms: O_

_Defence Against the Dark Arts: O_

_Divination: E_

_Herbology: O_

_History of Magic: A_

_Muggle Studies: O_

_Potions: O_

_Transfiguration: O_

'What'd you get?' Sirius asked James whilst tucking into the bacon roll that Linda had made him that morning.

'A in History of Magic, E in Divination and O's in the rest.' James said as he put his letter back into the envelope.

'That is very good Young Master James!' squeaked Linda as she put a plate of toast in front of James, 'I is very pleased for yous and I is sure Master and Mistress Potter is agreeing with Linda!' She bowed and scuttled of out of the room whilst James shouted his thanks to her retreating figure.

'Well done mate!' Sirius said through a mouthful of bread. 'Any minute now we should hear from Moony…and there it is!'

A large tawny owl flew through the window and dropped two letters in front of James before pecking a piece of toast and flying out again.

'Looks like Wormy sent us one too!' James said ripping open the letter from Peter first which was lying on top of Remus'.

'How come they always send you the letters?' Sirius groaned. This had been happening since Sirius moved in. He had written to his other two friends to tell them about his new living arrangements so now, anytime either of them wrote, they only sent one letter which more often than not, was addressed to James for the both of them.

'They like me better!' James said simply and unfolded Peters letter. 'Pete got two E's in Defence and Care of Magical Creatures, two P's in Muggle Studies and History of Magic and A's in everything else.'

'That's not bad.' Sirius said, 'Better than I'd have guessed, that's for sure.'

James laughed slightly and opened Remus' letter. He looked at it and smiled whilst shaking his head.

'How'd he do?' Sirius asked, feeling as if he was about to be put to shame.

'All O's apart from Astronomy and Transfiguration which he got E's in. Know-it-all!' James said fondly before grabbing a piece of spare parchment and a quill and replying with the marks both he and Sirius had achieved. He then took out his wand and duplicated the letter.

'Naughty, naughty! No magic outside of school unless it's an emergency!' Sirius said in a mocking scolding voice.

'Like you've never done it!' James said walking over to the window where the large tawny owl, after flying around for a bit, had seated itself ready for the replies. 'This was an emergency anyway!' James continued whilst tying the letters onto the leg of the fidgeting bird.

'First of all, I'm seventeen now and I'm allowed to do magic outside of school. So ha! Second of all, what would that emergency be exactly?' Sirius questioned, diving into yet another bacon roll which Linda had just placed on his plate.

'My hand was cramping! The ministry can't tell who's done what when there's a qualified wizard or house elf here anyway.' James shrugged, patting the bird before it flew away. 'Leave that on the side.' he said indicating the book list that Sirius was now examining. 'Dad'll go get them later. He doesn't want us going to Diagon Alley at the moment.'

Sirius shrugged and tossed the letter to the end of the table before wolfing down the rest of his bacon roll and swallowing. 'Wanna go play a little one-a-side Quidditch?' he asked standing up.

'Sure, why not!' James replied and the two of them walked out to the full size Quidditch pitch that James father had invested in for James 13th birthday.

The boys spent that summer doing what adolescent wizards do best; eating, playing Quidditch, messing around and relaxing.

* * *

Down Spinners End, Severus Snape was thinking of new ways to renew his just passing friendship with Lily. He had already tried 'randomly' bumping into her, throwing stones at her window and just plain stalking her, but none of these methods had worked. He had been thinking about different ways to grab her attention during many hours of sitting uncomfortably on the brick wall just outside her house, but nothing aspiring came to mind. Today, he didn't go sit on her wall because he now knew that on Saturdays, her parents would go do the weekly shop and her sister would go visit her boyfriend. This meant Lily was left alone to watch the house and ensure that everything was ok. It was just a precautionary measure really. There had been a recent spate of burglaries down her street but they had caught the thief weeks ago. Even so, the Evans didn't want anyone to attempt to break into their house and see all of Lily's school equipment. Severus understood why. Lily needed to protect the secret of Magic from muggles.

So Severus sat at home in his bare box of a room listening to his muggle father drunkenly beat-up his mother downstairs and any item of furniture he could punch. The day before, he had wrestled a lamp to the ground before smashing it to pieces and growled at Severus to clear it up. This is why Severus tried to spend so much time out of the house. He hated his father. That problem would soon be taken care of however.

At the very beginning of the summer, Severus had been sworn in as an aspiring Death Eater and Lord Voldemort had made a promise to rid Severus of his muggle relatives. That way, none of the other Death Eaters would find out his true blood status which he had been lying about all his life. Severus had no idea why Lord Voldemort was willing to accept him into his ranks considering his blood status, but never the less, he had. But, one of Severus' problems was still unresolved; Lily.

During the summer, he usually kept refuge at Lily's or in the park they would visit which was down her street. But this was no longer an option for him. He thought back to when he had been watching Lily. The last time he had seen her was when she had let in an owl which was grasping her O.W.L results. She hadn't had a lot of owls that summer as her friends had all had prior engagements. So the three seconds Lily took to open the window that day were the ones Severus had tried to seize. Those few seconds he tried to talk to her but to no avail.

Suddenly, Severus was struck with an idea. Lily had let owls into her house without looking at who was writing to her first. She just let them in with no question. He needed to write her a letter. One last apology and maybe, to grab her attention first, he would congratulate her on her O.W.L marks. Only, he didn't know them. He knew his. Severus decided to try and strike up the 'conversation' with the news of his O.W.L results. He was sure it would work.

He kicked open his still packed trunk, hurriedly grabbed a quill and a piece of crumpled up parchment and wrote;

_Lily,_

_I got my O.W.L results the other day. I got two O's, one in Potions and one in Defence Against the Dark Arts, five E's in Ancient Runes, Astronomy, Charms, Herbology, Transfiguration and two A's in History of Magic, Arithmancy._

_How did you do?_

_Once more, I'm really sorry Lily! I wish there was a way for you to forgive me! I don't want our friendship to end! It's been too long for it to end over a silly mistake._

_Sev_

Severus put his letter in a thick envelope and sealed it before writing Lily's name on the front. He then tied it to his mother's owl and pushed the poor bird out the window as if he was daring it not to bring back a reply.

Ten minutes later, the owl returned with Severus' unopened letter still attached to its left leg.

* * *

Before they knew it, the students were all getting ready to hop on the Hogwarts express. It was ten minutes to eleven and still, people were arriving on the platform ready to either, board the train, or see their loved ones off on a safe journey. The station was bustling loudly and it wasn't helped by the noise that the gleaming scarlet steam engine was making as it was emitting smoke. The students of Hogwarts were greeting their friends happily, exchanging hugs and holiday stories. Among these people, were the marauders.

'MOONY!' Sirius yelled jumping excitedly into a surprised Remus' arms. 'I've missed you!' he carried on almost squeezing the life out of him.

James clapped Remus on the back who immediately turned around for help. James chuckled before saying, 'Down Padfoot!' he then also hugged Remus who hugged him back in a brotherly fashion.

'How's it like living with the dog?' Remus asked nodding his head at Sirius.

'He loves it! His life is so much better now I'm with him twenty-four hours a day seven days a week!' Sirius said proudly.

'I'd trade him for you any day!' James muttered to Remus, 'At least you're housetrained!' Remus chuckled slightly.

'Should we go find a carriage then?' Sirius said to the other two.

'Have you said good-bye to James' mum and dad yet?' Remus asked.

'They didn't come. Linda brought us. Too busy with auror and healer stuff. It's getting pretty serious.' James said trying to be nonchalant, but Remus and Sirius could tell that he was upset that his parents hadn't come to see him off for the third year in a row.

'What about Wormy?' Remus asked quickly changing the subject and receiving an appreciative look from James.

'Ah he'll find us later!' Sirius said waving the comment away. 'Let's go find a compartment!' And with that he had picked up his trunk and had hopped onto the train. Remus jumped on after him, but before James could follow suit, he was rudely bumped into by someone going in the opposite direction.

'Watch it Potter!' Severus snapped evilly at James waiting for retaliation. James took a deep breath and reached for his wand.

Everyone around the two stepped back and waited with baited breath. Severus smirked at being able to provoke him. He drew his wand as James drew his ready for a small duel, but to his surprise, James only pointed at his trunk and levitated it onto the train and stepped on after it before shutting the door behind him.

Severus stood there stunned at what had just happened. He was sure James would fire the first shot. He had had it all worked out in his mind. He would be the subject of another one of James Potter's nasty tricks meaning that when Lily heard she would have sympathy for Severus and they would be friends again. It was a long shot, but it is what Severus had waited for. It was the plan he had made after Lily had sent his owl back that day. It was what he had counted on.

Severus spat on the floor and walked away to find Avery and Mulciber. He walked up and down the platform trying to find them with no look. He did however, find Lily. She was stood with both her parents and her sister. Saying goodbye, Severus assumed. He had made up his mind to go over and talk to her when he heard a voice calling his name.

'Oi! Snape!' he turned around to see who it was, who had stopped him from going over to Lily. Avery. He sighed and walked away from Lily over to the compartment that had his fellow Slytherin's in.

Lily had watched him walk away with a sigh of relief. She hadn't noticed him until someone shouted his name. She was worried that he might have come to talk to her if he hadn't been called away. Lily secretly thanked the person who did that.

She was saying goodbye to her parents, who were making sure she had everything she needed. A surly looking Petunia stood next to them.

'Your new books?'

'Yes!'

'Robes?'

'Yes!'

'Cauldron? Wand? Potion ingredients?'

'Yes. Yes. And Yes!'

'Good, good. Underwear?'

'Mum!'

'I'm sorry sweetie it's just I won't see you until Christmas! I just need to make sure you're ok!' Heather said with shining eyes.

'I'll be fine Mum!' Lily said, 'There's no safer place than Hogwarts! Believe me!'

Heather let a sob escape her lips before pulling her youngest daughter into a bone crushing hug.

'Honestly Heather! Stop suffocating the poor girl!' Richard said pulling Lily out of Heather's hug and into one of his own. 'Write to us every day!' he whispered to Lily.

'Now who's babying her?' Heather asked Richard with raised eyebrows.

'I never said babying, I said suffocating!'

'Alright fine!' Heather said smiling lovingly at her husband, 'Say good bye to your sister now Petunia!'

Petunia, who hated Lily, hadn't wanted to come. It was only her parents' offer of taking her shopping around London in the afternoon which had convinced her. She was stood pin straight with her arms folded and her sallow face in a disgusted grimace whilst looking at Lily like she was gum on her shoe.

'Can we go shopping now?' she asked her father in a voice which you would usually hear on a spoilt girl, before walking away to stand near the barrier which led out to the muggle world.

Lily sighed and looked after her sadly. Why couldn't they just get on?

'Give her a hug from me?' Lily asked her mum.

'Sure darling.' Heather smiled at her sadly.

The trains whistle blew for the minute departure warning and Lily quickly rushed her last goodbyes before stepping on the train. She walked down the middle of the train and found the compartment with her friends in just as the train started to move.

'LILY!' they all squealed as she pushed open the sliding door.

After several minutes of hugging, the girls all sat down to discuss their summers.

'Well Ireland is very dull. The best part my holiday was all the drunken men coming up to me and asking me for a kiss.' Alice said laughing.

'How was that the best part?' Emmeline asked curiously at Alice's strange remark.

'Because of how mum dealt with them. She turned one of the muggle light thingies…'

'Lamp posts?'

'Yeah, that's them!' she said to the girls who were laughing at her 'thingies' statement, 'Anyway, she transfigured one of those thingies into a lion and it chased them down the street!'

They all laughed at her mother's solution to keeping men away from her daughter.

'Well my holiday wasn't as funny as that, but it was fun to see the dragons!' Emmeline said happily.

'Did they breathe fire on you?' Hestia asked.

'Did you use your brother as a shield?' Lily asked.

Emmeline looked shocked and didn't answer. They sat in a small awkward silence before Alice decided to talk.

'How's your mum Hestia?' Alice asked, changing the subject so that the focus was now on Hestia.

'She's much better thanks! The healers at St Mungo's still have no idea what was wrong with her, but she's stopped showing symptoms and stuff now, so, fingers crossed she's all better now.'

'That's good then!' Emmeline said dreamily but happily.

'Yes it is. I'm kinda relieved. The healers were always around. It's like they were stalking us. Creepy!'

'Oh I know all about creepy stalkers!' Lily laughed darkly. She friends looked at her friends puzzled expressions and answered them with one word, 'Severus!'

They all groaned saying things like, 'Why won't he just give up already!', 'The slime!' and 'He's obsessed!' with Emmeline saying 'Ignorance is bliss.'

'I know!' Lily said looking at her watch, 'but on that note, I have to go to the prefect's compartment! See you in a bit!'

They said goodbye before returning to their conversation. Lily stepped through the sliding door and walked half the length of the train to reach the prefects compartment. She entered to find half of the prefects there already; the Ravenclaw's and the Hufflepuff's. There was no sign of the Slytherin prefects or of Remus who was the other sixth year Gryffindor prefect. There were always two prefects from each year in each house; a boy and a girl.

She sat down near the window and waited. It wasn't long before Remus entered and sat next to her. 'Hey!' he said to her. She looked at him and rolled her eyes before turning away and looking out of the window again. Remus widened his eyes and the Ravenclaw girl giggled slightly, blushing when he smiled at her.

The head boy and girl then walked into the room and began the meeting. They handed out the first two nights of the patrol timetable checking it over with them to ensure their work didn't suffer and they head enough nights off to catch up on homework and social activities.

After the head students had reviewed the rules to being a prefect and gave them the annual warning about things that could lose them their prefect badges such as not turning up to patrols, too many detentions and too many pranks. (They looked pointedly at Remus who was known for pulling pranks with his friends).

When they finally dismissed them after an hour of being stuck in a tight enclosed space, Lily immediately jumped up and left the compartment when she remembered he quill with which she had been taking notes. She doubled back to find Remus shaking his head at the blushing Ravenclaw girl who left the room with a dismayed look on her face.

Lily walked in tutting under her breath in a disapproving way. She found her quill and turned to exit the room to find Remus standing in her way.

'Why were you tutting at me?' he asked her with his arms folded.

Lily sighed and decided to just tell him the truth as she couldn't be bothered to make up a story. 'Because you're a marauder and I don't have time for you, your childish games and your childish friends! You play on your looks with the girls and then disappoint them! That's what you did to Hestia! You really hurt her.'

'That wasn't me! That was Sirius! I have never led a girl on!' he said, thinking that he had never even gone out with a girl because that would be just as bad as leading her on. Who would want to go out with a werewolf?

'Whatever! You're all the same!' she said storming past him, 'Please just don't irritate me this year! You and your friends! Just keep them away! Especially Potter!' Just before she had left the compartment for the second time however she heard Remus say something which made her turn back.

'I'll never understand you, you know.'

'What do you mean?' she asked, curious to see where this was going.

'You've never given Jam...err…us a chance!' he said quickly changing his words.

'Huh?' she said confused.

'That's just how you perceive us because you haven't spent any time trying to get to know us! You've never tried! We aren't as bad as that you know! We are nice guys! You've just taken your first impression of us and have held onto it for five years! Ever thought you just caught us at a bad moment?'

'Now just a min-'

'I mean, I bet your first impression of your friends wasn't that great, was it? But I bet after you got to know them, you began to see their good qualities. If you can find good qualities in them and even in someone who is all about the dark arts like Severus. If you could give them a chance, why can't you do the same for us? We aren't into that stuff, in fact we wouldn't touch it with a barge pole! But you were able to be friends with him. You were able to overlook his obsession and get to know the person underneath. You're just too quick to judge us!' Remus said before walking out the compartment leaving a stunned Lily behind to mull over his words.

This wasn't normal behaviour for Remus, but the full moon was in three days and his emotions were all over the place. He was starting to regret his little rant to Lily but he felt as if it was also good that he had said what he had. Maybe, finally, she would give James a chance and he would be free of a James who was always moping about the fact that Lily didn't like him.

He was beginning to relax a little and not feel guilty for his harsh words when he passed a compartment that had some first year boys in it. But this isn't what stopped him. What had stopped him was that his friend Peter was also sat in that same compartment. Remus slid the door open and popped his head round the door.

'Pete?'

At the sight of one of his friends, Peter broke into a smile and rushed out to meet Remus whilst babbling about not being able to find James and Sirius and how he had forgotten which side of the train they usually sat. Remus clapped him on the back and walked with him back to the compartment James and Sirius were playing exploding snap in.

Soon the train pulled into Hogsmeade station and the students, who had changed into their school robes, got off the train and into carriages, pulled by invisible beasts, which would take them down to Hogwarts. The four marauders hopped into a carriage to themselves and set off towards Hogwarts. Remus hadn't told his friends about what he had said to Lily in the prefect's compartment because he didn't want to know their responses. Plus, their conversation about their welcome back prank was a lot more exciting to him. When they were on the train, they had figured out what they were going to do and had been talking about it ever since. They finally stopped talking about their plan when they were seated in the great hall, ready for the sorting ceremony.

Professor McGonagall had lead the new first years into the great hall and had placed the Sorting hat on a three legged stool at the front. Everyone looked at it expectantly. They didn't have long to wait before a rip near the rim of the hat opened, and the hat began to sing;

_To you I may be patched and frayed,_

_But don't judge on what you see._

_I probably have more brains than you_

_Inside the whole of me._

_Our story starts long ago,_

_When I was newly made,_

_The founders had a problem_

_So I came to their aid._

_I helped them choose the students_

_Which they desired to teach._

_All believed in different traits_

_To which they told to me_

_Gryffindor believed in love_

_Friendship and Bravery,_

_Hufflepuff in kindness,_

_Trust and loyalty._

_Ravenclaw cared not for brawn_

_But for brains instead_

_And Slytherin, the cunning,_

_And those who used their heads._

_So my purpose here today_

_Is to judge what's in your brain._

_To tell you what your house will be_

_And where you should remain._

_So if you show these traits,_

_Then I will clearly see._

_Put me on your head and find out_

_Where you ought to be!_

The hall burst into a rapturous applause that echoed of the high bewitched ceiling. It only quietened down when McGonagall pulled out a scroll with the list of the new first years on it.

'When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted.' She said in a stern voice, peering over her square spectacles.

She called the first name on her list and a small girl walked forward tentatively. She was only a few inches away from the hat when she leapt back in surprise. The stool with the sorting hat on it had slid away from her by about a foot. The students in the great hall tried to stifle their amusement. The girl shook her head and tried again. This time her hand had almost touched the hat when the stool sped past her to the opposite side to where she was standing. There was no hiding it this time; the whole hall burst into laughter. She looked around in confusion and the laughter began to subside. She spotted the stool again and almost ran towards it trying to catch it off guard. She had no success and the stool just kept avoiding her the more she tried. This entertained the hall greatly.

Whilst this was going on however, McGonagall was searching for the source of the havoc. She spotted the marauders laughing especially hard but thought nothing of it until she saw their wands in their hands, all trying to take control of the stool causing it to move back and forth. She walked over to them.

'Boys?' She said in a disapproving voice. They all looked up to her and put their wands behind their backs innocently.

'Sorry.' they said in unison.

After a small chuckle from McGonagall, she called for silence and the sorting ceremony continued.

After all the new first years had been sorted into their houses, Dumbledore stood up and the hall quickly fell silent.

'Before we start our fabulous feast, I would just like to welcome our new students and welcome back our old ones. Now I will let you eat before boring you with the essentials and notices. Enjoy!' He sat back down and suddenly mounds of food appeared on the plates and there were gasps of surprise from the first years.

'FOOD!' Sirius yelled causing people around him to laugh.

Lily Evans was about to shake her head at Sirius' behaviour when she remembered her conversation with Remus. He was right. She had never given them all a chance. She had only seen the bad in them. She soon forgot this however when she caught sight of some chicken legs and there was an unexpected growl from her stomach. Her dinner passed in a blur because she was so hungry, the feelings Remus' words had brought up in her, gone. She was hardly aware of what she was eating and soon the feast had finished.

Dumbledore stood up and the hall fell quiet again. 'Just a few announcements before you head to your dormitories!' he said, his arms wide open in a friendly gesture. 'First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. Also, no magic is to be used in the corridors, a rule which our beloved caretaker would like to instigate this year. I would also like to advise all students to not accept any letters with a dark mark seal for your own safety. That's all. Now off to bed. Pip, pip!'

* * *

**Reviews are not necessary but always welcome!**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	6. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter Five! **

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Five**

The next morning Professor McGonagall was handing out the first, third and sixth year time tables. She was systematically making her way down the Gryffindor table. Next up was James Potter.

'Now Mr Potter, what subjects do you wish to take? Due to your excellent O.W.L results you may take any of the subjects you were studying last year. What are the ones you wish to take further?'

'Charms, Defence against the Dark Arts, Herbology, Potions and of course Transfiguration!' he reeled off straight away in a confident manner. Taking these subjects meant that he would be able to carry on towards his ambition of becoming a first class auror like his Dad.

McGonagall smiled, a rare occurrence, 'I would be delighted to have you in my class this year Mr Potter. Between you and me,' she said leaning down to him, her voice barely above a whisper, 'You were the only student to receive and O in your exams. Well done!' She stood back up and returned to her usual voice level. 'You are clear to take all your desired subjects.' She tapped a piece of parchment in her hand and handed it to James before moving onto Sirius.

'Mr Black. I assume you will be taking the same subjects as Mr Potter?' she said exasperatedly.

'You assume right!' Sirius said through a mouthful of sausage. Bits fell out of his mouth as he spoke much to McGonagall's disgust.

'Delightful…' McGonagall said with a disdainful look on her face. She again tapped a piece of parchment in her hand and handed it to Sirius. Before she moved on however, she remembered something and turned around to face James.

'Mr Potter. I have a list of students in my office who would like to try out for the Quidditch team this year. Come and collect it at the end of the day.' she said before moving onto Remus to clarify his timetable.

'When are try-outs then captain?' Sirius asked James who had been selected for Quidditch Captain in the previous year. This would be his second year in the post.

'Saturday I should think.' he said before turning to Remus, 'What you taking?' he asked him.

'Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, DADA, Herbology, Potions and Transfiguration. You?'

'Me and the dog are taking the same as you minus Care of Magical Creatures.' James replied.

'Cool. We'll be in lessons together then apart from…' but he didn't finish as James had shushed him and turned his attention to Peter who was trying to sort his timetable out.

'But Professor…' he was whining.

'I am sorry Mr Pettigrew but you are simply not allowed to take those classes as you did not receive sufficient marks for them in your O.W.L's! You will just have to make do with this time table.' She handed him a piece of parchment which Peter was looking at glumly, before walking over to some third years to sort out their timetables.

'What's up Wormy?' James asked walking round to sit the other side of him. Remus was on the other.

'I'm not allowed to take Potions or Transfiguration. I can't be an auror like we'd all planned.' he said sniffling.

'Don't worry about it Wormy! We don't all have to become aurors! We'll still stay friends no matter what!' James said reassuringly clapping him on the back.

'What are you taking instead?' Remus asked trying to peek at his timetable.

Peter laid it on the table for them to look at. He was taking Astronomy, Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, Defence against the Dark Arts and Herbology.

'You're still in lessons with us! Only one you're not is Astronomy. It's not that bad Wormy! Cheer up!' James was saying soothingly as someone sat down opposite them.

'You're gonna forget about me.' Peter was whimpering, 'Your all gonna be in Potions today and forget about me!'

'No we won't! We have Charms first today anyway. Then we have a free and lunch, so it's not like we're leaving you now! You're gonna have to spend a few hours with us before we have to go to Potions. Plus, we don't suffer from memory loss! It'll be pretty hard to forget you in the space of an hour!'

There was a small giggle from the opposite side of the table. James looked up to find himself face to face with Lily Evans.

'Sorry.' she said returning to her food. She been listening to James console his friend but had been doing uncomfortably so. She could feel Remus looking at her and even though she couldn't see, she was sure his expression was one that said, 'I told you so'. _Maybe he was right, _Lily was thinking, _maybe the marauders aren't all bad._

Just then McGonagall walked over to clarify Lily's timetable with her. And after restricting Lily to a maximum of only six subjects, she was immediately cleared to take Ancient Runes, Charms, Defence against the Dark Arts, Herbology, Potions and Transfiguration.

When McGonagall had left Lily had found that the marauders had gone too. She looked down to her food and began to re-scramble her scrambled egg which had now begun to stick into one big lump. She decided that maybe giving the marauders another chance to make a first impression would be the right thing to do. As much as she hated to admit it, she had judged them too quickly and had refused to change her opinion. The only problem Lily had with her resolution was the fact that it would take time for her to build a fresh view of the boys she had come to hate for five years. Especially James. It would take her a long time to alter how she perceived him.

She put down her fork and sat staring at the enchanted ceiling for five minutes before leaving her breakfast unfinished and walked out of the great hall. In the entrance hall she ran into Emmeline, Hestia and Alice, who had left for breakfast before she had, and realised they were all taking Charms, Herbology, Defence against the Dark Arts and Transfiguration together meaning Lily would only be on her own for two of her subjects; Ancient Runes and Potions.

They all walked to the Charms classroom they had been in for the last five years to find that students were already making their way in and sitting down. They quickly hurried in and took the seats they usually occupied near the window at the front. She looked down at her timetable to see that it said Ravenclaw's and Gryffindor's would be in Charms together as well as Defence against the Dark Arts. They would be with Hufflepuff in Herbology and with the Slytherin's in Ancient Runes as well as Potions. Transfiguration there was to be just Gryffindor's in their class.

Lily looked around the classroom to see which Ravenclaw's and Gryffindor's were to be taking Charms. She spotted the marauders in a corner at the back, a couple of Ravenclaw girls in the middle of the middle row and two empty seats either side of them. There was only going to be twelve in the lesson this year if the empty ones were filled, Lily had noted.

Professor Flitwick walked into the room quickly instructing them to take out a quill and a piece of parchment. He informed them that they would be learning how to do non-verbal spells that term. He began to dictate to them a long list of the subjects they were going to be covering but was interrupted by a small enchanted broom which had been made out of a piece of parchment.

'Obviously some of us do not need to take notes!' he squeaked making the parchment broom disappear with a wave of his wand.

Lily rolled her eyes and looked to the back of the room to see the marauders laughing. It was typical marauder behaviour. James had done the same thing last year in History of Magic to Professor Bins. She suspected it would be him again but to her surprise noticed that his parchment was still in front of him with his quill poised over the top of it ready to write. It was Sirius who was next to him, that had made the small broom with the help of Remus.

Professor Flitwick returned to lecturing the students on the curriculum. Before Lily turned around she noticed Sirius searching for another piece of parchment. James quickly supplied him with a piece before returning to taking his notes.

Lily returned to her thinking one thing; _that was odd._

But it wasn't that odd. James was just doodling.

* * *

Severus Snape was in a strangely happy mood. He had noticed on his new timetable that the sixth year Slytherin's and Gryffindor's were to be taking N.E.W.T Potions together. There was no way he could be avoided by Lily if they were forced to be in the same classroom. Plus, they were always in a pair together. He knew that Lily didn't want to fail so if she wanted the best grade possible, she would be his partner again this year. He had convinced himself that this was going to happen.

He was currently walking to Potions with his housemates Avery and Mulciber. He could hardly call them friends. In front of them, were three of the Slytherin girls that were to be taking Potions this year. Mulciber had managed to catch up with one of them and was flirting with her; she was smiling at the attention. The other two walked just a little way in front leaving Avery and Severus at the back. They walked silently and swiftly and it wasn't too long till they reached the dungeons where they were to be having their lesson.

As soon as Severus walked in he was greeted by, in his opinion, an unpleasant sight. In the front corner furthest away from the door, Sirius and James were in a furious battle of rock paper scissors.

'HA! I WIN!' Sirius said triumphantly, placing his flat hand on top of James' fist; Paper covering rock. 'Remus is my partner for Potions!'

'Best two out of three?' James suggested.

Sirius shook his head. 'Nope! Rules are rules my friend and I obey them!'

'No you don't!' Remus said, 'You've never in your life obeyed _any _rules!'

'Now is that any way to talk to your potions partner?'

Severus sneered at their stupid, childish nonsense and walked to the back of the room where there was a free table. Mulciber had sat down with the girl he had been flirting with and Avery was talking to her friends who were on the table in front to the left.

Severus sat drumming his fingers on the table, waiting. Waiting. He didn't have to wait long. Lily walked into the room, her arms folded over her Potions book, her long red hair cascading gracefully down her back and a dazzling smile that lit up her emerald eyes.

She looked around the room to see who had taken the class and who she had for a potential class partner. On the table closest to her were two Slytherin girls to whom Avery was talking. He obviously hadn't chosen a partner yet and Lily didn't fancy being partnered with someone who despised her. Behind them, sat Mulciber and another Slytherin girl. In the centre sat Remus and Sirius with James casually leaning on the table. He obviously had no partner yet. Finally, her eyes rested on Severus in the corner. He had obviously been trying to catch her attention and now that he had it, he was beckoning her to go and sit with him.

She took a step forward and Severus began to look hopeful. His hope was short-lived however as she went to sit at the table next to Sirius and Remus'. The table she had was in front of him so she had her back facing him. There was no hope of him trying to catch her attention silently now. He was about to get up and demand an explanation why she hadn't sat with him, (He knew what she would say; they weren't friends anymore.), but before he could, Avery came and sat next to him.

'Looks like we're partners.' He said leaning back in his chair with his arms folded behind his head. Severus ignored him and watched Lily.

Slughorn entered the room suddenly carrying heaps of scrolls and muttering something about order forms and forgetting to order ingredients.

James turned around and went to sit in his seat to find Lily there instead.

'Err…' he began causing Lily to look at him questioningly, 'Are you lost?' he asked confused.

'No.' Lily said plainly, 'We are now Potion partners.' She opened her book and began to read the introduction.

James, still confused turned to look at Remus for help. All Remus did was shrug his shoulders. James did the same and sat down next to Lily who took a deep breath and shut her book before turning to him.

'First of all, let's set some ground rules. You are not to ask me out, melt the cauldron, change the ingredients to something that will cause the potion to explode deliberately or ruin our projects in anyway. If we just get on with the work then I think we could learn to get along. Also, after recent events,' she said thinking of her conversation with Remus, 'I have decided to give you a…' she searched for the right word, '…chance. If you will.' She turned back to her book and James looked completely shocked.

Severus was also in shock. He had overheard what Lily had said. She was going to give James Potter a chance? In anger, he pushed Avery of his chair.

'OI!' Avery shouted getting up and sitting back down, 'What the HELL was that for?'

'Hand slipped…' Severus mumbled.

Soon Professor Slughorn started to introduce the curriculum to them and what topics they would be covering this year. Some people weren't listening whilst some were scribbling down notes. James, to Lily's surprise, was in the latter group but when she looked over to see what he was writing down, she saw that he was only doodling and rolled her eyes. This second chance didn't seemed to be working.

'First, we will start off brewing a polyjuice potion. Today we will only be preparing the Lacewing flies which have to be stewed for 21 days. After that has stewed you will add the leeches, powdered bicorn horn, cherries, knotgrass, shredded boomslang skin and the fluxweed which you will all have picked at the next full moon.' Slughorn said looking at the students individually. 'You will then leave the potion to brew for a month, the designated brewing time. When your potions are finished, you will take a strand of your partner's hair and you will test your potions out by turning into each other. Okay. Let's start!' Slughorn clapped his hands and left the students to get on with their preparations.

Lily turned to James to tell him what to do, but before she could utter a word, James had already started to speak.

'I think it'll be better if we split the lacewing flies, use our own equipment, and each prepare half. That way we both do the same amount of work, we both get in practice and it'll be done quicker.'

Lily stared at him.

'If you have a different method though we can do that…' James said cautiously at her surprised face.

'No.' she said quickly, 'Your way's fine. Let's start.' She split the ingredients in half and gave James his share. They set to work crushing the flies with a mortar and pestle but were the only pair that did so.

'I want to use the porter and mescal!' Sirius cried

'It's mortar and pestle! You're not using it if you can't even say it!' Remus said trying to keep the mortar and pestle away from Sirius grasp.

On the other side of them, the two Slytherin girls were complaining about having to touch dead flies with their bare hands and they eventually forced Professor Slughorn to crush them for them just to shut the two girls up. Mulciber was flirting with the other Slytherin girl who was batting her eyelashes at him and Severus was telling Avery to get lost because he was crushing the flies in the wrong way. Their disagreement ended when an angry Avery threw the flies in Severus' face. Severus then proceeded to throw the pestle, which looked like a small bat, at Avery's head. Avery ducked and the pestle ended up hitting Mulciber on the back. He then turned around and punched Severus in the face breaking his nose. After repairing Severus' nose, Slughorn took fifty points away from Slytherin house and gave both Mulciber and Severus a detention. He then proceeded to give Avery one as well as he was looking smugly at the other two.

After this chaos however, half an hour later, at the end of the lesson, everyone's lacewing flies were stewing nicely in their cauldrons. Then one person from each pair wants to put them in one of the store cupboards which Slughorn had charmed to keep a steady temperature. It was like a large oven.

'Thank you class. Homework; I would like you to write a foot and a half about the first step in the process to making polyjuice potion and what the ingredients purpose in the potion is. Hand it to me next lesson. You may go!' Slughorn said waving his wand to the door and opening it for the students to leave through.

James said a very quiet goodbye to Lily as he didn't know whether he should or not and walked over to meet Sirius and Remus who were halfway through the door.

'So what's it like getting hot and sweaty with Evans?' Sirius asked James who looked back at him with an aghast expression. 'You, know. The cauldrons hot…' Sirius explained rolling his eyes.

'Oh!' James said in realisation, embarrassed at his mistake, 'She's really good to work with actually. I thought maybe she would want to take over so it would all be done her way but she listened to me and we split the work load like I wanted. We get everything done so, I guess that's good.'

Suddenly James bag split and all his books and the contents of his bag fell on the floor. He wouldn't have thought anything of it, apart from the fact that his bag was old, if he hadn't seen Severus with his wand pointed in front of him.

James collected his books, cleaned the ink of the floor, rolled up the parchment that had fallen and gathered his quills. He then proceeded to collect all of the forbidden Zonko products which he had in his bag, helped by Remus and Sirius, and quickly stuffed them back into his newly repaired bag, courtesy of Remus.

Whilst he was doing this, Lily walked out into the corridor and saw what had happened. She looked at Severus angrily who didn't notice her, but was instead watching James ready for his retaliation. Lily turned to James too, getting ready to yell at him when he shot his first curse.

After five minutes he eventually stood up. He looked at Severus intently for a full minute whilst he held his arm in front of Sirius who was being restrained by Remus. During that minute, James' conscience was battling itself on whether to fight back. The irrational side egging him on, making him withdraw his wand, ready for a fight and the mature side telling him that Severus wasn't worth it and he should remember his promise to grow up. He made his decision when he noticed, out of the corner of his eye, Lily's face in the crowd. James then shook his head at Severus, lowered his wand and he walked away.

Remus followed him and began dragging Sirius by the collar because even if James wasn't, he was fully prepared to curse Severus.

Severus watched them leave and put his wand away. It was only then that he noticed Lily stood in the entrance to the Potions room. He took one look at the disgusted expression on her face and his stomach fell. He had realised that the look that Lily had reserved for James for so long, had been reassigned to him. He hung his head and walked away leaving Lily stood in the same spot. Stunned.

* * *

The day passed quickly before they knew it the whole school was seated for dinner. The great hall was alive with chatter, the students discussing their first day back. Among these people, were Lily Evans, Hestia Jones, Emmeline Vance and Alice Prewett. Lily was relaying the events that had unfolded after her first potions lesson to her friends.

'And he just…walked away?' Hestia said in surprise dropping her fork so it landed in her mashed potato which splattered over Alice who was sat next to her. She didn't notice.

'Are you sure you didn't imagine it? You know the potion fumes?'

'No I didn't imagine it! I wasn't delirious or anything!' Lily said cutting up the beef steak she had just pulled on to her plate.

'Well maybe he was delirious?' Alice said whilst she was spooning peas onto her plate.

'Or maybe he has decided it is time for him to grow up…' Emmeline said serenely stirring her soup and staring into space.

'Oh please!' Lily scoffed, 'Potter grow up? Pigs will fly before that ever happens!'

Emmeline put down her spoon and turned around to face Lily.

'What?' Lily asked a little bit scared by her friend's expression.

'I thought you were going to give James Potter and his friends another chance?'

'I am doing!' Lily said scandalised regretting telling her friends about hers and Remus'conversation in the prefect's compartment on the Hogwarts express.

'Your previous statement suggests otherwise.' Emmeline stated picking up her spoon again and stirring her soup.

Lily sighed. She had decided to give the marauders a second chance. She was just thinking she should try harder when the people in question walked past. She watched them as they did.

James was giving Sirius a piggy back to some spare seats. Remus was walking next to James and the two were laughing merrily. Peter was trailing behind holding Sirius bag. James saw Lily looking at them and gave her a meek but friendly smile before sitting down. Lily had a delayed reaction but returned the smile uncomfortably but James saw it.

He then smiled to himself and his stomach swooped. James dropped Sirius who landed with a thud on the floor causing everyone to laugh. Sirius got up and playfully shoved a chuckling James before they both sat down. Remus and Peter sat opposite them and they all reached out to grab the various food items which were on the table in front of them.

When their plates were suitably overloaded with more food than they could handle, Peter tried to start a conversation.

'So what are we doing this full moon?' he asked his friends happily. His happy face however, quickly turned to one of dismay as all his friends shushed him angrily.

'Not here you idiot!' Sirius whispered furiously, kicking Peter under the table. Hard.

Peter yelped in pain.

'Well what do you expect?' Sirius said shaking his head, 'You knowwe _never _discuss Remus' furry little problem in public!' His voice had dropped to a whisper.

'There was really no need to kick him though, was their?' Remus said waving his fork.

'But he-'

'Was probably just trying to start a conversation and picked the wrong topic.' James said digging into a plate of spaghetti.

'But still-'

'Drop it Sirius!' James said shoving a huge forkful of his dinner into his mouth.

'Fine!' Sirius huffed starting his dinner.

They all finished in silence.

* * *

Severus was pacing. He always paced when he was thinking. It didn't help him; it was just something to do. He was outside one of the many girls bathrooms where he had seen Lily go in to about a minute ago. He had followed out of the great hall after dinner. She had left alone otherwise he wouldn't have even tried. He had to try and explain what happened after potions earlier that day.

His chance came when Lily walked out of the bathroom. She closed the door and turned around her face dropping when she saw Severus.

'What do you want now?' she sighed, placing her hands on her hips and fixing her with an ice-cold stare.

'I wanted to explain-

'Explain what?'

'About after potions.' he said walking closer to her.

She stepped back, 'I don't want to hear it.'

'But I have a reason!' he said through gritted teeth, taking another step towards her.

She took another step back. 'And what reason was that?' she said folding her arms and tilting her head to the side.

'He provoked me!' Severus yelled throwing his arms up in the air.

'Excuse me?' Lily said in shock, 'He provoked you? How on earth did he do that? From where I was standing you were completely unprovoked!'

'He forced you to be his partner in potions!'

'No he didn't!' Lily yelled, 'If anything I forced him to be mine!'

Snape took another step towards Lily forcing her against the wall behind her. She tried to get out but when she did, he just slammed his hands either side of her shoulders trapping her there.

'Why would you force him to be your partner when I was sitting there like usual, just waiting for us to be partners like we are every year-'

'Things change!' Lily said through gritted teeth.

'Nothing's changed!' Severus said angrily.

'Everything's changed!' Lily said quietly looking him dead in the eyes, 'We aren't friends anymore. And we won't be again! Now let me go!'

Severus closed the small gap that was between him and Lily forcing her to flatten herself against the wall. He began to talk quietly and rapidly to her. Pleading his case to her about why they should be friends again.

James rounded the corner. He had just said goodbye to his friends on the entrance hall and was on his was to fetch the list of students who wished to try out for the Gryffindor Quidditch team from McGonagall. He saw Severus leaning into Lily and how he had trapped her. He saw Lily's face. She looked uncomfortable, scared and desperate. He had never seen her look like this before. His stomach dropped.

James walked quickly over to them. Neither realised he was there until he said, 'Is everything ok over here?' He looked at Lily worriedly and saw that she looked relieved that someone had found her but irritated that it was him.

Severus sprung back in surprise releasing Lily from her confinements. 'What's it to you Potter? Can't help interfering? Get lost! Or I'll make you!' he spat, pulling out his wand.

James, hand twitched towards his own wand, but before pulling it out, he looked towards Lily. She was watching him annoyed, obviously wondering what he was going to do. James dropped his hand. 'Are you all right?' he asked her concerned.

She nodded. James returned the nod and gently pulled her away from the wall leading her away from where Severus stood, still poised ready to fight.

'What's the matter Potter? Don't want to fight me? Scared?' Severus jeered looking for a fight. He wanted to make James pay for interrupting his 'talk' with Lily. Severus was sure that he was getting through to her. In his own mind, she would have forgiven him if James hadn't turned up.

James stopped and turned around. Snape smiled maliciously. Lily looked up at James, worried about what he was going to do.

'Believe it or not Snivellus, but I have more important things to do than kick your arse in a duel!' he sneered calmly before turning back around and led Lily out of the corridor and round the corner leaving Severus behind them in a state of shock and anger.

It was a while before either of them spoke. They just walked in silence, neither of them knowing what to say. With the exception of when James helped Lily out of the common room with the use of his invisibility cloak, they had never really had a civil conversation. They only talked to each other when James was asking Lily out or when Lily was shouting at him. This was a new situation and it was Lily who finally found the courage to speak.

'Thank you.' she said quietly, not looking at James who had turned to look at her questioningly.

'For what?' he asked her.

'Helping me out back there, with Sev. Snape.'

'No problem' James said stiltedly, 'One thing I don't understand is why you just didn't send him flying and get out of there. It's what you would usually do.'

It was Lily's turn to look questioningly at James. How did he know that's what she would have usually done? He wasn't wrong. If anyone had gotten that close to her and trapped her without her permission she would have just cursed them out of the way, but only if it was absolutely necessary. She didn't like cursing people if there was no need for it. Not like James who had practically made a hobby out of it. She decided to let it go and just tell him why she didn't.

'I don't have my wand on me.' she said a little embarrassed. A sensible witch or wizard always has their wand with them.

'Why not?' he asked curiously.

'Because it's in my bag and I gave it to Hestia to take back up to the common room.' she replied quietly.

'Is there any reason why you did that?' James asked her. He was a little confused.

'Because I needed to go to the loo and see Professor McGonagall and I just didn't see any sense on going up to Gryffindor tower using, the loos there and dropping my bag off before having to come all the way back down stairs to McGonagall's office.' she rambled, blowing James away with too much information.

'Oh.' he said because he couldn't think of anything else to answer her with.

They walked a little further.

'Where are your friends then?' Lily asked, in an attempt to strike up a conversation as the silence, (she usually liked silence), was getting to her, 'I thought you never went anywhere without them. You're always with someone. Can't hex random people without back up right?' she said, a note of disdain in her voice.

James ignored her last comment and just answered her first question. 'Well I need to see McGonagall too and they didn't want to walk to the other side of the school to walk back again.'

'Why do you need to see McGonagall?' Lily asked him curiously. James Potter willingly going to see a teacher was, in her opinion, a strange occurrence. One that didn't happen very regularly.

'I'm picking up the list of students who want to try-out for the Quidditch team this year. You?'

'I want to retake my transfiguration O.W.L. I only got an E.' she said glumly, noting to herself that he had ignored the hexing random people comment. It had really been bothering her that it was the only subject she didn't get an O in. She was sure her written test was fine, but when she was turning her rabbit into a parrot, it had still had a small cotton tail.

'You do realise you can't retake O.W.L's though right?' James questioned her revelling in a civil conversation with her, even though he was sure that he was the one forcing that to happen.

'I know. But I was hoping that they could make an exception.'

'Hate to burst your bubble their Evans but they won't. Peter wanted to retake his so he could take it for N.E.W.T's but they wouldn't let him. Plus, as your already taking the class, you don't really need to. An E is still an excellent mark though!'

They had reached the door of Professor McGonagall's office and James knocked three times.

'Come in!' shouted a voice from within the office.

James opened the door and walked into the office. Lily walked in after him, now a little bit unsure if she should even bother asking about the chance to retake her O.W.L.

'Ah, Mr Potter. Good. You came.' McGonagall said opening a draw in her desk and pulling out a scroll of parchment. 'Here is the list. I hope you pick a good team like last year Potter!' she said enthusiastically, without smiling, 'I want you to win again this year! Last year we won the cup for the first time in twelve years and I am not ready to give it up at the moment.'

'Sure Professor. I won't let you down!' James smiled taking the scroll and putting it in his pocket. It was only then that McGonagall noticed Lily.

'Oh! Miss Evans! And to what do I owe the pleasure?' she asked fixing Lily with a friendly looking stern face.

Lily sighed, 'No reason Professor.' She had decided not to ask for the chance to retake her O.W.L. After all, and E was a very respectable grade, as James had said.

McGonagall nodded her head and looked back and forth at the two students in her office curiously. It was common knowledge that Lily Evans despised James Potter. This left her wondering why the two students were wondering around the school in each other's company, apparently willingly.

'Well in that case, I shall see you both in class tomorrow. Goodbye.' she said.

Lily and James both said their goodbyes and left her office, beginning to walk back to the Gryffindor tower.

'So who's signed up for Quidditch then?' Lily asked striking up the conversation once again.

'Loads of people!' James said taking the piece of parchment out of his pocket and unrolling it, 'Looks like Hestia's signed up again this year. That's good. We need a strong chaser. That means we only need to find one more.'

'Don't you have to try everyone out equally?' Lily said looking at James face light up when he talked about Quidditch. It was nice.

'Well technically, yeah. But Hestia's an excellent chaser so I doubt anyone will top her in the try-outs. Don't you want her to be on the team? She is your best friend.'

'Of course I want her on the team!' Lily said, wondering how James knew that it was Hestia who was her best friend. She was always with all of her friends and never thought she showed anymore favour towards Hestia than she did Emmeline or Alice. How did he know who she was closest too?

'Well good! Don't tell her though. I mean, she'll definitely be on the team but she can't know till after the try-outs!'

'Sure. I won't tell her.' Lily said smiling up at James.

'I know you won't.' James said smiling back at her with a look of trust filling his eyes.

They walked back to Gryffindor tower having awkward but flowing conversations about all sorts of topics. School work, Quidditch, their friends, who would win in a fight; a lion or a snake. (They had both decided on the lion). The conversation flowed freely and relaxingly. It seemed natural but at the beginning of their conversation, Lily thought that it was just a façade on James' part. As if it was just too good to be true. By the end though, she was having doubts.

When they finally reached the portrait hole, Lily turned to James and said, 'You know, I think I may have misjudged you.'

James looked surprised and his stomach had flipped, 'What do you mean?' he asked her trying to be nonchalant but not really succeeding, causing Lily to laugh a little bit.

'I mean, you seem a little different this year. I mean we've been back at school for almost a day and you've walked away from two potential fights and you've not asked me out yet.'

'Well you did ask me not to ask you out.' James said chuckling.

'I know but I didn't think you'd actually do it.' Lily said her eyebrows rising slightly, 'I'm surprised.'

'Well,' James said, looking into her eyes deeply, 'as I said last year. I am full of surprises. Maybe you'll have to find out what they are.' He flashed her a smile, said the password to the Fat Lady and walked into the Gryffindor common room leaving Lily smiling to herself in the corridor.

'Yes.' She said out loud to herself, 'Maybe I will!'

* * *

**Reviews are not necessary but always welcome**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	7. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter six! **

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Six**

The week flew by and by Friday, everyone had soon settled into their regular routines. The full moon had been and gone so Remus had also settled in his somewhat irregular routine, and he was feeling a lot better because of it. By ten o'clock, Friday morning, he was busy making the bed in the hospital wing which was reserved for him every month.

Madam Pomfrey, the matron, had seen what he was doing and bustled over to him with a glass of water.

'I tell you every time Remus, dear, you do not have to make your bed when you leave! That is why I am here!'

'I thought you were here to look after the students?' Remus said cheekily, carrying on making the bed.

'Well that too!' Madam Pomfrey replied, waving away Remus hand which were about to fluff the pillow. To make him stop she shoved the glass of water in his open hand. 'You're going to put me out of work if you carry on like this!'

'I doubt that.' Remus muttered and Madam Pomfrey looked at him sternly.

'I'll go.' he said to his feet. He put the glass of water on the small bedside table, thanked Madam Pomfrey before leaving the hospital wing and Madam Pomfrey shaking her head fondly.

As soon as he had closed the door to the hospital wing he was pounced on by Sirius.

'MOONY!' he yelled in Remus ear, 'I missed you! Why do you have to be in there for two whole days afterwards? I keep having Moony withdrawal things!'

'Symptoms.' Remus corrected.

'Whatever.' Sirius replied.

Remus rolled his eyes and managed to squeeze free from Sirius to find he was again clobbered by James.

'He's right! You don't need to be in there for that long!' James was saying whilst hugging the life out of Remus, 'Do you realise what you leave me with?' James said the last bit quietly so that only Remus could hear.

Remus chuckled and managed to squirm out of James grasp. 'You do realise that you see me every day anyway whether I'm in there or not?' he asked them as they began to walk to nowhere in particular.

'It's not the same when you're restricted to a bed though!' Sirius whined.

Remus shook his head and they continued to walk. It took Remus a while before he noticed something missing. 'Where's Pete?' he asked curiously, looking behind them where they usually found Peter trailing.

'He had to go find someone in his astronomy class. He forgot he had a lesson last night and slept right through it.' James said casually. It was a regular occurrence for Peter to forget about night classes. When his head hit the pillow, he zonked out pretty much straight away.

'Didn't you wake him up?' Remus asked with a slight chuckle.

'Well we tried, but he just rolled over and said something about a pink hippogriff sewing.' Sirius said wrinkling his nose in disgust. He hated sewing. And pink. Plus he didn't have much patience for hippogriffs.

'Manly.' Remus said nodding his head in amusement.

'I'm hungry!' Sirius whined jumping about a little bit to show his impatience for there being a lack of food around them.

James sighed, 'To the kitchens then!'

The walked down to the basement and found themselves in front of a painting of a large bowl of fruit which, unbeknown to many of the students at Hogwarts, sealed the entrance to the Hogwarts kitchens. Remus reached out and tickled the pear on the left hand side of the painting which immediately laughed and transformed into a doorknob.

'Do you think pears are actually ticklish?' Sirius asked curiously as Remus reached for the door knob.

'I doubt it considering they are pieces of fruit.' Remus replied opening the hidden door.

'Well that one's ticklish!' Sirius said as the three boys climbed through the hole where the painting had opened. There was a thud behind them and the painting had swung shut.

'That's a painting Padfoot.' James said, as a swarm of house-elves greeted them with platters of food.

'Oh yeah!' Sirius said, forgetting all about ticklish pairs as he was currently being presented with chocolate éclairs and donuts. Muffins and biscuits. All the food he could want.

The kitchen, was Sirius' favourite room in the whole of the castle. It wasn't just the food he loved. No. he loved the enormous, high ceilings and the fact that they were just as large as the ones in the great hall. The only difference being, these ceilings were hidden in the basement. He loved the pots and pans which lined the walls making them glisten. He loved the large fireplace which was opposite to the entrance of the kitchens and he loved the fact that there were four long tables which were corresponding to the ones directly above their heads in the great hall. Sirius thought the kitchen was an amazing creation. The magic that was used in this room was better than Sirius could ever hope to learn in a classroom.

'It's official!' he declared loudly to his friends who were sitting on one of the long four tables, as five house-elves served them some jelly.

'What's official?' James asked, spooning some more jelly into his bowl.

'If I ever want to become an awesome wizard, as I am destined to be,' Sirius said confidently with arrogance, placing his hand on his heart and trying to look valiant, 'I must have all of my lessons, in this very kitchen!'

'I thought you loved the house-elves!' Remus said, taking the jelly from James.

'I do!' Sirius said, dropping his valiant act and looking at Remus confused instead.

'Then why would you subject them to that torture?' Remus replied seriously, eating his jelly.

'Torture?' Sirius asked aghast.

'Oh boy.' James said miserably.

'Torture!' repeated Sirius.

'Here we go.'

'TORTURE?!'

'You had to?' James said looking at Remus and nodding his head.

'I'll have you know that any time spent with me can hardly be viewed as TORTURE!' Sirius said in a tragic fashion. 'I can't believe you think spending time with me is torture? I just don't get it! I'm fun. I'm gorgeous. I'm happy. I'm gorgeous. I'm loveable! I'm _gorgeous!'_

'You've said gorgeous three times!' Remus said casually.

'It's my best feature!' Sirius said stiffly.

'If you say so!' Remus said patronizingly.

'Prongs? I'm gorgeous right?' Sirius asked James giving him a puppy dog face.

'Leave me out of this!' James said hugging his bowl of jelly towards him, 'I just want to eat my jelly!'

'Thanks Padfoot!' Sirius shouted dramatically, throwing his arms over his eyes, 'how could you do this to me!'

'Very easily actually.' James said returning to his jelly, 'You do realise that your names Padfoot though right? Not mine?' James raised an eyebrow to a confused Sirius. 'I'm P-r-o-n-g-s!' James said slowly, holding out his right hand, 'Pleased - to - meet - you!'

'I know your name!' Sirius said pushing James hand away.

'Just checking!' James replied laughingly as Sirius sat down next to him.

Sirius reached for a bowl and began spooning some jelly into it.

'You know next full moon we should go into the forest.' James said casually out of the blue, whilst eating large spoonful's of jelly.

'Why?' Remus asked uncomfortable with the sudden turn of the conversation to his lycanthropy.

'Because, we're always cramped up in the shrieking shack and if me and Padfoot are up to the challenge, we can guide you safely, deep into the forest. We'll have more space to run around! Actually take advantage of being an Animagus!' James said excitedly, his eyes lighting up.

'I don't know…' Remus said cautiously, 'I don't want to put anyone in danger…'

'You won't Moony!' Sirius piped in, 'We'll be there! We'll keep you safe!'

'I'm not worried about keeping me safe I'm worried about keeping everyone else safe!'

'It'll be fine!' James said confidently, causing a wave of calmness to roll over Remus, 'If I didn't think we could handle it, I wouldn't suggest it. Relax!'

Remus nodded. James had a knack for talking people round to see his way with just a few words. His tone of voice had a calming effect. And he was right. If he couldn't handle it, he wouldn't even attempt it. Remus trusted him.

'Okay then.' Remus said, still nodding his head, 'Just this once! But if it goes wrong, you have to promise you'll keep everyone safe! Promise?'

'Marauders honour!' James said holding up his hand and giving Remus a goofy smile.

After they had finished their jelly, they said goodbye to the house-elves, who had laden their arms with heaps of sweets and treats, and left the kitchens.

'Have I ever said how much I love the kitchens?' Sirius asked, his eyes hungrily roaming over his pile of food.

'Several times!' Remus said, struggling to see over the top of his pile.

'Well, I do!' Sirius said happily. He took a bite out of an éclair which was lying at the top of his heap of food. The cream from inside spurted out of it and made a mess of his robes. 'Oh!' he moaned licking it off, 'These were clean on today!'

Remus and James stopped in their tracks to look at Sirius sceptically. When Sirius noticed them looking at him strangely he asked them what he had done. They just kept staring at him, waiting for him to admit the truth.

'Fine!' Sirius said huffily, 'They were clean on on Monday! It's only a week! It's not that gross!'

'You know,' James said, as they began walking again, 'for someone obsessed with their appearance, you'd have thought you'd care about having clean robes on every day.'

Sirius scoffed, 'I am not obsessed with my appearance!'

'There's cream in your hair!' Remus said casually as he walked past Sirius.

Sirius immediately dropped his food and pulled out a mirror from the insides of his robes, yelling, 'WHAT!' and checking his reflection. When he saw that his hair was cream free, he shot his chuckling friends a mockingly evil look and began gathering up his food.

'You're seriously going to eat that now?' Remus laughed.

'Five second rule!' Sirius said as if it was obvious.

Just before they had reached the entrance hall, Sirius was the only one who had finished all his food from the kitchens. Remus and James were struggling to eat another bite they were so full. So Sirius decided to be a good friend and help them out, meaning that by the time they had actually reached the entrance hall, all the food was gone. They were all about to climb the stairs and wonder around the second floor for a while when a load of students came piling out of their classes, babbling excitedly.

Sirius grabbed James' arm and looked at his watch which read twelve thirty.

'Oh boy!' he said licking his lips hungrily, 'Lunch!'

And with that, Sirius turned around and joined the throng of students heading towards the great hall for lunch.

* * *

For a lucky few, the last period of Friday afternoon had no lessons in it, meaning most the N.E.W.T students were relaxing and looking forward to the weekend. The unlucky few however, had Ancient Runes. Lily Evans was one of these people. She was sat in her Ancient Runes class with two other Gryffindor girls on either side of her, whose names she didn't know. The other side of the girl on her left, sat Frank Longbottom, a Gryffindor boy, who she had never really spoken to but who she knew of. Behind her however, were all of the Slytherin's. Four girls and two boys, one of whom was Severus.

In the previous year, she wouldn't have minded. This year however, everything was different. This year she didn't have Hestia Jones next to her creating weird and wonderful translations of the runes in front of them. And this year, she wasn't friends with Severus, who she was sure had taken Ancient Runes just because she had. He was sat behind her and she could feel his eyes burning into the back of her skull. It was really putting her off and she couldn't concentrate on her translation.

She was trying to translate the second line of a set of ancient goblin runes which had been divided, line by line, between the class. So far she had only managed to understand the first of the symbols which she had taken to meaning 'divine property'. She was pretty confidant with her translation because goblins were obsessed with property.

She began working on the translation of the second symbol when she was hit on the head with a piece of screwed up parchment. She looked around to see who had thrown it and saw Severus smiling at her. She rolled her eyes angrily and turned around. She set back to work on the second symbol again. She flicked through her text book looking for nothing in particular when she was hit on the back of the head with another piece of parchment. She turned around to stare angrily at Severus.

'Hey.' he whispered in what he obviously thought was a friendly tone but what Lily would consider a creepy one, 'Can I talk to you after class?'

'No! I cannot believe you're not getting this! We are not friends-' Lily started her voice rising.

'Miss Evans!' the Ancient Runes Professor, Bathsheba Babbling, said loudly.

Lily turned around to see Professor Babbling towering over her. Lily gulped. 'Yes?' she asked politely.

'What, may I ask, makes you think that you are allowed to talk, whilst the rest of the class are working?'

'Well you see I wasn't-'

'Do not make excuses Miss Evans! I asked for quiet during this lesson and everyone but you seemed to be able to follow my instructions. Now, depending on how far on you are with your work depends on whether I just take some points away from your house or whether I give you a detention. What have you got so far then?'

'Well I've translated the first rune which means 'divine property'.' Lily said, worried that she might, for the first time in six years receive a detention.

'Is that all?'

Lily nodded her head slowly.

'You have nine runes in the line you were assigned Miss Evans. Are you trying to tell me that in forty minutes you have only been able to translate one of your runes?' Professor Babbling asked her, looking at her in a condescending manner.

'Well I kept being distracted and-'

'Detention!' Professor Babbling said curtly, 'See me at the end of the lesson for time and date.' she walked away leaving Lily in shock.

She, Lily Evans, had just received a detention. She didn't understand. Professor Babbling was usually such a forgiving person. It just didn't make sense. She spent the rest of the lesson in silence.

At the end of the lesson, Professor Babbling called Lily to the front and gave her a time and a date for her detention plus a lecture on the appropriate class behaviour.

Ten minutes later, when Professor Babbling had finally let her go, she walked out of the Ancient Runes classroom to find Severus waiting for her. She sighed. This was getting old. She turned and walked away from him but unfortunately for her, he had seen her do this and quickly caught up to her. He ran in front of her path, blocking her way to the stairs which would lead to the seventh floor and to the safety of the Gryffindor common room.

'Lily! I waited for you. I'm sorry you got a detention.' Severus said, trying to keep the conversation friendly. When Lily didn't respond, he carried on slowly, unsure of what to say, 'I, err, wanted to, err, talk to you?'

'Well I don't want to talk to you!' Lily said stubbornly.

'Yes you do Lily! If I could just expl-'

He was cut off by a very sudden outburst by Lily. She had finally had enough of his endless attempts to renew their friendship. She just wanted him out of her life.

'Oh for Merlin's sake Severus, no, Snape. Snape! That's who you are to me now. Snape! Why can't you just accept the fact that I don't want to be your friend anymore. Our so called 'friendship' was over a long time before I ended it. You must've known. I did! You just went too far, and pushed the boundaries one time too many. I was so tired of making excuses for you to my friends and to anyone who had talked about you behind your back! To be honest, this was a welcome change for me! I'm happy you called me a you-know-what because it gave me a valid reason to end our friendship! It gave me the strength to do it once and for all. And I'm glad I did. So just get over it Snape and just move on! I have!' she ranted, her voice reaching top levels of outrage, causing a few people to either stop and watch or run from her temper.

She pushed past him and up the staircase.

Severus just stood there unable to move. For the first time, he had finally realised that Lily believed his friendship with her was now well and truly over. There was no changing that. Not anymore.

* * *

The next day was the Gryffindor Quidditch try-outs. This meant that James Potter was out on the Quidditch pitch warming up by 8am with a very grumpy Sirius.

'Prongs!' he was whining, 'Why are we out here so early! The try-outs don't start till ten!' He sat on the floor grumpily and folded his arms.

'Because!' James shouted down to Sirius from the air.

'That's not a reason!' Sirius yelled to James who had just landed next to him.

'I wasn't finished!' James laughed, 'I was gonna say, because if I had gotten you up any later, you wouldn't perform at your best and you wouldn't get on the team!' he turned away from Sirius and leant his broom against the wall. 'It takes you about two hours to wake up properly! Padfoot?'

James had turned back around looked down to where Sirius was sitting, to find that he had curled up on the floor and fallen asleep. James rolled his eyes and pushed him with his foot. He just rolled over and started to snore. Loudly.

James rolled his eyes and hopped on his broom. There was nothing he could do now, but wait for Sirius to wake up again. It was usually a sign, that when Sirius started to snore, there was no waking him.

James soared high on his broom, the wind rushing through his messy black hair. He loved the sensation that flying brought him. He flew around on his Cleansweep Five, feeling the rush that came with flying. His mind was clearing. It was a good place to think; the air. Very few people would distract a person who was flying, so James always loved to fly. He could get away from his worries and problems. He could just soar above them in the air. The crisp, clear air. Perfect weather for the try-outs he had to hold that morning.

James flew over to the hoops at one end of the field weaving in and out of them under the pretence of inspecting them. Really it was just fun for James. He flew to the opposite side of the pitch and did the same again. Weaving in and out, in and out. A calming, albeit repetitive notion that relaxed his nerves. James hated try-outs. Hated them! He had always hated having to take part in them, but that was nothing to having to run them as he had done for the first time the previous year. He hated knowing that at the end of the session, he had to let people down and break the news to them that they hadn't made the team. James hated letting people down and he knew how hard it was to hear the news. The news that you just weren't good enough to be on the team. It was painful.

James had heard it in his first year when he had sneaked into the try-outs and had posed as a second year student. Fortunately for James, he had only heard that news once. He knew however, that some of the people he was trying out today would hear that terrible news for perhaps the third or fourth time.

James looked down to the ground and saw Sirius stirring. He flew back down to the ground, landing gracefully next to where Sirius had just stood up.

'Did I fall asleep?' Sirius asked James sheepishly.

James nodded his head and clapped his friend on the back in a brotherly manner. 'Come on!' he said, jerking his head towards the pitch, 'How's about we do a few laps round the pitch to wake you up? The air will do you good.' And with that, James mounted his broom and took off, soaring high above Sirius.

Sirius swung his leg over his Cleansweep four and pushed up from the ground as well. He took longer than James to soar to just over a hundred feet. James flew down to hover next to him. They both leant down on their brooms inching forwards slightly.

'Ready?' James said confidently.

'To whoop your arse?' Sirius smirked, 'Since the day I was born!'

James chuckled. 'Three.' he said, beginning the countdown.

'Two.' Sirius continued, trying to flatten himself against his broom.

'ONE!' they both shouted before speeding off around the pitch.

For about eight laps they were neck and neck, neither one pulling in front of the other. They were just streaking around the pitch in a blur of red and gold Quidditch robes. Soon James leant forwards and over took Sirius, turning their fun laps into a furious competition. James quickly lapped Sirius whose face was contorted with concentration. He had never beaten James. He'd like to blame it on the broom but the fact of the matter was, James was faster at flying than he was. He had to be to be a Chaser. As a Beater however, Sirius just needed to be able to wield a bat. They were both well suited for their chosen positions.

Half an hour later, James had lapped Sirius several times and had decided that it was time to land. Sirius followed suit.

'What you doing?' Sirius asked, a little bit out of breath.

'Breakfast.' James said simply. He pulled out a bag from underneath one of the benches which were dotted around the edge of the Quidditch pitch. He pulled out a couple of muffins and some pieces of fruit. It was their special tradition to have fruit and muffins before Quidditch try-outs. They had done it since second year, which was the first year they had made it onto the team. They weren't particularly superstitious boys but had, for some reason, kept on doing this as a sort of good luck charm. They sat down and began to eat. There was only half an hour till try-outs were due to start.

Fifteen minutes later, people had started to arrive and James and Sirius were just finishing their breakfast. The first to arrive was Remus and Peter, who always came to watch the try-outs even though they weren't keen Quidditch players themselves. Next was a bunch of girls who weren't there to try-out so much as to ogle at James whilst he held the try-outs. Soon, many Gryffindor's had turned up with their broomsticks over their shoulders. Some people had come to watch their friends and to show moral support which James liked to see. Later, some more girls joined the crowd and began ogling Sirius who decided to stand up and flex for their entertainment. He was only stopped by James threatening to not give him a try-out. One of the last people to arrive was Hestia Jones who was dragging Lily along behind her.

When James saw Lily, his heart skipped a beat. He was unsure of what to do however. He had only spoken to her in class after he had 'saved' her from Severus and they had walked back to the Gryffindor common room from McGonagall's office that evening. Ever since then they had seemed to be getting along alright. She had only yelled at him three times, calling him arrogant and irresponsible. James took a deep breath, smiled at her and gave her a small wave. To his surprise, she smiled and waved back as if they were friends. James was elated and found himself overcome with an odd feeling inside as he watched her skip over to the stands happily and take a seat. James turned around quickly before she noticed.

When Hestia, with her Comet 260 over her shoulder, had joined the crowd of people who had gathered in front of James, the time had reached ten o'clock and James began the try-outs.

'Hey everyone!' he began hiding his nerves extremely well. Confidence leaked out of him. 'I'm your Quidditch captain this year-'

'And I'm your Quidditch captain's best friend! So any problems and just ask one of us. We'll be sure to help you out.' Sirius piped in. He was stood next to James with a look of superiority on his face.

'What are you doing?' James asked him confused.

'I'm showing my support for you mate!' Sirius said clapping James on the back encouragingly.

'Great,' James said nodding his head in an understanding way, 'Could you do me a favour though?'

'Anything for you Prongs!' Sirius said, clasping his hand to his heart sincerely.

'Could you perhaps show me support from over there? Where everyone else who is trying out is?' James said pointing to the crowd in front of him causing everyone in the stands and on the pitch to chuckle appreciatively, 'Thanks!'

'Fine!' Sirius said huffily before trudging over to the potential Quidditch players, dragging his broom in tow.

'As I was saying,' James said when Sirius had finally joined the crowd, 'I am your Quidditch captain this year. It is my job, to pick the house team. But not just any house team. A winning house team. I am under a lot of pressure to keep that trophy in McGonagall's office. She's become rather attached to the thing. I think she's even named it. Steve I think…' There was a titter of laughter. 'So, without further ado, the try-outs. First up. Keepers!'

The potential Keepers stepped forwards nervously.

'Now what's going to happen, is, one at a time, you are going to try and defend the hoops whilst I try and score. Each of you will carry on till either, you miss one, or until we reach ten consecutive saves. The person who lasts the longest is the new keeper. Everyone clear?' There was a murmur of agreement. 'Let's get started then!'

The first candidate and James took to the air and began the try-out session. After the potential keepers had saved six Quaffles, he finally let one go past and so his turn ended. The Keeper try-outs went on for half an hour. Finally, a fourth year boy had been made Keeper much to the disappointment of the rest of the people who had tried out.

Next, James tried out the Chasers, seeing how many goals they could score in five minutes with James playing the opposing team. James kept his new Keeper on the pitch to help him out. The Chaser try-outs lasted for almost an hour. Half way through them however, the people in the stands had begun to become restless. Lily included.

'How long do these things usually go on for?' she asked Peter who was sat next to her.

'I-err-I-you-arm-me-err-' Peter stuttered before Remus was kind enough to save him.

'It really depends on how many people try-out.' Remus said, his eyes glued to the pitch, 'There seems to be a lot of people this year, but James has tried to keep the try-out as short as possible whilst still getting the best out of people. Took him ages to work out the perfect timings and techniques to try every position out with.'

'Oh!' Lily said, surprised at how much information Remus had just reeled out. 'So a rough time would be…?'

'About forty minutes.' Remus said, wincing as the Quaffle rebounded from one of the hoops and hit James on the shoulder almost bruising it.

James shouted to the air in front of him from the sudden shock of pain. Thankfully, the Chaser try-outs were now finished so he could land and rest his shoulder.

For his Chasers he had chosen Hestia Jones, as he knew he would have, and surprisingly, a second year that was very good at seizing the Quaffle from her opponent.

Next, James tried out the beaters and the seekers together. Not many Captains decided to do this, but James found it really effective and an accurate test of talents. He released twenty Golden Snitches, (which he had charmed to stop flying twenty minutes after release), for the three potential Seekers and five Bludgers for the five potential Beaters. The aim of the exercise for the seekers was to catch as many Stitches as possible in twenty minutes. Whoever caught the most would become Gryffindor Seeker. The aim for the Beaters was to keep the Bludgers away from the Seekers and hit them towards the competing Beaters. When there were only two Beaters left, their try-out would end, regardless of how far along the Seekers were, and the two remaining Beaters, would be on the team.

This method was, as far as James knew, only used by him. Some Captains didn't have the time or energy to charm twenty Snitches, and some just didn't _have_ twenty Snitches. Other captains also liked to stretch out the try-outs by trying out each position separately. James however, just wanted it over with as quickly as possible.

In thirty minutes time, the Gryffindor team had been chosen. In the position of Keeper was a fourth year boy. Filling the three Chaser positions was, James, Hestia and a second year girl. The two Beaters were Sirius and a Seventh year boy. And in the position of Seeker, was a third year girl who had caught sixteen out of twenty of the snitches.

'Great guys!' James said when the try-outs ended, 'I'm sorry if you didn't get on the team this year, but remember there's always next year, and if there isn't I'm sorry. Thank you! The first practice session will be posted on the notice board. If you don't turn up, consider yourself kicked of the team. It's harsh but, hey.'

James turned around and walked towards the changing rooms rubbing his shoulder. Sirius caught up to him and clapped him on the shoulder he had just rubbed causing him to yell in pain.

'Ow!' James shouted, 'What was that for!?'

'Ohh!' Sirius said in realisation, 'Sorry mate I forgot! Is it dislocated?'

'Nah. I think it's just bruised. Well done by the way!'

'Thanks. Thanks for letting me back on the team!' Sirius laughed. He knew full well that if he had played badly or if he hadn't put his all into the try-out, James wouldn't have let him back on the team.

'No problem mate!' James smiled as they entered the changing rooms, 'You deserved it!'

Making their way down from the stands, was Peter, Remus, Lily and all the other spectators. (Most of them where girls who had only come to swoon over either James or Sirius.) When they had reached the ground, Lily was jumped on by Hestia who was ecstatic about making the team. She was babbling excitedly to Lily about every perfect shot she had made, and how she had snatched the ball off James. Lily, who knew little to nothing about Quidditch, apart from the fact that it was a sport, just nodded along.

After she had calmed down, Hestia asked Lily if they could go and wait for James outside the changing rooms so she could thank him. Lily agreed reluctantly and, along with Remus and Peter, they went to wait for James.

After waiting for five minutes James and Sirius finally emerged from the changing rooms. They spotted Remus and Peter and began to walk towards them. James' heart skipped a beat when he saw that Lily was also stood with them, waiting. Before he could wonder why she was there, he found his answer in the form of a very happy Hestia jumping on him and hugging the life out of him. When she had leapt on him however, James winced. Seeing this Remus and Lily rushed over to him with Peter towing along behind them.

'Hey? Are you alright mate?' Sirius said from next to him. He had also seen him wince.

'Yeah. Just when that Quaffle hit my shoulder. I dunno. It just hurts.' James said rubbing it as Remus, Lily and Peter arrived next to him. Hestia had stopped hugging him and was now apologising profusely.

'Don't worry about it!' James said sincerely to Hestia who was now concerned that she had broken the Quidditch captain.

'Is it bruised?' Remus asked concerned, 'I mean, I saw that Quaffle hit you. It made quite a thud. I'd be surprised if it hadn't done anything.'

'Yeah it's probably just bruised.' James said determined to shake it off.

'You should go see Madam Pomfrey.' Lily said from next to James.

James looked down at her and smiled. 'I think I will. Thanks' he said quite unsure how to act.

Lily smiled up at him in a friendly way before James nodded his head, as if he was ending their smiling session, before being pulled away by Hestia and Sirius to discuss Quidditch tactics. Peter scurried hurriedly after them leaving Lily and Remus alone for the first time since he had yelled at her on the train.

'So?' he said smugly, knowing that Lily had actually taken notice of what he had said.

'Yes?' Lily said turning to walk towards the castle.

'You actually took my advice?' Remus said surprised but pretty proud.

'Well…' Lily began, unable to finish.

'Well?' Remus asked, 'You're giving Ja-us a second chance then?'

'Yes alright!' Lily said, walking faster in an attempt to walk away from Remus and catch up with Emmeline. She hated it when people said 'I told you so'. Even if they never said those exact words, the whole demeanour they put on when they knew they were right, she hated. Lily wanted to avoid that. She, however, had no such luck as Remus caught up to her quickly and slowed her down so he could talk.

'I'm glad you're going to give us a second chance!' he said, looking in front of him, 'We deserve it. We're not bad people. Just perhaps misunderstood.'

'Misunderstood?' Lily asked sceptically, 'How are you misunderstood?'

'Well, contrary to popular belief, mainly yours, we don't just hex people for the fun of it. They have probably done something to deserve it.'

'You're not helping your case!' Lily said with raised eyebrows.

'What I mean is that we don't like to curse people because it fun like you-know-who and his followers do. We're not like that!'

'I know.' Lily said nodding her head and sighing.

'You do?' Remus asked.

'Yeah.' Lily said, a smile breaking through, 'I've noticed a few changes this year already and we're only a week into term!'

'Good changes I hope?' Remus said waggling his eyebrows strangely.

'Yes.' Lily laughed shoving him gently. They had reached the entrance hall and were now following James and the others to the hospital wing.

'You know, the things you're seeing this year were probably already there. You just never had a reason to look before. But now you're taking my advice…'

'Don't push it!'

'Now that you're taking my advice,' Remus continued ignoring Lily's interruption, 'and have decided to give us another chance, you can see all our good qualities.'

'I said don't push it!' Lily said giving up. They had just reached the hospital wing and James was knocking on Madam Pomfrey's office door.

'So,' Remus began, pausing slightly, 'what made you change your mind? Why are you giving us a second chance?

Lily looked over at James who was now talking to Madam Pomfrey about his bruised back. Lily smiled at James' back. 'I'm a sucker for surprises!' she said simply.

* * *

**Reviews are not necessary but always welcome**

**Thanks for reading!**

**The next chapters will be posted on 27/11/12**

**Galindaba**


	8. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter seven! Sorry it's a day late!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Seven**

Severus was in a vile mood. Ever since he had realised that Lily believed his friendship with her was over Severus had taken to watching her from a distance. Usually this wasn't a cause to be angry but during the last week and a half he had seen something disturbing. She had started to become friendlier towards who Severus thought were her sworn enemies; the marauders. Severus had seen, what could only be described as a friendship, developing. He wouldn't say they were friends yet, but he could see the foundations appearing. It had started small. First they had become partners in potions. Then, when there were no seats left, they would all sit together for meals. Lily would have a good time during these meal times. She would talk to them politely and smile. After the meals, all of them, the marauders, Lily and Lily's friends would walk up to the Gryffindor common room together, still laughing and smiling and talking.

To any other person in the school, in the world, Lily Evans and the marauders finally being at least civil to one another was cause to celebrate. In fact, just going two and a half weeks with Lily and _James_ being civil to each other was a great accomplishment. The school had gone a couple of weeks without the gossip centralising around James Potter hexing someone or another and Lily Evans giving him a good old telling off. Severus didn't see it this way. Ever since Lily had dissolved their friendship officially, Severus had started to notice that she and Potter were getting along better than ever.

Severus hated James Potter. He despised him. Some would say this was because Severus was jealous of him. Jealous of many things; his talents as a wizard and as a Quidditch player, his popularity, his friends, his wealth, his blood status. But Severus didn't. The last thing he would do was admit that he was jealous of James Potter. Now, because Potter was getting along with Lily, Severus hated him even more. In Severus warped mind, he was the cause for the undoing of his and Lily's friendship. So Severus decided to punish him.

He pulled small, snide, _petty_ tricks on James which no one particularly noticed. No one that is but Potter and the marauders. Severus would split his bag in corridors, place sticking charms on the floors just before James walked over them, change his pumpkin juice into ink. He kept doing this in hope for retaliation. He was doing this to punish him for trying to become friends with Lily. In Severus' sub-conscious however, he was doing this to show everyone - including Lily, especially Lily - that James Potter had not changed as he had lead people to believe. He was still, as Lily would say, an arrogant, self-loving, big-headed, irresponsible toe-rag. But however hard Severus tried, James Potter would not retaliate. He wanted too, anyone could see that. His wand would always be drawn but before he cast any curses he seemed to think better of it and would simply carry on as usual, or, if Severus cursed him in the hallway, just walk away. This frustrated Severus to no end.

On Friday morning, during one of their potions classes, Severus was watching James enviously as he talked to Lily. They were meant to be recording the last of the changes in their stewing of their lacewing flies for the Polyjuice potion they were brewing because on Monday, after the weekend, the twenty-one day stewing process would be complete and they would be starting the next step. Severus, however, had decided to leave the recording and analysing to his potions partner Avery and watch Lily instead.

'It looks weird!' Severus heard James say. He looked at James' back and sneered. James was peering into his cauldron with a disgusted look on his face.

'Well they are flies.' Lily said dismissively as she continued to take notes.

'This doesn't look like flies!' James said shaking his head and giving the potion an unenthusiastic stir.

'They have been stewing for eighteen days. If they still looked like flies I'd be concerned.' Lily said without looking up. She was still taking notes. 'You should be taking notes' Lily pointed to James quill and parchment which was lying next to James on the table. Severus saw her point this out and smiled. That would surely show her that James Potter wasn't changing. He still didn't care. Plus, it gave Severus an idea.

'Is it meant to look like mud?' James asked, a little worried.

Lily finally looked up and also peered into the cauldron. She began to explain to James why the stewed flies were looking like mud and told him it was nothing to worry about. They were doing everything right.

James, relieved, finally sat down to take notes. He reached over to pick up his quill, without looking, to find that it had gone. He began to search frantically for it. It was his favourite quill.

Noticing his commotion, Lily looked at him and sighed in desperation. 'What are you doing now?' she asked him.

'I can't find my quill!' James said, panicked, it was his favourite quill for sentimental reasons, 'It was an eagle feathered one my uncle bought it for me two years ago from Norway! He died almost two months after. If I've lost it after all this time…'

Lily, knowing what it was like to lose something important to you said, 'I'll help you find it.' They both began searching desperately for the quill.

Little did they know, Severus had the quill. Whilst James and Lily were peering into their potion, Severus had summoned the quill to him and had hidden it in his bag. He was now watching James with a smug smile on his face. Now James couldn't finish his notes. Severus knew this was childish, but he didn't care.

'Great!' James said, flopping down on his chair and giving up, (Lily followed suit), 'I've had that quill two years and _now _I lose it! Now I can't finish these stupid notes!'

'They're not stupid!' Lily said. James looked at her as if to say, 'really?'. Lily sighed, 'Okay so they're a little longwinded and a bit pointless. But you still have to do them. Here, I've done so do you want to borrow my quill?'

'I guess. Thanks.' James said taking the quill of Lily and starting on the notes.

Severus sat in his place in disbelief. James would still finish his notes but what was worse was he would finish them using Lily's quill. Lily had never let him borrow her quill. Granted he had never spontaneously lost his, but still. Severus sat in his seat thinking of what to do, just waiting for inspiration to strike. He looked around the room and his eyes landed on James' bag. Sticking out of the top was James homework. The previous week Slughorn had set them a foot long essay entitled, 'Bezoar; discuss'. Severus had seen James showing his essay to Lily at the start of the lesson. He had been asking her if she thought he had gotten all the main points in his essay, forcing her to converse with him when she clearly didn't want too. Using the summoning spell again, Severus took the essay.

'_Accio_.' he whispered, the roll of parchment slowly hovered over to him. Severus swiped it from the air and screwed it up, shoving it deep into his bag. He smiled at himself knowing that James would get at least a detention from Slughorn. Finally, James would start to be punished.

'All right class, times up. Pack away and I'll come round and collect your homework.' Slughorn announced. He made his way around the classroom and gathered the essays reaching Lily and James' table last.

Lily handed her essay in whilst James rummaged around in his bag. 'It is here sir I swear!' James said in a muffled voice. His head was halfway in his bag now. 'I know it's here somewhere. I actually did it.'

After a few minutes of emptying and repacking his bag, James had come to one conclusion, 'I can't find it.'

'Then Mr Potter you have detention!' said Slughorn turning away.

'But sir!' James protested.

'I am sorry Mr Potter. But this is your N.E.W.T's we are talking about, and if you do not do your homework, you receive detention.'

'But sir he did do his homework!' Lily said chiming in at last. The whole class, who had been watching this ordeal, turned to look at her in surprise. Severus turned to look at her in horror as she began to defend his sworn enemy.

'He showed me his work at the beginning of the lesson. I know he has done it sir.' she said sincerely.

'I'm sorry Miss Evans. I believe you, truly I do, but as I do not have Mr Potter's homework, he must receive a detention. My dear, rules are rules.' Slughorn said walking away and calling over his shoulder a dismissal of the class.

James sat with his eyes closed and sighed. This delighted Severus whose smirk as he left the classroom, didn't go unnoticed by Sirius.

'I'm sorry.' Lily said quietly to James. She hadn't left her seat yet. She was in shock that Slughorn hadn't taken her word for it. He loved her, why hadn't he believed her enough to let James of the hook?

'Ahh. Don't worry about it!' James smiled at her, 'It's only a detention. It was bound to happen sooner than later. I'll live.' James began to pack his stuff away because he had just seen Sirius and Remus beckon him from the door.

Lily still hadn't moved. She was watching James with fascination. When Lily had received her detention, she had been in shock, but James just shrugged it off as of it was no big deal. Then again, it occurred to Lily that this was James Potter and he was always in detention. It probably was no big deal.

'You coming?' James asked Lily who had been in a sort of trance.

'What? Where?' Lily asked confused.

'Lunch?' James said cautiously, afraid of pointing out such an obvious location for fear of being snapped at. 'You gotta eat.'

'Yeah, sure.' Lily said, quickly gathering her things and she, James, Remus and Sirius all walked to lunch together.

* * *

That evening a notice went up in the Gryffindor common room. Everyone gathered around it excitement. The first Hogsmeade visit was tomorrow. Everyone was making plans to visit Honeydukes, The Three Broomsticks, Zonko's, and The Shrieking Shack. The third years were asking the older students all about Hogsmeade. Sirius was taking great pleasure in telling them all he knew about the small village.

'Well a great big troll runs Honeydukes and if you want to buy anything you have to chop of a finger and give it to him for dinner.' Sirius said evilly to a few scared third year girls.

'Have you ever bought anything from there?' one of them asked batting her eyes at Sirius.

'Of course he hasn't!' another one said to the first girl, 'Look he's still got all of his fingers!'

'That's because I paid with my toes!' Sirius said. All the girls gasped and instantly looked at his feet.

'All right girls shows over!' Remus said as he, James and Peter reached where Sirius was sat in the crowded common room. The girls sighed and left, but not before looking wistfully at Sirius.

When the girls had left and the boys had sat down, James told Sirius that the detention Slughorn had given him that morning was the next day. The day they were all supposed to be going into Hogsmeade.

'You're still coming though right?' Sirius asked James with a sly smile.

'Has a detention ever stopped me before?' James said in return, with the same sly smile creeping across his face, 'You'll just have to wait in Honeydukes for a while whilst I sneak out!'

'I can do that!' Sirius said gleefully, his eyes lighting up with the prospect of spending time in a sweet shop. Whilst he was day-dreaming about sweets and chocolates, the other three began to discuss their impending Hogsmeade visit excitedly.

Some people however were not looking forward to the upcoming Hogsmeade weekend. One person in particular.

'I can't believe it! The first Hogsmeade weekend of the year and I have a detention!' Lily said in disbelief. She was sat in her dormitory with Hestia, Emmeline and Alice.

'Ah don't worry about it Lily! There's always the next one!' Hestia said comfortingly.

'Yeah!' Alice joined in, 'Hogsmeade will still be there when you can go!'

'When the acorn falls there is no telling where it will land or where it will lead!' Emmeline said hypnotically.

The other three girls looked at her and burst into laughter. Lily now felt moderately better about missing Hogsmeade and decided to just accept it.

* * *

Severus was sat in his dormitory hunched over his battered copy of advanced potion making, scribbling notes in the corner. He was just writing in a side comment about reversing the effects of poisons when a black eagle-owl dropped a letter next to him. Severus looked at it and recognised the hand-writing immediately. For reasons unknown, even to himself, Severus looked around nervously before picking up the letter. He turned it over and saw the skull and snake on the green wax seal. He took in a deep breath, almost as if he was scared, and cautiously opened the envelope. He took out the piece of parchment and read;

_Severus Snape_

_I require your presence at the next gathering. Tomorrow, I am informed, is the first Hogwarts visit to Hogsmeade. You will be picked up at eleven o'clock sharp from the third cave on the outskirts of the village. If you do not attend, be prepared for the worst._

_Lord Voldemort_

Severus re-read the letter again before nodding silently. This was just what he needed to take his mind off of his life which he hated so much.

* * *

The next day, everyone had gone to Hogsmeade. Lily, however, was heading towards her first detention. She was being escorted by her Ancient Runes teacher who had given her the detention. When they had reached the classroom, Professor Babbling explained to Lily that she would be left in the room for two hours and the door was be charmed so it could only be opened by the outside unless there was an emergency. Then Professor Babbling took Lily's wand off of her, told her that she would get it back after her detention was over, and walked away.

Lily watched her go and sighed. She then took a deep breath before opening the door and stepping inside. Then she gasped.

James turned around and saw Lily stood in the doorway. He quickly hid the marauders map behind his back and smiled at her. 'Hey Evans.' he said as if he was hiding something.

'Oh.' Lily said in remembrance, '…Potter…I forgot…'

'My name?' James asked confused as to what she was talking about.

'No,' Lily said rolling her eyes, 'that you had a detention. I forgot.'

'Oh.' James replied nodding his head before asking her curiously, 'Why are you here?'

'I have a…' Lily paused. She didn't know what to say. Even though she and James had been getting along recently, she still didn't want to tell him that she had detention. It was embarrassing for her. But she was there now. There was no other reason for her to be there and she couldn't get out because the door was charmed. She sighed and decided on the truth. 'I have a detention.' she said defeated before going into a rant. 'I shouldn't have a detention because at least I was able to translate at least one of the runes whereas the rest of the class couldn't even do that. Also I wasn't talking because I wanted to. I was only talking to tell him to leave me alone. But still, _I_ get punished for it when I did nothing wrong!' she stopped and took a deep breath before flopping into a chair. 'I can't believe I got a detention. And now I have to miss Hogsmeade!'

James had stood and watched Lily explode. He was a little terrified of her temper but also loved the way her eyes lit up furiously. During her rant he had forgotten that he was hiding the map and his hand had fallen to his side.

Lily looked at James expecting a reply. She saw his raised eyebrows and figured that he had no idea what to say. She tutted and dropped her gaze, spotting the piece of parchment in his hand. The ink was moving.

'What's that?' Lily asked curiously, motioning to the parchment.

James snapped back into reality and quickly hid the map behind his back. 'Nothing.' he said in a voice higher than usual.

Lily stood up and walked towards him, curiosity getting the better of her. She wanted to know why the ink was moving.

'Can I have a look?' she asked him, holding out her hand.

'At…hu….what?' James said through nervous laughter. He had begun moving away from her slowly trying to make sure that she couldn't see the map.

Suddenly, Lily made a dash for it and grabbed the piece of parchment from behind James' back. Before he knew it Lily was unfolding the map and looking at it in wonder.

James bit his lip, worried. She was going to confiscate it. She was a prefect after all.

'Wow!' Lily breathed, taking in the maps true glory, 'This is Hogwarts isn't it!?' Her eyes were wide with excitement.

James nodded reluctantly. Lily's smile grew a little causing James to relax. She didn't look mad at least.

'Where did you get this?' she asked, amazed at the maps attention to detail. She could see Dumbledore pacing in his office, Mrs Norris prowling the corridor on the sixth floor and Filch directly below her on the fifth.

'Well…' James began, unsure of what to tell her. If it was only up to him he would spill the maps secrets with no hesitation. But all of the marauders, Remus, Sirius, Peter and himself, had made that map. It was a collective secret which they shared with no-one. James decided not to tell her.

'We made it. Me, Remus, Sirius and Pete. We created it!' James blurted out uncontrollably. He had no idea why he had just gone against his own decision, but something had just told him to go for it. So he did. There had to be a reason.

'Really?' Lily asked in genuine surprise. She knew the marauders were talented wizards, especially Remus and James, but she had no idea that they were capable of this level of magic. James' promise of being full of surprises certainly was coming true. 'This is amazing! You can see where everyone is!' Lily said before James took the map off of her.

'That's the idea!' James said, folding the map up.

'Why do you have it with you in here?' Lily asked curiously.

'Because I was…I was…You know what never mind. Let's just sit here and complete our detention. Who needs to go to Hogsmeade anyway?' James mumbled a little bit grumpily.

'I would love to be in Hogsmeade right now!' Lily sighed, sinking back into a seat and resting her head in her hands.

'Really?' James asked leaning against a wall with his arms folded and his legs crossed. A mischievous glint crept into his eyes.

* * *

Severus was climbing over some rocks to get to the cave from where he was being picked up by some fellow death eaters. He was with Avery and Mulciber, the only other two in his year to be recruited by Voldemort. They didn't know why they had been the ones to be chosen in their year, they were just honoured they had been picked. So the three of them, along with five Slytherin seventh years, were heading to the arranged meeting point.

They arrived at the cave at five to eleven to find four masked death eaters waiting for them. The seventh year students who could apparate did so, whereas the sixth year students, who had not yet learnt, had to be escorted by side-long apparation. Severus hated side-long apparation. The sixth year students hadn't learnt how to apparate yet, but in later in the sixth year, if they wished to and paid twelve galleons, they would be able to take a twelve week course on the subject. Of course, they would have to wait until they were seventeen to take the test.

So, reluctantly, Severus grabbed the arm of one of the nearer masked death eaters and with a pop, was gone. A horrible feeling overtook him. He felt an odd sensation, as if he was being squeezed through a very tight tube. It was very uncomfortable. After what felt like a lifetime but in reality was only a matter of seconds, Severus landed with a hard thud on unfamiliar ground. He looked around and drank in his surroundings. They were in the middle of a wood and in front of them was a small mouldy looking wooden shack which looked as though it would fall down any second. Severus looked at it in horror. Was this where they were having the meeting? He felt sick at the site of it. Mulciber was actually being sick, but that was probably from the apparation.

Severus started to walk forwards to the shack. When he was within a foot of it he felt a cool breeze wash over him. He looked around in surprise. One of the masked death eaters saw his face and explained that there was a protection charm placed around the shack which meant only people with the dark mark, or people who were with a person branded with the mark could enter. Severus nodded and glanced enviously to the death eaters left arm which was covered with a long black sleeve. He wished he had a dark mark. He was extremely impatient and couldn't wait until the day he had proven his worth. The only way to get to that day though was to go through this meeting and any others that followed. With this in mind, Severus continued forward and walked into the shack.

When he was inside, he looked around with a small smile tugging at his lips. He was greeted by a large hall with high raised ceilings which had oak beams running across them. The stone walls were lined with candles which were being held in place by what looked like carved, wooden, human arms and in the centre of the room taking up most of the space was a long but wide wooden table. Severus couldn't help but notice that the room was very reminiscent of Hogwarts. He sat down with Avery on one side and Mulciber on the other. When everyone was seated, there was a sudden, quiet hush. Then Voldemort entered with a large snake draped around his shoulders. Severus noticed he had no shoes on. He sat down and stroked the snake.

'Welcome, my friends!' he said in a deathly quiet voice which commanded attention. 'And what news do you bring me today?'

'My Lord,' said a masked woman who was sat on Voldemort's right hand side. She bowed her head graciously before addressing Voldemort, 'It has been a successful week. We have three people in the auror's office under the imperious curse and two in the department of mysteries, just as promised. Also, we have placed the curse on six employees who work at the Daily Profit.'

'Excellent!' Voldemort said with a malicious smile, still stroking his snake, 'And what about the muggles. How many?'

'My Lord,' said the death eater on his left, 'We have been able to succeed in as many as fourteen this week.'

'Very good.' Voldemort said, his smile growing wider, 'And the filth?'

'My Lord,' said the death eater on the left of the death eater who had just spoken, 'We have been able to eliminate one family which produced the scum and have captured the dirt themselves.'

'Good work.' Voldemort praised his followers. He stroked his snake a few more times before unwrapping the beast from his shoulders and placing it on the table. He sat in silence for a few more minutes before speaking again, 'Where are the captured Mudbloods now?' he asked the table as a whole. A man answered him telling him the whereabouts of the people they had captured.

'All sufficiently punished for stealing our heritage?' he asked his eyes narrowing.

'Yes my Lord.' the congregation murmured collectively.

'Good!' he said before laying a hand on his snake, 'Dinner time Nagini!'

The snake slithered of the table and through a door which had been kept open slightly. When the snake entered the room, Severus heard a muffled scream. The door suddenly banged shut causing him to look around in surprise. He saw Voldemort with his wand pointing towards the now shut door.

'We don't need to hear that!' he whispered, 'Now, our new recruits from Hogwarts.'

Severus sat up quickly. As did Avery, Mulciber and the seventh year boys. They suddenly felt important.

'I have a little task for you to do for me…' Voldemort smiled, looking at each of the boys in turn. Their faces lit up expectantly.

'Yes my Lord!' they all piped up enthusiastically, copying what the older death eaters at the head of the table had done.

Voldemort chuckled evilly, 'Ah, manners. Good to see they are not lost on the young. Now, you are to all do me a task…'

* * *

'I can't believe you talked me into this!' Lily hissed as James checked the map for anyone coming around the corner. After much persuasion, James had gotten Lily to agree to sneak out of detention and into Hogsmeade. He wasn't even quite sure how he had done it, but nevertheless, she was there with him now, heading towards the statue of the hunchbacked one-eyed witch.

'I can't believe it either!' James said happily taking out his wand.

'I still can't believe that you fooled the teachers with a fake wand!' Lily said, half horrified that a teacher could be tricked and half impressed that James was able to do it.

'Oh it wasn't fake!' James said tapping he hunch of the statue and muttering a spell which caused it to open.

'What do you mean?' Lily asked following James through the secret passage way.

'It wasn't a fake wand!' James repeated, but upon seeing Lily's face, explained, 'It was Pete's!'

'And he let you just borrow his wand. Just like that?' Lily said as they ran down the sloping passage way which James said would lead to Honeydukes cellar.

'Yeah!' James said happily, 'He's a great mate!'

'Sounds it.' Lily smiled as they rounded a corner.

Suddenly, Lily grabbed James arm. James' heart jumped at the contact but tried to cover up his joy.

'What's wrong?' he asked her curiously with a warm but wonky smile on his face.

'Do you have that cloak with you?' Lily whispered, biting her lip.

'Yes. Why?' James replied. His heart was thudding in his chest due to the fact that she had not removed her hand from his arm.

'Can we put it on?' Lily pleaded.

'Okay…Why?' James asked her a little bit confused. Even so, he had started to pull his invisibility cloak out of the inside pocket of his robes.

'Because, if people see us and they accidentally let it slip that we were in Hogsmeade then we'll be in a lot of trouble.' Lily rambled with a note of worry in her voice.

James sighed and threw the cloak over his and Lily's head. She was now standing very close to him and his palms had begun to sweat. His heart was racing ten to the dozen and his breathing had become somewhat erratic. Fortunately, Lily didn't seem to notice. Or if she did, she didn't let on. People had often said that he only went after Lily Evans for the thrill of the chase because she was the only girl in the school who would reject him. But that wasn't the reason. He genuinely liked her. If people could see his body's instinctive reactions to her, they would understand that.

They soon arrived in Honeydukes cellar. James pulled Lily over to hide behind a barrel of Fizzing Whizzbies waiting for the door at the top of the stairs to open so they could sneak through unsuspectingly. They had waited for five minutes, (James eating the Fizzing Whizzbies, Lily telling him off and then doing the same herself), before the door opened. James, noticing first, dragged Lily away from the barrel of sweets and up the stairs.

When they walked through the door, Lily smiled widely. Even though she had been against it at first, Lily was glad James had talked her into sneaking out to Hogsmeade. She loved the little village and all its little shops, especially Honeydukes. Seeing the sweet shop had made breaking the rules worthwhile. She didn't realise James was dragging her through the crowd of people to where Sirius, Remus and Peter were standing near a shelf lined with chocolate frogs.

She was suddenly snapped back into reality when she heard Sirius say, 'Where's Prongs? He was meant to be here ten minutes ago!'

'He'll be hear soon Sirius. Stop panicking!' Remus was saying as Lily and James approached them under the cloak.

'But what if his brains have been sucked out by a troll and he's wondering down the passage with a gormless expression?' Sirius asked Remus with a worried look on his face.

'He'd probably still be able to make it. Your pretty gormless and you can make it down that passage way.' Remus said, bored.

Sirius looked at Remus with a shocked expression on his face, 'I am not gormless!' Sirius said, aghast.

'You kind of are there mate!' James whispered with a chuckle causing Sirius to look round in glee and Peter and Remus to chuckle lightly.

'PRONGS!' Sirius yelled looking around for his best mate, 'Prongs?' Sirius said confused. Everyone in the shop was now looking at him as if he was mad. This was because James was still hidden under the cloak.

Sirius was yelling James' nick-name like there was no tomorrow. Soon, everyone in Honeydukes was looking at him as if he were mad because he had just gotten down on his knees and was banging his fist on the floor. Lily and James were laughing at his antics whilst Remus and Peter, who looked embarrassed, were trying to get him out of the shop.

'Don't worry!' Remus yelled to the onlookers, whilst Sirius went limp in Peter's arm so he couldn't move him, 'He's going back to St Mungo's soon!' he laughed before taking out his wand and levitating Sirius outside. Peter, Lily and James followed.

'So Prongs,' Remus asked the air amused, 'Why exactly are you under the cloak anyway?'

'Cause Evans here didn't want to get caught sneaking out of detention.' James voice said.

Sirius looked up from where he had been dropped on the ground in confusion. 'Evans?' he asked disgruntled, 'Why is Evans here?'

Lily sighed. 'Long story short. I was in detention,' she said ignoring Remus', Sirius', and Peter's sarcastic gasps, 'and I didn't want to miss the first Hogsmeade trip of the year.'

'Ok' Sirius said cheerfully before getting up, 'Can we go eat now?' he whined to Remus who rolled his eyes.

'Sure.' he replied before they all set of towards The Three Broomsticks for a butter beer and a bite to eat.

Lily found herself enjoying being in the marauders company. They didn't fight with one another. They just relaxed, enjoyed themselves and took whatever came their way. When they were served the wrong food in The Three Broomsticks, instead of moaning at the bad service, they just made a joke out of it. When someone spilt a drink over one of their cloaks, instead of yelling at the clumsy person who had done it, they just made a joke out of it. And when someone picked up one of their bags by mistake in Zonko's, instead of yelling at their incompetence, they just made a joke out of it. Even though she wasn't aware of it, Lily was subconsciously comparing this Hogsmeade trip to the ones that she used to make with Severus who had moaned and yelled every time they came to Hogsmeade.

Previously, if Lily had seen the marauders making jokes out of everything, she would have called them childish and stupid. Now, she just saw that they were good natured boys who did their best to make the best out of bad situations. She was having fun with them, even though she spent all her time under an invisibility cloak with James.

For Lily, the day went too fast and it seemed as if not two minutes had gone by before she had looked at her watch and seen that it was time to leave. 'Come on Potter. We have to get back before we're checked on.' she said to James.

'All right!' James said happily. He had enjoyed spending his day with Lily, 'See ya guys!' he said to his friends. When Lily had said goodbye they made their way through the streets of Hogsmeade and back through the secret passage way from Honeydukes to Hogwarts.

When they had reached the statue of the one-eyed witch, Lily grabbed the map from James' hand and unfolded it. She stared at the piece of parchment, which was now empty, in shock. She flipped it over to see where the moving dots had disappeared too because she was sure they would still be there. Meanwhile, James had been rummaging through his pockets for his wand only to have it snatched of him by Lily when he had found it.

'What are you doing?' James asked in shock.

Lily ignored him, cleared her throat, placed the wand on the map and said in a strong, confident voice, 'Show yourself!'

Suddenly writing appeared saying, _Mr Padfoot would like to know why perfect little Miss Evans is trying to access our map._

Lily gasped in disbelief when more writing appeared. _Mr Moony seconds Mr Padfoot's question and would like to know how the map came to be in the rule-abiding Prefects possession._

Lily was amazed. The map was talking to her. James smirked at the words on the parchment. He was looking over her shoulder and was reading what the map was saying now

_Mr Prongs apologises to Miss Evans for Mr Padfoot's and Mr Moony's rude questions and would also like to compliment Miss Evans on how pretty she looks today. Mr Prongs would also like to ask her-_

But Lily didn't get to read the rest of what the map was saying as James had snatched it off her with wide eyes. He looked relieved, as if he had narrowly escaped trouble. He took his wand back off of Lily, placed the tip in the middle of the parchment and muttered something inaudible under his breath. Black ink began to spread from where his wand was resting on the parchment, the map quickly redrawing itself.

'What was that?' Lily asked curiously.

'What was what?' James replied trying to act nonchalant.

'The writing that appeared on the map when I tried to read it.' Lily said.

'Writing?' James repeated.

'Yeah. It spoke to me. The names. Padfoot. Moony. That's Black and Lupin. That's what you call them. And Prongs. That's what they called you.' Lily said figuring out what the marauders must have done. 'You imprinted your personalities on that map!'

'Err…' James said unable to answer. He had no idea what to say.

'How did you do it?' She asked him amazed.

James did a double take. He was shocked she wasn't telling him off for using such a dangerous spell. Of course he wasn't he only one who had used it. Remus, Sirius and Peter had used it too to imprint their personalities on the map too, but they weren't here so he would be the one in trouble. However, this was not the case.

'Potter?' Lily said waving her hand in front of his vacant eyes.

'Yeah?' James said snapping back into reality and looking at Lily with wide eyes.

'How did you manage to imprint your personalities into that map? I mean I know there's a spell, but that's meant to be extremely difficult not to mention dangerous! But how did you pull it off. I mean I -'

But James cut her off by putting his hand over her mouth. He loved how she was babbling excitedly over something he had done, but they only had five minutes to get back to the detention room.

'POTTER!' Lily yelled, tearing James hand away from her face only to have her shush him. 'Excuse me?' Lily said with raised eyebrows.

'We have five minutes until someone checks on us. We are two hallways away and Mrs Norris is in the next one.' James whispered pointing to a moving dot on the map in his hand.

'Oh…' Lily said abashed.

They waited until Mrs Norris had left the corridor before sneaking quickly back to the detention room. James opened the door and let Lily in before closing after himself.

'So how did you do it?' Lily asked immediately looking at him with bright excited eyes.

James looked at his watch and shook his head. 'I'll tell you another time.' James promised.

Before Lily could try to plead with him to tell her how he managed to accomplish the spell because her curiosity had once again got the better of her, the door opened and in walked Professor Babbling.

She looked at the two students before saying, 'Ah good, you haven't left…'

Lily and James smirked at each other.

* * *

Severus had just entered Hogwarts. He had broken away from Avery, Mulciber and the rest of the seventh years and was thinking about the task that Voldemort had assigned to him. He had assigned all of the new followers a task to test their worth. Avery was to find out who all the muggleborns in Hufflepuff, Mulciber, Ravenclaw. The seventh years had similar tasks too. Severus had a sneaking suspicion that Voldemort already knew these things he was just making sure they were worthy enough to join his ranks. Severus had no idea what Voldemort would do if any of them failed. All he could think about was succeeding in his task. He had been told certain pieces of information but not every detail. His mission was to find out where a few certain Gryffindor's disappeared every month.

* * *

**Reviews are not necessary but always welcome!**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	9. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter eight! **

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Eight**

'Well what do you usually do?' Hestia said to Lily as they sat down at Gryffindor table with Alice and Emmeline.

'Nothing really.' Lily said looking around the table for a muffin.

'Don't you do your homework or anything?' Hestia asked buttering a crumpet and taking a large bite out of it, 'Mmm! This is good!'

'I know right!' Sirius said sitting down next to her, the marauders sitting down next to him. 'Food is awesome! A life without food isn't worth living! Do you know what I mean? I love food! It's just so -'

'Shut it Padfoot!' Remus said with a small chuckle and pushing his head in a brotherly fashion.

'Not everyone has your love for food there mate!' James said scanning the table for something to eat. There was so much there but he couldn't find anything he wanted.

'How about you read a book?' Alice said suddenly, turning to Lily and entering her conversation with Hestia which was interrupted by the arrival of the marauders.

'I don't always feel like reading though. Sometimes I just want to… I don't know. Hang out with my friends.' Lily said shrugging half-heartedly.

'Why don't you hang out with the marauders?' Emmeline said in a dreamy voice stirring her tea.

The marauders all looked suddenly at Emmeline and then to Lily who had wide eyes and a shocked expression.

'What are you talking about?' Remus asked curiously.

'Lily has no one to hang out with whilst the three of us are in Divination.' Emmeline said much to the objections coming from Lily, 'You four, however, do not take divination so you won't have a lesson and will be free to hang out with her.' When Emmeline stopped talking, she smiled at her solution and continued to stir her tea.

Lily, Hestia, Alice, Remus, Peter and Sirius were all looking at Emmeline stirring her tea as if she had gone out of her mind. James however looked thoughtful.

'Sure!' he said nodding his head slowly. Everyone turned to look at him with raised eyebrows. Emmeline was smiling happily.

'Sure?' Lily said a little bit shocked. They had been getting along better. She did sneak out of school with him. But to hang out with him and his friends?

'Sure!' James repeated.

'Sure?'

'Sure!'

'Sure…'

'SURE!' Sirius shouted suddenly. James and Lily looked at him curiously. 'I felt left out!' Sirius said pouting.

James shook his head then turned back to look at Lily. 'I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to. But if you do. The offers there.'

Lily tilted her head to the side and looked at James in the eyes to see if he had any hidden agenda. She didn't see any devious expressions. 'Ok.' She said, much to hers and everyone else's surprise, 'Where do you hang out then?' she added curiously.

It was Peter who answered in a voice that clearly showed that he was either glad he knew something, or that he was glad to finally be a part of the conversation.

'We hang out in the room of -'

'Common…' fortunately for Peter, Sirius cut him off before he could reveal what he knew. Obviously, Peter didn't know that it was a secret. Sirius continued trying to salvage what Peter had almost destroyed.

'The room, of…common!' he said trying to sound confident.

'The room of common?' Hestia said from next to him.

'Yes…?' Sirius said. The other marauders looked at him with mixed expressions, unsure of where Sirius was going with this.

'The room of common?' Alice repeated confused.

'The room of common.' Sirius was nodding his head trying to convince the girls and his friends that he was sure of what he was talking about.

'Do you mean the common room?' Lily asked trying to figure out what the marauders were trying to cover up.

'Yes!' Sirius was nodding his head more enthusiastically than ever now. The other marauders had also started to nod their heads hesitantly.

'Why do you call it the room of common?' Alice asked with a smile on her face that said, 'really? This is what you've come up with?'

'Because…' James said trying to jump in and save Sirius but coming up empty.

'Because…' Remus said trying to save James from trying to save Sirius but still, coming up empty.

'Because…' Peter said because he felt left out from Remus trying to save James from trying to save Sirius.

'BECAUSE?' the girls shouted getting impatient with waiting for an excuse.

'Because…' Sirius said finally coming up with a solution, 'We like to be sophisticated!' It wasn't a good solution. Just a solution.

'Sophisticated?' Lily asked sceptically, 'By calling the common room the room of common you think your being, sophisticated?'

'Yes?' Sirius said, unsure again. He looked to his friends for help but they just shrugged their shoulders, having no idea what to do or how to get him out of his mess.

'That doesn't make you sophisticated that just makes you dum!' Hestia said reaching for another crumpet.

'PRONGS!' Sirius said looking at James with large puppy dog eyes.

James raised one eyebrow at Sirius and said, 'Don't look at me! I agree with her!'

So Sirius turned to Remus who only said, 'You're on your own on this one!'

Peter expected Sirius to turn to him next and he had picked his response all picked out. Unfortunately for Peter, all Sirius did was slouch down in his seat, hang his head and pout. Peter then did the same as his fears of not being completely accepted as a marauder by his friends and others came back to him.

'Ok.' Lily said to James who visibly lit up, but which Lily decided to ignore, 'I think I will hang out with you during the free period. I have nothing else to do. So, why not!' Lily looked at James defeated before taking upon a questioning look and asking, 'What do you do during your free periods anyway?'

James smiled deviously and said, 'A little of this, a little of that. We like to answer the big questions…'

* * *

'You have got to be kidding me!'

'No. I'm deadly serious!'

'But your wrong!'

'How am I wrong?'

'Because you are!'

'That's not a reason!'

'Well what do you want me to say?!'

'Nothing! I want you to explain why you think I'm wrong!'

'Because a flobberworm can't beat a hippogriff! It's impossible!' Sirius said scandalised to James who was shaking his head.

'How do you know?' James asked him, looking at Sirius with a serious expression, 'We have never found out what a flobberworm can do besides eat lettuce and cabbage. How do you know that if we put one in an intense situation, it won't reveal a greater power?'

Sirius looked bewildered. Unsure of what to say he turned to Remus, 'You took Care of Magical Creatures. Help me out here. A flobberworm can't beat a hippogriff. A hippogriff has talons for goodness sake!'

Remus looked at James who smiled back. It was a smile which displayed how much James enjoyed taunting his best friend. It was a smile which enlisted Remus help. It was a smile which made a certain girls heart unexpectedly skip a beat.

'Well, strictly speaking, in appearance, the hippogriff does beat the flobberworm and looks as though it would easily beat it in a battle. A hippogriff has talons, a beak and very strong wings as well as the ability to fly, whereas a flobberworm is a brown worm with no teeth and is only rated as X at the ministry. A hippogriff is rated XXX. So really if -'

'Whoa, whoa, WOAH!' Sirius said blinking his wide eyes with information overload, 'I just wanna know which one will win in a battle. A flobberworm.' he said with a disgusted face, or a hippogriff!' he said nodding enthusiastically.

Remus paused for a moment and thought. 'Well -'

'This isn't going to be another lecture is it?' Sirius groaned.

Remus scowled before saying, 'I'd put my money on the flobberworm!'

'WHAT!' Sirius yelled at the same time as James yelled, 'YES!'

'Oh what do you know!' Sirius said disgruntled, 'What do you think Evans?'

Lily had been sat watching Sirius and James conversation with amusement. It was the first time she had spent a free period with the marauders, and to her surprise, she was rather enjoying herself. She actually found the silliness of their conversation refreshing. Just the way they were able to have fun by such a stupid conversation was…new. Usually, with her friends and with a certain ex-friend, the conversation was usually exhaustingly serious and sometimes, with a certain person, dark. But with the marauders, they just enjoyed being with each other and having a laugh. They enjoyed the light meaningless conversations. And so did she. The laughter. Just a chance to escape from the world as it was changing. It was nice.

'Evans!' Sirius said breaking through Lily's reverie rather abruptly, 'You're smart. What do you think? Flobberworm or hippogriff?'

'To be honest I'm still trying to get over the fact that this is what you think the big questions that need asking are.' Lily laughed looking around the marauders smiling and landing on James who looked completely serious.

'Do you know anyone else who is willing to ask these questions?' he said looking straight into Lily's emerald eyes, trying to keep his calm posterior and not letting his true feelings show. His stomach was doing flips at the eyes contact.

Lily looked back into James warm brown eyes and suddenly felt uncomfortably relaxed at his gaze. 'Ok.' she said tearing her eyes away from James' and turning to look at Sirius to answer the question, 'I think the flobberworm could win because no one has ever really discovered what it can do. Putting it in a high stress situation could reveal a hidden power.'

'You can't hang out with us anymore Evans!' Sirius said with a pout.

'Why not?' Lily asked, deep down hoping that it was a joke.

'Because you won't agree with me!' Sirius continued to pout whilst the other marauders and Lily laughed.

'Ok.' Sirius said regaining his composure, 'Who would win between a flobberworm and a mandrake then?'

'Oh definitely the mandrake!' James said nodding his head wisely.

'WHAT!' Sirius screamed, causing the few people in the common room to look over to where he sat for a few seconds before returning to their own business. Sirius continued, 'How can a flobberworm beat a hippogriff but not a mandrake?'

'That's easy!' Lily said, really getting into the spirit of the boys conversation. They all looked at her intrigued, waiting for her to carry on and explain. 'A mandrake has a killer scream so the flobberworm wouldn't have a chance to defend itself.'

Sirius sighed and slouched down onto his chair in defeat whilst Lily smiled in triumph, Remus and Peter were looking at Sirius bemused. James was looking at Lily.

* * *

BOOM!

'Oops!' Sirius said as he looked through the hole he had blown through her desk. 'I was frustrated!' he said shrugging his shoulders at McGonagall's questioning look.

'So you felt the need to take your frustration out on my desk!' McGonagall said shrilly.

'Well…' Sirius pause, 'I think I did you a favour really. That desk is pretty ugly!'

The class burst into laughter and McGonagall's lips pursed. Many thought she was trying to hold in a giggle.

'You will join Mr Potter in detention next Wednesday.' McGonagall said before turning to her desk and trying to fix the hole.

Earlier that lesson, after James had successfully been the first to transform his parrot into a crow, he had decided to turn McGonagall's hat into a chicken. Chaos ensued for about ten minutes afterwards as people tried to catch the chicken. McGonagall had then given him a detention but not before making sure that it wouldn't clash with Quidditch practice.

The class soon settled back into their work. Only James, Lily and Remus had succeeded in turning their parrots into crows so they had been set a new task to turn their crows into robins. This mastered the skill of shrinking transfiguration. When James had completed his task. He turned his attention to shrinking everything in range into robins. By the end of the lesson, James had turned everyone's parrots or crows into robins, as well as many ink bottles and quills. The room was swarming with the birds. McGonagall only noticed the birds when she had finally fixed her desk and turned around.

'WHO?' She shouted to the class who were taking cover from the birds who had flown into a frenzy over her loud remark. She waved her wand once and froze all the birds in mid-air. 'Who?' she repeated.

'And I thought you'd be pleased!' James said leaning back in his chair smiling at McGonagall, 'I completed the task!'

'A little too enthusiastically!' McGonagall said causing the class to titter lightly. 'As you already have a detention, I will let you off. You were, after all, doing your work. You may go!' she said to the rest of the class.

They all exited the class room and headed down to lunch. James, Remus and Sirius lagged behind a little. Suddenly Sirius stopped.

'What's up?' Remus asked Sirius noticing that he had stopped.

'Someone is following us.' he said turning around.

'Stop being paranoid!' James laughed, ruffling Sirius hair.

'I'm serious! Someone is following us!' Sirius said looking around sharply.

'No one is following us!' James sighed.

Sirius looked at his friends seeing that they wouldn't believe him. 'Ok.' he said. They all carried on towards the great hall with Sirius still feeling a pair of eyes burning into his back.

* * *

The marauders were sneaking down to the kitchens. It was a venture they took every few nights when Sirius decided that he hadn't eaten enough during the day. This journey however was not as fun as the previous ones because Sirius had been convinced, since transfiguration earlier that day, that someone was following them.

'Why would someone follow us?' James whispered as they turned a corner and began to descend down the steps.

'Because we are awesome!' Sirius said in return jumping a trick step on the staircase.

'Then it wouldn't really be a bad thing that they're following us then would it?' Remus said.

'Well they aren't following us cause we're awesome, they are following us for other reasons!' Sirius said turning around hoping to catch someone behind them.

'I'm confused!' Peter said looking up at James hoping he would explain it to him.

'Ah don't worry about it Pete!' James said to Peter patting him on the shoulder, 'When has Sirius ever made sense!' he laughed. Peter imitated James laugh but in a creepy fashion.

'Prongs. I'm telling you someone is following us!' Sirius said looking James dead in the eyes.

James saw the seriousness in Sirius' eyes and understood that he wasn't joking. He well and truly believed that someone was following them and he wouldn't drop this until he was proved right. James sighed and said 'Ok.'

To some people this one word answer may not have been a lot, but Sirius knew that this one word answer meant that James believed him. This answer meant that James would now keep an eye out and watch their backs a bit more carefully. During these dark times, not even the marauders would risk being out at night. In fact, as they knew how many secret entrances and exits there were to the castle, they would probably be the last ones to be wandering around the school at night if someone was following them.

They carried on walking. James stopped and looked around. He saw a robe quickly hide behind a wall. He looked at Sirius and nodded, affirming that someone was indeed following them. He elbowed Remus who immediately understood and grabbed the collar of Peters robe turning him around. They all hurried back to Gryffindor tower all thoughts of the kitchen abandoned. Before they got back into the common room however, James took one last look around the hallway. He spotted a figure in the shadows by the suit of armour. He recognised the hunched demeanour of the figure and realisation hit him. Not only had Severus Snape been the one cursing him till kingdom come, he was also the one following them about.

* * *

During the next fortnight, much to Hestia's amusement and Lily's shame, Lily had begun to look forward to spending her free periods with the marauders. She loved the carefree attitude they took towards everything. She looked forwards to Sirius' annoying questions, Remus' know-it-all answers, Peters grovelling and James' laughing smile. It bothered her that she did look forward to these things because it meant that she was slowly becoming friends with the marauders and that all the years she had scolded and reprimanded them, all the years she had loathed them, were a waste. She was learning she was wrong. She hated being wrong.

At the moment, she was sat in the stands of the Quidditch arena with Hestia, (who was feeling ill and unable to fly today), Remus and Peter watching the Gryffindor Quidditch team practice for the upcoming game against Ravenclaw. They had been out there for just over an hour and were slowly coming to a close.

'ALL RIGHT THAT'S IT!' she heard James shout from up in the air. She saw all seven blurs of red and gold soar down from the sky and land on the ground encircling James who began to talk to them. Up in the stands, they couldn't hear what was happening but they could see James gestures and lips moving. This led to Remus making up what James was saying.

'…then we shall conquer our quest and find Sirius' sandwich once and for all! He will be grateful. And then he will finally shower once again!'

'Does Sirius not shower?!' Hestia said with a disgusted expression.

'You know, it's a shame you and he don't spend more time together.' Remus said much to Lily and Peter's amusement and Hestia's disdain.

'That's not funny.' Hestia said before turning and walking down the steps which led from the stands to the pitch. Full with laughter, Lily, Remus and Peter followed her and met James and Sirius at the bottom.

'Hey. Hestia thinks you don't shower!' Lily said as a conversation opener.

'Who?' James and Sirius said simultaneously.

'You Padfoot!' Peter said with a snigger which he soon regretted due to the dirty look he then received from Sirius.

'Didn't realise you were so interested in my showering habits!' Sirius said to Hestia with raised eyebrows as they all started to walk back towards the castle.

'Did you get everything then?' James asked Hestia.

'Well I couldn't actually hear you but I did see what techniques you were using.' Hestia replied.

'Can you imitate them?' James questioned.

'I hope so!' Hestia laughed.

'Me too!' James said, 'You feeling better at all?'

'Not too bad actually.' she nodded.

'You know what cures a bad stomach?' Sirius said, 'Jam.'

Hestia raised an eyebrow at him. 'Jam?' she said sceptically.

'Yep!' Sirius replied, 'Jam!'

Soon, Sirius, Hestia and Remus had pulled ahead leaving James and Lily talking with Peter trailing behind James in awe.

They were talking about their potions assignment. Earlier in the week they had completed their polyjuice potion and had successfully transformed into each other. It was an experience they didn't wish to repeat.

'I'm sorry but I like being a girl!' Lily said with a smile.

'Well I'm glad to hear that!' James said.

Lily looked abashed at his comment but shook it off before saying, 'At least the colour that your potion turned was decent unlike some others in the class.'

'Ugh I know! Mulciber's turned a mucky brown!' James said with a chuckle. Peter snickered in appreciation.

'I would have hated to drink that!' Lily laughed.

'Me to I -' James began before pausing and quickly turning around, suspicion glazing his expression.

'What's wrong?' Lily said looking around to see what James was looking at but only seeing a tree.

'Nothing. Let's go to dinner.' James said turning around and smiling at Lily and Peter. They all sped up to join the rest. James a little slower and still looking behind him. In slow motion he saw a swish of greasy black hair and a wave of a wand. Suddenly he was up in the air dangling by his ankle. He yelled out but by the time his friends had turned around, Severus had released James who landed in a lump on the floor.

Everyone rushed towards him. James got up and brushed dirt off of his robes, trying to calm himself down. After all, if he retaliated, he might lose the slowly building friendship of Lily Evans and that was the last thing he wanted.

Everyone quickly began asking if he was okay to which he replied, 'I'm fine. I just…fell.' he darted a look over to the tree where he saw Severus standing with a malicious look on his face. Everyone but Remus and Sirius missed this look as they were too preoccupied with helping James to his feet. Sirius looked at Remus who looked at James. Sirius then also looked at James who shook his head in a way that said, 'he's not worth it' before turning and walking back to the castle.

* * *

Three weeks of tailing the marauders everywhere was coming to a close and Severus had yet to find the information Voldemort had requested off of him. Voldemort had told him to find out where one of the marauders snuck off to every month. Now, Severus had followed them to the Quidditch pitch and to detention. He had seen them plan and pull pranks as well as sneak down to the kitchens, but never had one of them ever been alone. They always went around in a two, a three or a four. Because of this, Severus knew that he had still not found what Voldemort had asked him to uncover. Severus had started to become tired and annoyed with his assignment. Mainly because, as he was following them twenty-four seven, he was witnessing the budding friendship of Lily and James grow.

He had seen the two of them talking happily in potions, laughing over their cauldron. He saw Lily and her friends, Hestia, Alice and Emmeline eat lunch with the four boys he had come to loath and despise. He had seen them all walk back from the Quidditch pitch together after Gryffindor had practiced. And he had heard that Lily was now spending some of her free periods with the marauders without her friends there. Severus desperately hoped that the last one was just a rumour.

It really pained him to see Lily become friends with the boy they had both hated for five years. To see her slowly become friends with the four boys that plagued his Hogwarts existence. When he and Lily were friends they had made a pact that they would never become even acquaintances with the marauders, and yet here she was breaking that pact under his very nose. Even if they weren't friends anymore Severus thought she would still honour their agreement. He had noticed that her attitude towards them had changed due to what she referred to them as. Yes, she still called them by their last names, but Severus believed that that was more out of habit than with the contempt that she usually said it with. Lily was becoming friends with them and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

So, even though Severus couldn't stop Lily from becoming friends with his sworn enemy, he could make his enemy's life a misery. At every opportunity he got, (and as he was following them, he got a lot of them.), Severus would curse James Potter. He used the leg-locker curse, the jelly legs curse, the tongue-tying curse, the bat-bogey hex and even the hair removal curse. Unfortunately, his curses on James didn't last for too long as he always had someone on hand to remove the curse before it became serious. This wasn't what bothered him though. What bothered him was that Potter would never fight back. Ever. Not like he had in previous years when he had been the one throwing the curses around. He wouldn't even let his friends retaliate for him. He would just walk away.

Now, Severus was at breakfast and had just seen Lily, her friends, (whose names he had never bothered to learn), and the marauders all walk in together. He gripped his fork tightly trying to resist the urge to throw it at James who was talking to Lily. His Lily. They all sat down. Severus watched Lily as she did so, her back towards him, her long red hair cascading elegantly down her back. James sat opposite her and continued the conversation they had been having. He was looking at her in a way that made Severus' skin crawl. Impulsively and inconspicuously, Severus raised his wand and pointed it at James just as he was taking a drink from his goblet. Severus muttered a few well-chosen words and a spell erupted from his wand, hitting James dead in the throat. Severus smiled maliciously.

James grabbed his throat and tried to breathe but only feeling the oddest sensation overwhelm him. He had been trying to swallow his mouthful of pumpkin juice when it had suddenly become lodged in his throat and had turned ice cold. Without warning, James bolted from the great hall. Lily, who had been talking to him, looked about in shock for a second before following him. Hestia, Emmeline and Alice followed her with Remus and Peter following them. Sirius however, paused for a moment and looked around the great hall. His eyes immediately landed on the smirking face of Severus Snape as he watched James dart from the room. Sirius sneered in his general direction before going after his best friend.

He quickly caught up with Lily who was clutching a stitch in her side. She pointed towards the hospital wing and Sirius, followed by Remus, ran there at break-neck speed.

When they arrived in the hospital wing, they saw an almost purple James banging on the door to Madam Pomfrey's office. She swung the door open to yell at whoever had disturbed her, but upon seeing James purple face, quickly sprang into action, pulling out her wand, diagnosing him immediately and melting the ice in his throat.

James gasped for air and collapsed on the nearest bed breathing deeply. Madam Pomfrey quickly set upon finding a bottle of calming draught in the medicine cupboard whilst Remus patted James on the back. Sirius was walking backwards and forwards furiously. Soon the girls arrived and crowded around James instantly asking him if he was all right. He croaked a reply and drank the calming draught Madam Pomfrey had just brought over to him.

'What happened?' Lily asked trying to catch James gaze, 'One minute we were talking about our transfiguration assignment and the next you were running for the hills.'

'Someone froze a mouthful of pumpkin juice in his throat.' Madam Pomfrey said taking the goblet from James' shaking hand, 'You should recover in five to ten minutes. After that you may leave. I've got to go write this down.' And then she left the eight teenagers alone to figure out exactly what had happened.

'Why would someone do that?' Alice asked concerned, 'You could have choked!'

'Some people do not care for the sanctity of life.' Emmeline said dreamily.

'Or the sanctity of pumpkin juice!' Hestia said folding her arms.

'Do you know who did it Potter?' Lily asked James still trying to catch his eye.

James looked down into his lap and said hoarsely, 'I don't know,'

'Oh for goodness sakes Prongs!' Sirius suddenly exploded, 'You know perfectly well who it was!'

'Padfoot.' James said quietly, his voice begging Sirius to shut up.

'No Prongs! If he's not trying to make you choke he's locking your damn legs together!'

'Padfoot.' James repeated a little louder. Sirius still didn't listen.

'He keeps doing this the slime! Removing all your hair…'

'Padfoot.'

'…giving you jelly legs…'

'Padfoot!'

'…splitting your bag open…'

'Padfoot!'

'…changing the colour of your hair…'

'Padfoot!'

'…stealing your stuff…'

'Padfoot!'

'…and you won't retaliate…'

'Padfoot!'

'…won't even let us give what's coming to the little -'

'SIRIUS!' James said, his voice reaching breaking point.

At the sound of his real name, Sirius stopped in shock and looked at James. He saw him begging through is eyes for Sirius to stop. Sirius knew why. Lily Evans. James wanted to show her that he had grown up. Sirius just wished that James growing up didn't include taking what Severus Snape gave them lying down.

'Fine.' Sirius said before sitting on the bed opposite James and fixing him with a moody stare.

'Thank you.' James said quietly returning Sirius gaze. He conveyed his thanks in this stare. He knew that Sirius knew that James didn't want Lily to know that it was her ex-best friend cursing him. Even though they were now sort of friends, James was sure that if Lily found out what Severus was doing, she would find a way to make it James fault. It wasn't true, but it was just how he felt and what he thought.

'Potter,' Lily began tentatively, 'Do you know who did this?' she asked, knowing full well he did.

'No.' James said before hopping off the bed and leaving the hospital wing.

* * *

Everyone was excited. It was the first Quidditch match of the season; Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw. The tantalising taste of anticipation was filling the air. People were stood in the stands of the Quidditch pitch waving flags and banners for the teams they were supporting. The Gryffindor's and the Ravenclaw's were supporting their respective teams. Hufflepuff were divided between the two teams. The Slytherin's however had gone all out to express their aversion to Gryffindor, wearing bronze and blue hats and scarves as well as waving enormous flags and banners with giant eagles on them. The crowd roared as the two teams strode on to the pitch, the captains in front.

James waved to the people in the stands, enjoying the attention as he walked up to the captain of the Ravenclaw team. They shook hands as Madam Rolanda Hooch, the Flying instructor and Quidditch Referee, told them to play a clean game. She was known for her fairness, good sportsmanship and for keeping all the Hogwarts Quidditch matches as fair as possible.

The teams mounted their brooms and kicked off from the ground taking their positions. The commentator for the game was Mary McDonald, a sixth year Gryffindor who shared a dorm room with Lily.

'The players take their positions. The Quaffle is released and the game begins!' Mary shouted her voice magnified a thousand times by the sonorous charm. 'Gryffindor's James Potter takes the Quaffle. He dodges a Bludger sent towards him by the Ravenclaw beater and passes the Quaffle to Hestia Jones. She shoots…SHE SCORES! Ten points to Gryffindor!'

Up in the stands, watching the game, was Remus, Peter, Lily, Emmeline and Alice. They had all decided to sit together to support James, Hestia, Sirius and the rest of the team. They were all words of support and encouragement.

'You can do it!' Alice yelled.

'Make us proud!' Emmeline yelled.

'Kick their butts!' Remus yelled.

'Yeah!' Peter yelled.

'Throw that…ball?' Lily yelled causing the people around her to turn and look at her. She had never been that interested in Quidditch and after five years of watching the game, she had realised that she knew less about the sport than she thought she did. She couldn't even remember the name of the ball. You see, whenever someone would start talking about Quidditch she would just zone out. She knew nothing about it.

'It's a Quaffle.' Remus whispered to Lily.

'I know!' Lily said stubbornly making a mental note to learn at least the basics of the wizarding sport. Especially as her best friend was on the team and it had been just over five years.

Up in the air Sirius was waiting for a Bludger to whack. He had just saved the Gryffindor keeper from a serious concussion and had hit the ball towards one of the Ravenclaw chasers who had been winded due to his superb aiming skills. Thanks to this, the Ravenclaw chaser had dropped the ball into Hestia's arms, who scored a goal moments later. Sirius wished Beater could score goals. It would make the game more interesting for the keepers having to focus on three balls coming towards the hoops. He already thought that the Gryffindor keeper was useless. It wasn't because he always let the Quaffle through the hoops, it was because the Gryffindor chasers were so good, the other team never got a chance to score. This left the keeper flying in front of the hoops with nothing to do.

A Bludger soared towards the Gryffindor Seeker who was only a few feet away from Sirius. He managed to dodge the Bludger so it flew over his shoulder where Sirius was waiting for it. He threw his bat back and with an almighty crack sent the Bludger towards the Ravenclaw's seeker who didn't manage to move out of the way quickly enough. The Bludger hit her right arm, breaking it.

'Ohh!' Mary said, her voice still magnified for the commentary of the game, 'The Ravenclaw seeker takes a beating to her arm thanks to Gryffindor's Beater, Sirius Black. Gryffindor are up eighty points to sixty. Looks like Ravenclaw's chances of winning have almost shattered along with their seekers arm.' Mary grimaced as all the Ravenclaw's and Ravenclaw's supporters sighed as they knew she was right. The game was pretty much over now.

'OI!' James yelled to his Seeker as he saw a small glint of gold zoom towards the Gryffindor goals.

The seeker looked to where James was pointing and immediately flew in that directing her arm outstretched. The Ravenclaw seeker was hot on her tail. The two girls were almost neck and neck. The Ravenclaw girl looked in pain as she attempted to stretch her right arm out, (which was most likely broken), so that she could keep her broom steady with her left.

The snitch suddenly bolted towards the ground. Everyone was so enamoured with the chase for the snitch that James and Hestia were able to take it in turns shooting goals into the Ravenclaw hoops. They scored five more goals before an almighty cheer ricocheted through the stadium.

'The Gryffindor Seeker catches the snitch! That's an extra one-hundred and fifty points for Gryffindor. The final score; two-hundred and eighty points to seventy. GRYFFINDOR WINS!' Mary shouted over the roaring crowd.

The Gryffindor team flew down to the ground and clumped together in a giant hug. They were jumping up and down, relieved that they had won their first game. All they had to do now was win one more game to secure a place in the Quidditch cup final. They were now in full Quidditch mode. Now their training would really start which made the team fear what was to come. James already made them spend most their time on the pitch for practice, that they couldn't see how they could do more.

They were informed that their practice schedule wouldn't change until closer to the game against Hufflepuff by James in the changing room. He was congratulating them on a successful game and was giving them all a bar of Honeydukes chocolate to reward their success. It was something James always liked to do. Give them a reward. It was usually chocolate or Bertie Bott's every flavour beans. Either way, the team always appreciated it.

'Thanks guys!' he finished, 'See you on Tuesday night for practice!'

The changing room emptied leaving Sirius and James alone. James had a sneaking suspicion that Sirius hadn't heard a word he'd said as he was too preoccupied with scoffing down his chocolate bar.

'I should probably wait to give you these things until I've finished speaking, shouldn't I?' James asked Sirius with his arms folded.

'Huh?' Sirius said looking up with a chunk of chocolate protruding out of his mouth.

'Never mind!' James chuckled, slapping Sirius on the back in a brotherly fashion. 'Come on. Moony and Wormtail will be waiting!'

They both gathered their things together and walked out of the changing room where, sure enough, Remus and Peter were waiting dutifully for them. They exchanged congratulations and thanks before heading back to the castle, discussing plans for the upcoming full moon, too used to someone following them to notice or even care.

* * *

**Reviews are welcome but not always necessary!**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	10. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter nine! **

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Nine**

James was sat in the common room by the fire. He was doing a three foot essay for Charms when a cat jumped up on the table he was working at and knocked his ink bottle all over his work.

'Ah man!' James said under his breath and he petted the cat, 'Now why'd you do that?'

A second year girl rushed over seeing what her cat had done. When she saw who was petting her cat, her breath hitched. 'I'm sorry!' she flushed, shaking as she reached out to grab her cat. She picked him up, flushed deeper, and walked away from James, glowing at the fact that she had just spoken to him.

James shook his head. He was used to girls doing that when they spoke to him. He no longer took notice of them as there was only one girl he wanted. With Lily in mind, James had an idea and took out his wand and started to lift the spilt ink magically from his parchment.

When he had done, a fourth year girl came over to him and gave him a role of parchment which she said had come from Professor Slughorn. He thanked the girl who just stood watching him and batting her eyelids. He was about to ask her, politely, to leave when Remus and Sirius walked into the room with Peter trailing behind them.

'If you keep doing that your eyes will fall out!' Remus said to the girl as he flopped down next to James. The girl scowled at him for interrupting her James-gazing time, before turning around and flouncing away.

'What's this?' Sirius said reaching over and grabbing the roll of parchment which James still had in his hand.

'Mine?' James said his hand still in the position of holding the parchment.

Sirius just stuck his tongue out at James, unrolled the parchment and read the letter in a fancy voice. 'James, I would be delighted if you would join me for my annual Halloween party in the dungeons. Sincerely, Professor H. E. F. Slughorn.' Sirius handed the letter back to James, 'You'd have thought that after five years of ignoring his stupid little parties, he'd have realised that you don't want to be part of the 'slug club'!'

'Well you have to admire his persistence!' Remus said, looking at the letter in James' hands, 'You gonna put him out of his misery and finally go to one of these things?'

James tossed the letter on the table. 'Can't,' James carried on siphoning the ink from his charms homework, 'On the same day as…' he gestured to Remus.

'Ah…' Remus said nodding in realisation. In three days not only would it be Halloween, it would be the full moon meaning that he would have to undergo the painful transformation into a werewolf. 'Well that should be fun!' Remus grumbled sarcastically.

'Course it will! I'll be there!' Sirius said happily with wide arms, 'What could be more fun?!'

'Oh I can think of many things!' Remus said with a wicked smile.

'Like cleaning the Owlery!' James muttered under his breath as he began rolling his Charms essay up.

'Don't tell me you've actually done that homework!' Sirius said scandalized, not hearing his previous comment.

'Yeah…' James said putting his homework in his bag before Sirius could grab it.

'WHY?' Sirius yelled dramatically.

James rolled his eyes and shook his head. Something then caught his eye. 'Pete,' he said slowly, 'aren't you meant to be in an astronomy class now?'

Peter expression turned to shock as he scraped back his chair and staggered through the common room before clambering out of the portrait hole and out of sight.

'Did you two not remember?' James asked his friends who were kicking each other under the table.

'No, I'd forgotten.' Remus said apologetically.

'What about you Padfoot?' James said turning to Sirius who was now folding up a piece of parchment to make a paper broom.

'Why should I have to memorise his timetable? I have a hard enough time remembering my own!' he grumbled moodily. He then took out his wand and charmed his paper broom to fly around the common room. Moments later, James saw Sirius paper broom being torn to shreds by the cat that had spilt ink over his Charms essay.

'So!' Sirius said.

'So?' James repeated.

Sirius leaned in towards James and Remus who mirrored his actions. 'What we gonna do about old Snivelly following us around.'

'I've told you we're not gonna do anything!' James said exasperatedly.

'We've got to do something!' Sirius said as if it was obvious, 'We can't just let him carry on following us! How are we supposed to, you know…' Sirius paused trying to thing of the right word, 'maraud?'

'Maraud?' Remus said with a raised eyebrow.

'It's a word!' Sirius said pompously.

'No it's not!' Remus sighed.

'Well if it's not a word…then how come I could use it in a sentence? Hmm?' Sirius said matter of factly, believing he had won this argument.

'Fine.' Remus said giving up, knowing that Sirius wouldn't drop this topic for ages if he didn't agree.

'Yay! I win!' Sirius said happily before suddenly turning deadly serious, 'What _are_ we gonna do about Snivellus trailing us around?'

'Nothing!' James said through gritted teeth before gathering his things together and walking away from his friends, up the staircase to the boy's dormitories, and out of sight.

'Well I'm gonna do something!' Sirius said to Remus who sighed and shook his head.

'Don't Sirius! You'll just make things worse. Just let it lie!' Remus said getting up and following James to the dormitory.

'I'm still gonna do something!' Sirius said to the chair next to him, 'Now I just need to figure out what…'

* * *

First thing Thursday morning, the Gryffindor's had Herbology with the Hufflepuff's. Usually, they would have all moaned and groaned about having to be out in a freezing cold greenhouse at nine thirty in the morning, but today was an exception. As the Snargaluff plants they had put into dragon dung last lesson hadn't began to pulsate yet, therefore they weren't ready to be picked, Professor Sprout had prepared them a special activity. Ok it wasn't so much a special activity as a job she hadn't finished in time, (time management wasn't her strong point), but it was still fun. The sixth year Herbology class of Hufflepuff's and Gryffindor's were to help her carve the pumpkins for the festivities of Halloween which would commence the next night.

Remus hated Halloween. It was the one day of the year that people were the most interested in dark creatures and scary monsters. It was the one day of the year which he always feared because he thought his lycanthropy might be revealed. This Halloween would be even worse because the full moon fell on the thirty first of October. Halloween. So whilst everyone else would be enjoying the Halloween feast, he would be in the shrieking shack just waiting to undergo the painful transformation of becoming a werewolf.

James and Sirius were major fans of Halloween because, apart from April fool's day, it was the one day of the year they could pull pranks without disrupting the everyday life at Hogwarts. Not that this usually stopped them. I was just nice to know that for once, their practical jokes wouldn't be condemned as bad behaviour, just written off as high spirited Halloween fun.

Peter had no personal feelings towards the holiday. Instead, every year, he would change his view towards the festivities depending on who he was with. If he was with James and Sirius, he would put all the energy he could muster into planning the Halloween pranks they would pull. If he was with Remus, he would shun the holiday and moan about it. He was a very fickle boy.

Living in the muggle world, Lily hadn't particularly celebrated Halloween an awful lot, but since entering the wizarding world, she had grown to love it. At least, she had grown to love how Hogwarts celebrated Halloween such as the pumpkins that would be placed on the tables. Not really the bats flying around the school but the cauldrons filled with sweets everywhere you looked. She also loved the way the ghosts threw themselves into fulfilling the muggle stereotype. And now she was helping to carve the pumpkins. Being a part of the preparations made Lily feel like she belonged. It was a nice feeling.

Hestia, Lily's best and closet friend, loved Halloween. As an aspiring journalist for the Daily Prophet, she found that Halloween had proved to be the night when the most newsworthy things happened. People usually became hooked on sugar and began to do crazy things. Hestia loved it and was always ready to write her idea's down. She would send them off to the Daily Prophet every so often. This way, they would know who she was so when she graduated from Hogwarts, they would want to hire her. Halloween was perfect for a new story.

Emmeline didn't mind Halloween. Emmeline liked it because on this day, people took a keen interest in divination which was her favourite subject. On this day, people could see her side of things and they didn't just see her as an airhead who randomly spouted philosophical prophesies. Now Emmeline didn't claim to be a seer, nor did she want to become one. She just liked believing that there was something controlling your fate and that everything happened for a reason. Also, she loved the Halloween feast.

Alice, like Remus, hated Halloween. She could never see the point in endorsing the holiday which had originated from a muggle tradition. Especially when this tradition was, in her eyes, mocking all that the wizarding world stood for. She was one of the few who refused to celebrate the festival. However, she was partial to the sweets in the cauldrons and the Halloween feast. For these portions of the day, she always managed to set aside her feelings. Today, she had decided to do the same whilst she carved some pumpkins. She was rather enjoying herself.

'Mine's got buckteeth!' Alice said taking a step back and viewing her pumpkin from a small distance. Her three friends stepped back with her and assessed her buck-toothed pumpkin.

'If you squint your eyes it doesn't look too bad!' Lily said, her face contorting into a squinting frown.

'Yeah!' Hestia said, doing the same as Lily, 'It kinda looks like you!'

'I don't have buck-teeth!' Alice exclaimed.

'Course you don't!' Hestia said putting a sarcastically sympathetic hand on Alice's shoulder. Alice glared at her.

'At least your face is symmetrical!' Lily said to Alice.

'Everyone's face is symmetrical.' Emmeline said softly, 'it has something to do with human analogy or -'

'I meant the pumpkin!' Lily said slowly.

'Oh…' Emmeline said in quiet surprise, 'Continue.'

Lily rolled her eyes before looking at her watch. They had five minutes left of the lesson and they had spent the whole of it carving their pumpkins. Why they hadn't used magic she would never know. All she had to go on was that Professor Sprout had told the class, Professor Dumbledore preferred the pumpkins to be hand carved. Lily suspected it was because it made them feel more personal and homemade. Dumbledore had a soft spot for both of these things.

'Oh no!' Hestia whined slamming down the chiselling tool she had been using to carve her pumpkin with.

'What's wrong?' Lily said looking at Hestia's pumpkin before taking an almighty gasp and bursting into laughter. The sound filled the greenhouse.

James looked up and smiled at the delicious sound of Lily's laughter. He looked over to where she was stood looking at Hestia's pumpkin, her hair bouncing about happily. He sighed contently before returning to his own carving.

'Don't laugh!' Hestia said grumpily, hating the fact that the joke was now turned around on her.

'It's karma!' Emmeline said to Hestia nodding her head and shrugging her shoulders.

'What?' Hestia said thoroughly confused, 'What in Merlin's name is karma?'

'Karma is the theory of what goes around comes around.' Emmeline said with a small smile.

'And how does that relate to me ruining my pumpkin?' Hestia said placing her hands on her hips and narrowing her eyes.

'Simple!' Lily said, 'As you said Alice had buck-teeth like her pumpkin, your pumpkin suffered for it.'

'Whoa!' Hestia said holding up her hand in a stopping motion, 'My pumpkin has a mono-brow because I said Alice has buckteeth? Why do I get punished for telling the truth?!'

'Sure. Dig yourself a deeper whole!' Lily said rolling her eyes.

Hestia shot her an evil look whilst Alice laughed and Emmeline sat staring out of the roof of the green house dreamily.

'Thank you class! Next lesson we will return to your Snargaluff plants! Leave your pumpkins on the table and off you go!' Professor sprout said happily opening the greenhouse door and letting the students out.

Lily and her friends exited the green house.

'We had divination now.' Emmeline said smiling sadly at Lily who shrugged.

'It's ok!' she said to her friends.

'So are we still hanging around with the infamous marauders then?' Hestia said waggling her eyebrows.

'Yes.' Lily replied through a stiff jaw. 'They aren't as…bad…as I thought!'

'High compliment!' Sirius said as he and the other marauders appeared behind them.

'Yeah Evans!' James said smiling, 'Didn't realise you thought so highly of us!' he put his hand on his heart and wiped away a fake tear much to Lily's amusement.

'Don't flatter yourself too much Potter!' Lily said trying to bite back her laughter, 'I only said you weren't as bad as I thought.'

The four boys looked at her with blank expressions drawn across their faces. They then all looked at each other before Sirius said, 'I still think that is high praise.' The other three nodded quickly.

'Well we've got to be off!' Emmeline said hugging Lily goodbye.

'Yeah. Can't be late for divination!' Hestia said sarcastically. She too hugged Lily before releasing her into Alice's arms.

After they had all hugged goodbye, Hestia, Emmeline and Alice departed for divination leaving Lily with the marauders and, unbeknownst to her, Severus as he was still tailing them. (He had waited, out of sight, for them to finish Herbology so he could continue with his task.)

'Why do girls always hug each other good bye?' Remus asked Lily as the five of them began to walk up to the castle.

'I don't know really.' she replied now wondering herself why girls did do that, 'What do guys do when they say good bye?'

'The can-can.' James said seriously looking Lily straight in the eyes. She burst into laughter.

Behind them, every laugh sounded by Lily was like a stab in Severus' heart. When he had saw Lily's friends leave, he had hoped that Lily would soon follow them. This would mean that his worst fears weren't true. Unfortunately, they were; Lily was friends with the marauders.

* * *

'Does he think we're blind?' Sirius said in an outraged whisper to James as they walked down to dinner the day before Halloween. He kept glancing behind them because Severus was still following them. 'Yesterday he followed us all day! Even when we didn't have any lessons or anything with the greasy haired bat, he still managed to find us and follow us! Why don't you want to do anything about this?'

'Just, please let it run its course!' James said bored. It was the eighth time they had had the same conversation this week.

'No!' Sirius said angrily stopping in the middle of the corridor causing some second years behind them to crash into their backs. 'Watch it!' Sirius snapped. The second years looked scared and quickly scampered away from Sirius frightening gaze.

'Padfoot.' Remus said warningly, 'Was that really necessary?'

'Yes. I'm angry and annoyed and agitated and a-a-a-angry-'

'You already said angry.' James interjected.

'Well I ran out of words beginning with a!' Sirius whined returning to his usual self.

'I know!' James said sympathetically, 'I'm just shocked you were able to think of the word agitated.'

'Why?' Sirius asked confused, 'It's a real word…Isn't it?'

James and Remus shook their heads fondly. Peter copied them.

Remus then leaned into his friends and whispered so quietly no-one could possibly hope of hearing, 'As he is following us, maybe this month you shouldn't come with me.'

'Probably best.' James said, a little bummed out. Sirius also nodded in agreement before moving into his mind.

He decided not to return to his topic of conversation that day but at the back of his mind, his desire to know what Severus was up to still burned. If the moment arose, Sirius would try to put a stop to Severus' creepy stalking, he would seize it with both hands. He was doing well to abstain from doing something to stop him so far, per James' request. He wouldn't be able to for much longer. But for now, he was just going to try and enjoy the preparations for Halloween the next day. After all, as a marauder, James, Remus, Peter and himself had some Halloween planning to do of their own.

* * *

At lunchtime on Friday, Lily was in the dungeons at the first slug club meeting of the year. Professor Slughorn had really gone all out with the decorations this year. There were orange streamers everywhere which whistled when you walked through them. Six pumpkins floating in a circle near the ceiling. Giant cobwebs which adorned the darkest corners of the room. And a sarcophagus which was against the far wall which, when opened, either spouted out sweets or gave the person who opened it the fright of their life.

Yes Professor Slughorn did know how to throw a good party. Unfortunately he wasn't a very good host. Instead of circulating around all of his guests, he usually just spoke to his favourite students and avoided those who he only invited because of who their family was and not because he thought they had potential. As Lily was one of his favourites, she usually had the unwelcome pleasure of enduring his company for almost all the party. It wasn't that she didn't like him. On the contrary, he was one of her preferred teachers, but outside the classroom, she found that he was consumed with bettering his own situation by pushing others into positions of power. That way he didn't have to do any of the hard work but still was able enjoy all of the perks. Luckily, on this occasion, his party only lasted for the lunch hour so she didn't have to converse with him for too long.

'Now then Lovely-Lily I see you as a healer. I'm actually very close with the head healer at St. Mungo's, lovely chap, came from Italy originally I believe. Yes, well I am very good friends with him and I'm sure, on my recommendation, that he would be willing to give you a good position of authority straight away. Perhaps, in the potions and plant poisoning ward. Yes, yes. That would suit you just fine. I'll have a word with him. As I say, lovely chap. Always gives me a free check-up when I need it.' Slughorn rambled to Lily as she stood there smiling stiffly and watching the clock as the seconds ticked by.

'Well professor, I'm not sure if I want to be a healer actually.' Lily said meekly. She wasn't certain yet but it was definitely in her top five.

'Oh yes, yes, I quite understand. All that guts and gore. Who needs that? Yes I think your right. Perhaps you would do better in the ministry. An auror perhaps. You're good with a wand. I could really see you doing a bit of damage there. Not to the ministry of course. Just any dark wizards or criminals you ever go up against. Yes, actually. I do believe you'll make a fine auror. I actually know the head auror in the ministry at the moment. Man named Rufus Scrimgeour. Only got the job a few months back. In June I think it was. Was in all the papers you know, so you'll probably have heard of him. Only left Hogwarts a few years ago. Don't know if you'd have known him. He was a fifth year, I think, when you joined the school. Very bright boy. Didn't take to well to instructions for the first few years of his education. Then I sat him down, gave him a good talking to. Was a model student from then on. Went straight into the auror's office after Hogwarts. Kept his head down and worked hard. Now he's head of the auror's office. Just shows what you can accomplish with some hard work. Anyway, he always takes a look at any object I find suspicious. Checks out any strange goings on that I alert him too. Values my opinion you see. Except with his hair. Looks like a lions mane. Won't cut it no matter what anyone says. Just one of life's uncontrollable things I suppose.' Slughorn had been talking to Lily for almost twenty minutes now and she was extremely bored. His presence around her did keep away certain unwanted guests but she was too fed up to care that much about anyone else bothering her right now.

'Oh look sir!' She said suddenly motioning to a girl who had just walked through the door to join the party, 'Isn't that Amelia Bones?'

'Oh yes, yes it is. Brilliant student. Very good at making a point. Winning arguments without violence that sort of thing. Very gentle as well. Wonderful girl. A Hufflepuff you know. Now, she would really excel in the department of magical law enforcement. I think I'll tell her that.' he said hurriedly before calling out to Amelia, 'Ah Miss Bones! I believe you would do well in the department of magical law enforcement. I know the head of the department and would just be delighted to introduce you…'

Lily breathed a sigh of relief as Professor Slughorn walked away.

'Goes on a bit doesn't he!' a voice said from behind her. She turned around to see Severus smiling at her sheepishly. Before he could say another word though, Lily whipped around, her long hair almost smacking him in the face, and left the party inconspicuously.

* * *

Everyone was seated in the great hall ready for the infamous Halloween feast. The room was filled with excited chatter. The anticipated feast would soon cover the table before being devoured by the hungry students.

Lily, Hestia, Emmeline and Alice were sitting at the Gryffindor table, all of them with rumbling bellies.

'Why hasn't the feast stared yet!? I'm starving!' Hestia whined.

'It'll start when everyone's here.' Lily said calmly to her best friend.

'Everyone is here!' Alice said looking around just as her belly gave an almighty roar.

'Everyone but-'

Before Lily could finish what she was about to say, the doors to the great hall swung open and thudded against the walls. Nearly a thousand heads whipped round to see who had delayed the feast.

All four marauders were stood in the door way. All of them had long white beards tucked into a belt on a purple robe. All of them had half-moon glasses on. And all of them had a long pointed purple wizard's hat on top of their heads.

Through the silence which their entrance had caused, James said, 'Sorry we're late!'

The hall burst into laughter. James, Sirius, Remus and Peter looked at each other pleased and proud. However, when James gaze landed upon Remus who was stood on his left, his expression fell. Sirius, who was on the other side of Remus, was also looking at Remus with a disappointed gaze.

The whole hall noticed how James and Sirius were looking at Remus and soon quietened down enough for them to hear the conversation that followed.

'What are you wearing?' James asked at the same time as Sirius raged, 'That's what you call a Dumbledore costume?!'

At this point the hall noticed Remus' costume in all its, well, not glory. His robe was above his ankles showing a ridiculous pair of yellow boots. His beard had barely gone past his armpits and was tinged grey instead of pure white as it was supposed to be. And his wizard's hat resembled that of a muggle top hat.

Sirius and James looked at each other and shook their heads.

'We're sorry Remus old pal-' James began.

'But you're a disgrace-' Sirius continued.

'Not just as a Dumbledore-'

'But as a marauder as well.'

'Goodbye!' they said in unison as both of them took out their wands. James placed his wand on Remus head as Sirius pointed his at Remus feet. There was a flash of smoke. When it had cleared, everyone in the hall had seen that Remus had disappeared. They turned their heads to Sirius and James who were looking very pleased with themselves, their wands still in their hands.

'Sorry you had to see that!' James said to the hall at large.

They all still looked at the two boys in total shock that they would do such a thing to their friend. If it was Peter, who still stood meekly almost behind them, then they would understand. But Remus? What they didn't know was what they saw happen and what had really happened, were two very different things. They had seen Remus disappear in a cloud of white smoke and although this was true, the mechanics of his disappearance were more complex.

Earlier that day, the marauders had been trying to figure out a plausible reason for Remus to not be at the feast that evening. It was the full moon, but because it landed on Halloween, it would be even trickier than usual to hide Remus' disappearance. Usually, he would just quietly slip away and if anyone asked, his friends would just say that he was visiting a sick aunt. Unfortunately, his aunt had been killed by Voldemort and his followers during the summer and it was widely publicised meaning he had not only had he lost his aunt, but his excuse as well. Ever since, he and his friends had been even more worried that Remus' secret would be revealed. So, for Halloween, the second full moon of the school year, James, Sirius and Remus had created an idea that would mean not only that he could miss the Halloween feast, but where everyone in the school would have their curiosity settled as well. When they all entered the hall dressed as Dumbledore, James would silently cast a disillusionment spell whilst Sirius made a giant cloud of smoke, creating the illusion that they had banished Remus to an alternate plane. Whereas, in reality, Remus had just walked off to the whomping willow to await his transformation.

In the hall, everyone was still looking at the three remaining marauders in shock. At seeing their faces, Sirius said, 'Don't worry! We sent him somewhere nice!'

'We hope…' James completed much to the amusement of the people around him.

James and Sirius began to walk down the centre aisle of the great hall with Peter trailing behind them trying with all his might to copy their swagger. As they went past, James and Sirius pointed their wands at the pumpkins on the tables either side of the aisle and animated them. The pumpkins began to sing the Hogwarts song to a delighted and mesmerised hall.

They soon passed Lily and her friends who were sat in stitches of laughter. As they passed Peter tripped over his 'Dumbledore robe', but Sirius and James didn't notice and continued through the great hall in their own little world. So instead of continuing to follow them, he just sat down next to Lily and her friends at the Gryffindor table and watched what James and Sirius did next.

They soon reached the high table at the front of the hall where the teachers sat. They stopped in front of Dumbledore, who was laughing silently with tears twinkling in his eyes. James and Sirius looked at each other before peering over their half-moon spectacles at Dumbledore.

'Excuse me.' Sirius said to Dumbledore. Everyone in the hall started to stifle their laughter.

'I do believe you are in my seat…' James said smiling at Dumbledore who smiled in return.

'You're seat?' Sirius said in astonishment, 'I do believe my friend, that this is my seat.'

The whole hall was giggling and laughing at this exchange but were trying to do so quietly so they could hear what was going on still.

'Oh Sirius.' James said shaking his head and placing his hand on his shoulder sympathetically, 'Poor delusional Sirius. I think you will find that this,' he motioned at Dumbledore's chair 'is my chair.'

They then began a childish back and forth.

'It's my chair!' Sirius said.

'No it's not.'

'Is so!'

'Does it have your name on it?'

'Does it have _your_ name on it?'

'Don't repeat what I'm saying!'

'Don't repeat what _I'm _saying!'

'This is ridiculous!'

'You're ridiculous.'

'Boys, boys, boys.' Dumbledore said calmly looking between the two boys in amusement. James and Sirius stopped their bickering and turned to their beloved headmaster. Dumbledore took out his wand and quickly conjured up two chairs identical to his. He placed them either side of his own chair and extended the high table. He then smiled at the two boys, his ice blue eyes twinkling happily, and motioned for them to join him at the high table.

James and Sirius held their heads high as they walked around the table and sat next to Dumbledore.

'Would you like to do the honours?' he asked James and Sirius who nodded and stood up importantly.

'May the feast begin!' they said in unison.

No sooner had the words left their mouths, the gold platters on every table filled with a massive variety of Halloween themed food. There was hot and cold food available to the students. Some sausages which looked like severed fingers, some pumpkin pasties and pies, there were even some small onions which were made to look like eyeballs. The tomato soup was decorated to perfection with a pumpkin face adorning the skin and the bread was carved to look like a figurine of a mummy. At Halloween the house elves were allowed to be as creative as they liked and this year, they had obviously indulged themselves in their work.

'I trust Remus has gone to the whomping willow to transform?' Dumbledore asked James quietly as he took a bite out of one of the severed sausage fingers.

He had known since their first year that Remus' friends knew about his infliction. When they had discovered Remus' lycanthropy, Remus had rushed to Dumbledore sick with worry that his friends had found out and would be disgusted with his condition. Dumbledore simply told Remus to have more faith in his friends. As Remus had never returned with the same problem, Dumbledore assumed all was well. Also, as Remus had a brighter smile the next day and his friends were still with him, he guessed that they had discovered Remus' secret and were all right with it.

'Yeah he did.' James replied as he took a slice of pumpkin pie. Before he took a bite however, he stopped in realisation. 'You know we know?'

'My dear boy, at this school, there is little I do not know about.' Dumbledore replied. As he did so Sirius laughed into his goblet of pumpkin juice, knowing full well that he and his friends had done one thing that Dumbledore knew nothing about; become Animagus'. They had also created the marauders map and had found all the secret entrances out of the castle. They had found the room of requirements permanent residence. Sirius also had a feeling that Dumbledore knew nothing about James' invisibility cloak. So, contrary to his belief, Sirius was sure that Dumbledore didn't know the half of what was going on in his school.

'I assume your show earlier was designed to smuggle him out safely?' Dumbledore asked serenely.

'That it was sir!' James replied with a smile.

'Then I must say, you have a very impressive disillusionment charm Mr Potter. If only you would focus your energies on your school work instead of your practical jokes. Then again, I have noticed a change this year. You are improving every day.' Dumbledore said raising his goblet to James who was blushing slightly at Dumbledore sought after praise.

'Thank you sir!' James said. They finished the feast with light meaningless chatter, all the while James feeling a great bubble of pride well up inside his stomach.

* * *

Severus was walking the halls near the Gryffindor common room waiting for any sign of the marauders. His deadline was creeping up on him, and he was becoming impatient and a little scared. If he couldn't complete the task Voldemort had set for him, he didn't know what would happen. He didn't know what would happen when he had completed the task but he was sure it would be a darn sight nicer than what would happen to him if he didn't.

He didn't have to wait long before one of the marauders appeared around the corner. Severus could feel in his bones that tonight he would be able to find out the information he desired. Mostly because this was the first time he had seen a marauder out on his own. He followed him a through a few corridor and down one flight of stairs before he was seen. When he tried to follow the boy around a corner, the boy turned around and saw him. He whipped out his wand and levitated Severus up in the air, dangling him from his ankle. Severus just hung there unable to move. The boy walked closer and Severus found himself face to face with Sirius Black.

'Well, well.' Sirius said with a small smirk, 'What do we have here? It's an overgrown bat hanging upside down. Good job really. Don't want you dirtying the floors!'

Severus had no time to retaliate. He was becoming impatient and just wanted to find out the information Voldemort wanted. 'Where are you going?' he said quickly.

'The kitchens.' Sirius said nonchalantly. 'Why are you following me? Why have you been following us for almost a month?'

'One of you goes somewhere every month and I want to know who and where!' Severus said without thinking.

'Well. If that's all you want to know,' Sirius said with an evil grin spreading across his face, knowing that he was about to get Severus back for everything he had done to James that month and for following them all around, 'I'll tell you…'

* * *

At ten to eleven that evening, Sirius waltzed into the Gryffindor common room with a triumphant look upon his face. He walked over to the fireplace, where James and Peter were sitting and plonked himself down into the middle of their conversation.

'It's just a shame he'll be alone tonight.' James sighed as he leant back into his armchair.

'Yeah.' Peter said in a pathetic voice.

'Who's alone tonight?' Sirius asked James, ignoring Peter completely.

'Moony.' James said with a sad face.

'Oh.' Sirius said smiling evilly, 'He won't be alone for long.'

'What do you mean?' James said a little concerned.

'Let's just say that a certain Slytherin will join him shortly. That is if he follows my instructions precisely.'

'You didn't…' James said breathing quickly, panic covering his face.

'Oh yes I did.' Sirius said proudly nodding his head and not taking any notice of James' worry, 'Snivellus won't want to follow us around anymore!'

'SIRIUS YOU IDIOT!' James shouted jumping to his feet, 'HOW COULD YOU DO THAT!'

'Well I just thought-' but Sirius couldn't finish as James had cut him off and jumped straight into mission mode.

'Peter, go tell Dumbledore. Tell him it's an emergency. Use the map to find out where he is.' James said quickly and seriously to Peter who jumped up at his words, grabbed the marauders map and hurriedly exited the common room. 'Sirius you stay here.' James continued in an angrier voice. 'I'll go fix your mess.'

And with that James left the common room leaving Sirius all alone, for the first time, realising what he had done.

* * *

**Reviews are not necessary but always welcome!**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	11. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader! Sorry for the late update! Was trying to keep the chapters in line with Christmas and stuff but I think the Christmas chapters will be posted earlier than Christmas actually is but it still works out fine cause we're still in December! Hopefully anyway...Thats the plan!**

**Here's chapter Ten! **

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Ten**

Severus was searching for a long stick at the edge of the forbidden forest. He couldn't see very well in the dark so he took out his wand and created a small beam of light which illuminated the ground where he was looking. He quickly discovered a wonky branch which was covered with some leaves which had fallen at the start of autumn. They crunched as he picked the stick up and shook the stick. He smirked, _the idiots can't even hide a stupid stick, _Severus thought. He took the stick in his left hand and circled the whomping willow, his wand in his right hand lighting up the trunk of the violent tree. He soon found the knot which Sirius had told him he was to press to open a secret passage way which would lead to where Remus went every month. He pressed it and threw the stick back towards the forbidden forest and watched as the tree immobilised and part of the trunk disappeared from view. Taking a deep breath he entered the passage.

Severus crept down the dark and dirty passage way. He was almost doubled over so that he could fit down through the sloping tunnel. Soon the tunnel rose a little so he was able to see a dim opening. He peered into the room and gasped. What he saw wasn't what he expected at all. There stood, in the broken room was a fully grown werewolf. It was sniffing hungrily. It turned around its eyes blazing and started towards Severus who was stock still in terror, unable to move.

Suddenly Severus was jerked harshly from where he was and pulled by the leg out of the tunnel that was inside of the whomping willow. The werewolf was hot on Severus' trail but he was being dragged out of the tree at such an alarming rate, that he could see the werewolf falling behind. He soon found himself being pulled out of the entrance to the whomping willow. He landed on the grass and turned to see the person who had dragged him out of harm's way poking the werewolf in the eye with his wand and forcing it to unwillingly retreat far enough into the tunnel for the person who saved Severus to tap the knot on the trunk of the tree, closing the entrance. He then darted from under the whomping willow just before it started to hit again. At this moment, Severus saviours face came into the light and he saw who it was; James Potter.

James bent over breathing hard and clutching a stitch in his left side. 'Whew!' He said standing up straight and stretching, 'You'd have thought with all the Quidditch I do, running down seven floors, across the grounds and through a secret tunnel would be a piece of cake!' James laughed breathlessly.

Severus looked at him in disgust. The boy he had hated for all of his Hogwarts education had just saved his life. Who was he kidding? He probably just did it to save Remus from doing something he wouldn't want to do. Or to save his stupid best friend from causing the death of a student in the school. He was probably in on it and just got cold feet and couldn't go through with it. Either way, he didn't do it for Severus.

Severus jumped up and began to storm away.

'Hey, where you going?' James said with his arms open in shock, 'I just saved your life don't I get a thank you?' Severus continued to walk away from James, ignoring him. James followed him still talking. 'A grunt at least?' James said, 'I would accept a grunt.'

Severus stopped and turned around. 'Don't act like you weren't in on this Potter!'

'Excuse me?' James said angrily, 'When I found out what Sirius had done I raced out here to save your worthless arse!'

'No. You raced down here to save your werewolf friend.' Severus sneered.

'I raced down here so you wouldn't get killed!' James said annoyed using huge hand gestures.

'Either way I'm sure Dumbledore would like to know Remus' little secret!' Severus smirked, 'I'm sure he'd also like to know that you and your filthy friends are helping to hide him on school grounds.

'What I'd really like to know, Mr Snape, is why you believe that I do not know what goes on in my own school.' Dumbledore said appearing behind the two arguing boys with Peter peering behind his billowing robes.

'Professor.' Severus said in surprise before composing himself and hurriedly trying to tell Dumbledore what had happened, 'It was Black and Potter! They tricked me into going down that stupid secret tunnel and did you know Lupin's a were-'

Dumbledore held up his hand sharply to stop Severus from talking. 'I think my office will be a more appropriate place to discuss this matter further.' he said looking between James and Severus. 'Mr Pettigrew. I would be most grateful, when you get back to the Gryffindor common room, if you send Mr Black to my office as well. Inform him that the password is Pumpkin Fizz. Rather appropriate don't you think, considering the holiday.'

Peter scurried off leaving Dumbledore smiling serenely at James and Severus before motioning them to follow him and sweeping into the castle.

They walked in silence as the followed Dumbledore who swept through the empty halls majestically. James had a sneaking suspicion that, even if the halls were brimming with students, the way Dumbledore strode confidently down the corridor, they would still be stock silent. He was just such a commanding figure and James had the utmost respect for him.

When they reached a large and ugly stone gargoyle, a sight which James was all too familiar with, Dumbledore and the boys stopped to stare at it for a few seconds.

'Pumpkin Fizz.' Dumbledore announced. At his words the gargoyle sprang into life and leapt to the side revealing a long spiralling staircase which Dumbledore preceded to climb, followed by the two boys. At the top of the staircase, Dumbledore opened a large oak door which was hiding the headmaster's office.

James stepped into the office and took a deep breath of the familiar air.

'Hello Fawkes!' he said as he neared the phoenix which was perched near Dumbledore's desk, 'You look close to your burning day!'

'Yes. It should happen any day now.' Dumbledore said looking at the bird that had lost most of its glorious feathers and was looking very wrinkly.

'You again?' came a snarling voice emanating from a portrait on the wall.

All three in the office looked up to see the portrait of Phineas Nigellus Black, a previous headmaster of Hogwarts peering out from his frame on the wall. James shrugged at the portrait and smiled.

'Thought you'd have been expelled by now along with that poor excuse for a great-great grandson of mine. What have you done wrong now?' he sneered down at James who breathed deeply.

'Now, now, Phineas. Who's to say the boy's done anything wrong?' said another portrait of a previous headmaster, Dilys Derwent. She beamed down at James who, through his frequent visits, she had rather taken to.

'Oh shut up Dilys!' Phineas snapped.

'Oh Phineas. Stop. _Please! _Just because you are still sore that none of the students you taught as headmaster liked you doesn't mean you have to take it out on the students that the current headmaster is trying to instruct!' Armando Dippet sighed, sounding exhausted.

'Here, here!' Dilys said a little pompously.

'They liked me!' Phineas snarled.

'Oh please!' Basil Fronsac's portrait said pedantically, 'You have been voted Hogwarts least liked headmaster.'

'At the start of your term as headmaster, might I add!' Ambrose Swott inputted.

'Oh what do you all know!' Phineas mumbled causing all the portraits of the headmasters from the past to start arguing about what they did and didn't know, a conversation which could last year's considering the vastness of their collective knowledge.

'Sweet?' Dumbledore said offering James a bowl full of little yellow sugared squares, and blocking out the arguments coming from above his head which he had obviously chosen to ignore. 'Today I decided to have crystallised pineapple.' he continued as if he had no idea about the conversation the portraits had previously held.

'Thank you sir. Did Professor Slughorn visit you today by any chance?' James laughed as he took a sweet.

'How did you guess?' Dumbledore chuckled before offering a sweet to Severus who refused.

He, who had never been to Professor Dumbledore office before, had watched this exchange with disgust. It was clear to him that James Potter obviously spent a lot of time in this office and was no stranger to all its customs. Apparently, getting in trouble and being disruptive resulted in a friendly relationship with the Headmaster. Severus sneered as he was quite jealous that Dumbledore, although perhaps not purposely, didn't seem to show Severus the same kind of familiarity as he did James.

Dumbledore conjured up three chairs, (one for James, Severus and Sirius who was due to arrive any moment), before taking a seat himself behind his desk and looking at the two students with a small smile, but, James noticed, with no twinkle in his eye. They waited.

A few minutes later there was a knock on the door.

'Come in.' Dumbledore said loudly.

Sirius entered the room which he was also very familiar with and uncharacteristically shuffled over to the third chair in front of Dumbledore's desk. He didn't look up at James even though he could feel his disappointed and angry gaze burning into him. He had been growing steadily more ashamed of his actions as soon as James had dashed out of the Gryffindor common room.

'So,' Dumbledore said gently, 'I am to understand that you, Mr Black, were the one who informed Mr Snape of Mr Lupin's whereabouts. What you failed to mention is why Mr Lupin was in the Shrieking shack.'

'The Shrieking shack?' Severus exclaimed, 'Is that where that tunnel leads too?'

'Yes Mr Snape.' Dumbledore said calmly. 'Mr Black,' he continued, 'was there any particular reason why you willingly led Mr Snape into danger?'

Sirius stayed silent and just kept looking at his hands which were twisting in his lap.

'Mr Black?' Dumbledore repeated.

Sirius slowly looked up and saw the disappointed look in Dumbledore's eyes. A look that he had never seen before, even after all the trouble he had caused. He suddenly no longer felt just ashamed, but guilty as well.

'I'm sorry sir.' Sirius muttered quietly, 'I…I…mmm…I'm sorry.'

'It's quite alright Mr Black.' he said softening at Sirius apology. He was obviously remorseful.

'It is not alright!' Severus yelled outrageously leaning forwards. 'He tried to kill me! Both of them did!' he gestured to James and Sirius, 'Only Potter got cold feet and chickened out!'

'Mr Snape. I hardly believe that is how you should speak to the person who saved your life.' Dumbledore said peering over the rims of his half-moon glasses.

Severus ran out of things to say and shrank back into his seat with a grumpy face.

'I assume you now know about Mr Lupin's condition - yes - I also know about his condition -' Dumbledore said at Severus' shocked face, 'I was the one who made the arrangements for the whomping willow to be planted so he could transform safely. I hardly think that his lycanthropy, a condition which he has no control over and which he never asked for, is any reason why he should be deprived of an education. Now, I must ask you to never, Mr Snape, _never_, tell anyone about Mr Lupin's condition.' Dumbledore looked at Severus with an almost pleading look. One you couldn't refuse.

'Yes sir.' Severus said, 'I won't tell anyone. But they still tried to kill me! Shouldn't they be expelled?'

'I do not think expelling these two is the correct course of action.' Dumbledore said, 'Mr Black will receive punishment as his actions were foolish, but I do not believe that he intended to put your life in danger. Mr Potter, however, achieved a great feat of bravery, putting his own life at risk to save yours. He will not be punished for being a good Gryffindor.'

Severus sighed in frustration.

'Mr Snape. You will not repeat what you have seen or heard tonight. As far as you are concerned, you do not know that your fellow classmate is a werewolf. The prejudice against him is too great and you would ruin any chance he has of a halfway normal life. If you do ever tell anyone, I shall be most disappointed in you.' Dumbledore said to Severus gravely.

'Yes sir.' Severus replied. Even though he was now in alliance with Voldemort and his death eaters, he couldn't help but respect the old man who had helped him through his Hogwarts education so far. He had provided school robes and supplies for Severus as he couldn't afford them. To betray Dumbledore would be a great injustice. No matter the difference in their beliefs.

'Thank you Mr Snape. You may leave.' Dumbledore nodded at Severus as he scraped back his chair and left the room.

'Mr Black.' Dumbledore said, the tone in his voice making Sirius want to tell him everything.

'I'm sorry sir.' Sirius said, 'It's childish really.' he continued. Suddenly he blurted out in one breath the reason why he had done what he did. 'He had been following us around for almost a month but that's not all, if that was all I wouldn't have gone to such an extreme, it's just that he was cursing James at every available moment and James wouldn't do anything about it or even let us do anything about it, even after Snape had turned his drink to ink or when he froze his drink in his throat so he almost choked and died so I just got so tired of sitting back and watching him torture James daily so I guess I snapped and did the first thing that came to my head and didn't think it through so-'

Eventually Dumbledore held up his hand to stop Sirius babbling.

'I understand that you did not purposely put Mr Snape in danger and that your decision was based on frustration, and if I'm not mistaken, hunger.' Dumbledore said.

Sirius averted Dumbledore's gaze and looked towards the ceiling. He obviously knew Sirius had been sneaking down to the kitchens.

'You are, permanently, to be in detention on Wednesday and Friday nights. They will take place in my office from seven o'clock until nine. Your place on the Gryffindor Quidditch team will be revoked and you are also banned from all Hogsmeade visits for the remainder of this school year.' Dumbledore said writing down what he had just said with an eagle feathered quill. He gave the parchment he had written on to Sirius and told him he could now leave.

When Sirius had closed the door, James and Dumbledore sat in silence for a few moments before Dumbledore smiled proudly at James.

'Mr Potter.' Dumbledore began, 'Your actions tonight were extremely courageous. You have shown true Gryffindor spirit tonight and I am extremely proud of you.'

'Thank you sir.' James said unenthusiastically. 'That means a lot.'

'I am sensing you are still deeply unsettled with this matter?' Dumbledore asked James who nodded.

'You're sensing right sir!' James grimaced, nodding his head, 'Even being annoyed and…and hungry doesn't make what he did, ok. It's not. He could have killed someone. He could have forced Remus to attack. We've…studied werewolves. He _knows _that when they smell a human, their instincts take over. It doesn't matter that during the day, and the whole of the month, that Remus wouldn't hurt a fly. When he is a werewolf, he has no control over what happens. It's _all_ instinct. Sirius _knows _this.'

'Yes, Mr Potter, I expect he does. But you must remember that humans too, sometimes act on instinct, without considering the consequences.' Dumbledore said gently. 'I understand that you will most likely, as a loyal friend, need to tell Mr Lupin of what has happened tonight. I don't expect you not too. I also do not expect you to forgive Mr Black straight away. However, you, Mr Potter, as I said mere moments ago, are a true and loyal friend. It is a quality which I admire in you. You will not stay mad at him for long and you will forgive him.' Dumbledore smiled at James and breathed deeply. 'I have kept you here for long enough. I suspect you are tired and would appreciate some sleep. Off you go.'

James rose from his chair in a trance like state which was only broken when he reached the door. He half turned around to face Dumbledore.

'Thank you.' he whispered, and exited the room.

* * *

Severus walked into the Slytherin common room in a trance. He walked through the low-ceiling room and passed his two dorm-mates, the closest thing he had to friends and didn't stop when they called out to him. He passed the grand grey-stone fire place, the green leather sofas and the skull ornaments and made his way up to his dorm room. He climbed the dimly lit, dark oak staircase, the green glare bounced off of his greasy black hair and his hooked nose giving his face a sickly glare. Before he knew it he was sat at the desk next to his bed trying to think of a way to tell Voldemort the information he had without breaking his vow of silence to Dumbledore. It was a tricky situation.

Avery and Mulciber walked through the door, unnoticed by Severus. They smirked at each other when they saw Severus sitting at the desk with his head in his hands. Mulciber started to creep forwards silently followed by Avery. They leant forward on the desk either side of Severus, who had still not noticed their arrival.

'If you get much closer to that desk you'll have to buy it dinner!' Mulciber snickered.

'Then again, if you were a good Slytherin, with a bit of sweet talk, you could probably get away with not paying!' Avery guffawed.

'Why you slobbering over that stinking' desk anyway?' Mulciber sneered.

'Never mind that!' Mulciber said in a low voice, 'You got that information for the dark lord. I hear through the grape vine that he's getting impatient with you.'

'Yeah.' Avery said defiantly, 'We all delivered. Why aren't you? Not worthy?'

'I have the information!' Severus said through gritted teeth, 'Don't know why he-'

'Don't question the dark lord!' Mulciber whispered furiously. 'He has his reasons for wanting that information! Just give it to him or we'll all suffer!'

'I can't!' Severus burst out suddenly, 'I've been silenced by Dumbledore! I can't say anything!' Severus said frustrated.

'Well can you think it?' Avery asked.

'Why does that matter?' Severus retorted angrily.

'Because the dark lord is a master Legilimens. You don't need to tell him the information. He already knows it!' Mulciber whispered creepily.

'You can't keep a secret from the dark lord.' Avery continued, 'I heard that one man, formally a death eater, had once dated a mud-blood and they had stayed friends. Anyway he told her to go into hiding, trying to make sure none of her dirty blood was spilt. Traitor.' Avery stopped with a disgusting look on his face.

Severus tried not to look worried. 'What happened to him?' Severus asked slowly.

'Well,' Mulciber snickered, smiling darkly at Avery, 'The dark lord used legilimency. Sent in the ones he could trust to fetch the mud-blood, without her friend knowing, and had her brought back to headquarters.'

'Where he tortured her, ordered her friend to kill her, and then killed her friend.' Avery finished jollily.

Severus was trying to control his face from dropping. Even though she didn't want to be his friend anymore, he still had very strong feelings towards her. Feelings he couldn't change. But was there a way to hide them?

'Isn't there a way to prevent legilimency?' Severus tried to inquire casually. He was successful.

'Yeah of course!' Avery said, 'Occlumency. The guy we were on about? Well my Dad was the one who told me the story, and he told me that the traitor tried to employ Occlumency against the dark lord. Fool. Obviously wasn't great at it!'

_But I'll have to be! _Severus thought.

* * *

Almost three weeks had passed since James had left Dumbledore's office and he had returned to the Gryffindor common room to find Sirius waiting for him. He had ignored his attempts to apologise and went straight to bed.

The morning after that, James had woken up early, grabbed Peter and left to go to the hospital wing to pick Remus up and leaving Sirius behind. He had then told Remus what had happened the night before. Remus was speechless.

James, Remus and Peter, until the twenty-ninth of November, hardly spoke to Sirius. They were all still hanging out with each other, but given the choice, James, Remus and Peter would just wander off without Sirius. Everyone in the school noticed the tense atmosphere between the marauders. They noticed that it was no longer James, Remus and Sirius in the front with Peter tailing behind. Instead, it was James, Remus and Peter in front and Sirius trailing behind with a guilty and ashamed look on his face. The thing that made it worse, was the fact that no-one knew what had happened. Rumours began to circulate about what had caused the rift between the Gryffindor's, some of them reaching the extremes; the marauders were experimenting with spells and somehow, Sirius and Peter switched bodies. None of the rumours came close to the truth though which greatly relieved Remus.

So, until the twenty-ninth of November, James and Remus still hadn't forgiven Sirius and were ignoring his constant stream of apologies. Until the twenty-ninth of November, they only really spoke to him when it was necessary. Until the twenty-ninth of November, they were no-longer close friends so much as estranged. And it was one letter which brought them back together. Unfortunately, it didn't bear the best news.

'My Dad has dragon pox.' James said stunned at breakfast that morning.

The mail had just been delivered in the ordinary fashion, by owl, and James had received a letter from his mum. This shocked James as his parents hadn't sent him a letter when he was at school since his second year. It had been brought by the family owl. A wheezing, old, grey-speckled owl which went by the name of Grison. He had flopped down into James' cereal spilling milk over the sides of the bowl and over the table. James had then tutted and plucked the owl out of the milk before giving him a piece of toast and tore the letter, which was attached to the owl's leg, open. His eyes had scanned over the letter quickly before his face had dropped and he had continued to tell his friends what it said.

When James had said his father's condition, Remus, Sirius and Peter dropped their eating utensils and looked towards James in sympathy. They all knew what this meant. Usually, when a wizard was to contract dragon pox, he or she would have to undergo a strenuous course of potions to remove the disease. This cycle of potions, however, would only work once. If the wizard was to have the disease again, there was very little hope of surviving it. This was the third time Mr Potter had had the disease. There was no chance of survival.

No one spoke for a few minutes until, at last, James couldn't stand the awkward silence anymore. He shook his head, and left the great hall.

The three remaining boys looked at each other sorrowfully. Remus and Sirius had a silent exchange before quickly rising and following James out of the hall. When Peter had realised what they were doing, he also followed.

They found James in one of the courtyards which lead off of the entrance hall. Outside, it was bitterly cold as winter was approaching fast. There was a thin, light layer of frost covering the ground which James was scraping away with his shoe. They walked towards him and stood silently by his side.

'I can't believe it.' James said blankly.

Sirius tentatively put a comforting hand on James shoulder. James turned and looked at him to see that Sirius' eyes were brimming with tears. In that moment, everything that had happened the previous month was wiped away and the two boys hugged each other, both trying to comfort the other.

'I'm so sorry James!' Sirius sniffed trying to hold back his tears.

'I know.' James said. He wasn't close to crying. He didn't cry.

They broke apart and Sirius wiped his eyes.

'I'm really sorry Remus.' Sirius said, tearfully.

'I know.' Remus replied. He pulled Sirius in for a quick hug before releasing him and turning to James, who almost collapsed on him in sadness. But still, he did not cry.

'I don't know what to do!' James said in a broken voice. He hadn't been close with his dad since he began attending Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He had seen him in the morning on his way to work and in the evening before he collapsed into bed. His father had never been around for James since his first year and was always too busy making a career for himself. He had always been kind to him, surrounded James with all the material things he could ever desire, but they never really bonded like a real father and son.

'I do.' Sirius said trying to compose himself for James. He was falling apart. Even though Mr Potter wasn't directly related to Sirius and they had spent even less time together than James had, he had been more of a Father to him than anyone in his family.

James looked to Sirius, waiting to be told how to continue.

'You remember when…when your Uncle died.' Sirius sniffed, his breathing uneven, 'I was at your house and we were…playing Quidditch in the…err…the ball room. It was the only day in the summer holidays that your parents were home. They were filling out some paper work in the office even though they were both off duty. We were making such a racket that your mum came in. She was so mad. But…she forgot about it when your Dad walked in and told her that he'd just received an owl and that…her brother, your uncle, had died. She was so upset but she didn't want us to see her cry so she left the room.'

'Please say you have a point Sirius.' Remus muttered to him as he believed he could see James' eyes becoming sad over another painful memory. In reality it was Remus projecting his feelings over to James.

'He does.' James said smiling a miserable smile at Sirius. (He had heard Remus muttering to him.) 'When mum left the room, I asked dad if there was anything we could do for her. He told us that the best thing we could do was to stay out of her way.'

'How does that help you now?' Remus asked utterly confused as to why this story was relevant.

James and Sirius smiled at each other, Sirius very sadly. It was he who continued.5

'After he told us this, as he was about to walk out of the room, he turned back to us. He told us that James Uncle never wanted anyone to cry over his death. He wanted a Mexican themed party with a giant piñata. Then James' Dad said that he would never want people to mourn over his death either because there was no use dwelling over something that they had no control over. He told James that if he did ever look at his death at anything else other than an excuse to party, then he hadn't raised him right. He then told us he wanted a Hawaiian themed party when he died. With grass skirts and people drinking out of coconuts. The limbo. The whole thing.'

James smiled at Sirius for reminding him of his father's requests. Now, he may not be able to carry on as if nothing had happened and that no news had reached him, for it certainly had, but he could try to do what his dad wanted him too. Not to dwell on what he couldn't change but to put on a brave face and throw an awesome party.

* * *

'Happy first day of December!' Hestia squealed excitedly as she pulled the covers off of Lily who was still trying to enjoy a restful sleep.

She yawned groggily and curled up into a ball because she was now cold, her eyes still shut.

'Oi! Lily!' Hestia squealed pulling the pillow from beneath her head and proceeding to hit her with it.

'Hey!' Lily moaned grabbing the pillow back of Hestia and hugging it close to her. She glared at Hestia who was smiling deviously at her. Suddenly Lily was hit in the back with a pillow.

'Hey!' she said turning away from Hestia's laughing face and finding Alice's behind her. She was holding her own pillow loosely in her hand and before Alice knew what was happening, Lily had whipped the pillow out of her hand and was hitting her back with it.

'Why - did - you - hit - me?' Lily said with every hit.

Alice ran around the bed and hid behind Hestia who was now holding her hands up in defence as Lily began to hit her. The seams of the pillow were coming apart by now and feathers began to fall all around.

'Because if I was up and Hestia was up and Emmeline is already at breakfast, it's not fair that you're still in bed!' Alice squealed as she and Hestia jumped on the bed to avoid Lily's raging pillow.

'You three have a lesson. I don't! Can't I have one lie in?' Lily asked still waving the pillow around which was fit to burst.

'No.' her friends said blankly. They could see Lily's deathly glare forming. They looked at each other and nodded before saying, 'See ya!' and quickly dashing out of the room.

Lily shook her head and threw the pillow, which was still in her hand down on her bed where it immediately fell apart on contact, feathers spilling everywhere. Lily sighed. She got dressed into her Hogwarts robes before picking up her wand off of her bedside table and cleared away the mess, repairing the pillow. She then tucked her wand into the inside pocket of her robes and proceeded to make her bed before exiting her dorm room and heading down to the common room.

She saw James in one of the armchairs near the extinguished fire. During November they had become, what Lily would call, 'new friends'. They didn't hang out with each other all the time but weren't against the idea. They didn't share all the details of their lives or their big secrets, but they did have a good laugh with each other and weren't averted to helping each other out with school work.

'What you doing up Potter?' Lily asked as she flopped down in the armchair opposite him. He had his nose in a book which, before this year was a very high novelty, but now, was a usual occurrence.

'Are you kidding?' James laughed as he looked up at Lily and smiled, 'Sirius woke us all up early this morning even though he's not a morning person.'

'First day of the month?' she asked, thinking of Hestia.

'No. Pancakes.' James said with a small chuckle. 'It's written on the calendar in our room. First day of December, February and March, the house elves make pancakes.'

'You have a calendar in your room?' Lily asked with one eyebrow raised.

'It's…err…Remus'.' James said cautiously. He knew Lily was very smart and if, given too much information, would deduce Remus' secret. If she had already figured it out, she would realise he had the calendar to keep track of the moons monthly cycle and his transformation.

'Right.' Lily nodded, 'So why aren't you at breakfast with them?' she questioned, changing the subject.

'Looking through the Quidditch supplies catalogue.' he said flicking the pages of the book on his lap. 'The team needs a new grooming kit.'

'Right…' Lily said, not fully understanding what exactly the grooming kit was for. Was it so the players looked dapper whilst playing or was it for the brooms? She wondered why brooms would need grooming. She then imagined a group of broomsticks in bowties and top hats at a ball in a broomstick cupboard. She then realised she had a very weird imagination and was suddenly snapped back into reality.

'Anyway,' she said drawing James attention back into their conversation, 'where did you get the catalogue from cause I'm sure it's not in the library.'

James smiled at her. 'We have a library?'

She looked at him exasperatedly and shook her head whilst he chuckled softly. It was a warm pleasant sound which she liked to hear.

'Nah.' James continued, with a slight grin on his face, 'I know we have a library. Not sure where it is, but I know we've got one.' he sighed and closed the heavy catalogue before throwing in gently onto the small end table which was beside his chair. 'The catalogue's Sirius'.' he said, eventually answering her original question.

Lily looked awkward for a second. She hesitated but then decided in the heat of the moment to ask, 'So have you all made up now?'

James looked at her curiously and suspiciously. 'Excuse me?' he said.

Lily bit her lip, (a sight which made James heart beat quickly), 'Sorry.' she said shaking her head, 'I shouldn't have said anything.'

'It's all right.' James said truthfully, 'I'm curious to know what you mean though. How exactly did you know that we had fallen out? Not that I'm saying we did.' he added quickly.

Lily carried on carefully, almost as if she was scared to say anything that might upset him. Their friendship was still new and she didn't know if it was acceptable for her to be prying into his other friendships.

'Well, I'm not the only one who has noticed by the way, but, I've sort of noticed that since Halloween, you and Lupin, oh! And Pettigrew, of course. Well, you've been…freezing him out? Giving him the silent treatment. But a few days ago, things seemed to return to your, somewhat normal, behaviour.' she said tentatively.

James looked at her curiously. He didn't think that the rift between him and his friends had been that blatantly obvious, but apparently, almost the whole school had seen it. At least, that's the way it sounded.

He and Lily sat in an awkward silence for a few minutes before Lily had the guts to continue.

'It's just, you guys are so close and your friendship is so strong. It's actually amazing at how close you are and many people marvel at the level of trust and loyalty you show each other that, it was…well it didn't go unnoticed that something was wrong between you guys. Now, because we've been spending some free periods together, the one's where my other friends are in divination, I think I may have noticed a bit quicker. It's just, before Halloween, it was always you and Black that seemed to lead the conversation whilst Lupin entered the voice of reason and Pettigrew just kept quiet. But after Halloween, the conversations we had weren't as…silly, if you like. And Black was the one who was quiet.' Lily stopped and looked into James warm hazel eyes. Her hands went clammy. _Nerves, _she thought. She did carry on one last time however.

'Now, I don't know if we are what_ you_ would call friends, but I would say that we are. But, I'm not sure if we are good enough friends yet to be prying into each other's lives this way. Especially as last year we, well, _I, _didn't like you. I'm sorry if I've crossed the line but…I don't think that Hogwarts would have been the same, if you lot had all stayed mad at each other for the rest of the year. I admire the friendship you guys have. I just wish I was that close to my friends. It's like you all have a secret bond or something. Or just that. A secret. One that ties you together. I mean-'

'Evans!' James cut her off. He smiled a crooked smile at her surprised look and chuckled a little bit before saying, 'You were rambling Evans. I've noticed you do that when you're uncomfortable or nervous.'

She looked at him questioningly.

'I've seen the way you acted when McGonagall told us we were going to have a test before the Christmas break. You didn't stop talking for twenty minutes. And you've been rambling for ten minutes just now.' he explained.

Lily nodded.

'Anyway.' James said, 'You're not wrong. We did have a bit of a fall out. Sirius did something but, that's in the past now. Can't dwell on what we can't change.'

Lily saw the sad look in his eyes and assumed it was something to do with what Sirius had done. She decided not to pry any further.

'I'm gonna go get breakfast then.' she said standing up and looking down at James, 'Do you want to come?'

'Nah thanks.' he replied, 'I'm not too hungry.'

Lily nodded and turned to leave.

'And Evans,' James said causing Lily to turn back to face him, 'We are friends.'

She smiled at James broadly and James smiled back. Lily was suddenly overwhelmed with a surprising happy feeling inside at the fact that they, her and James Potter, the boy she had despised, were now friends.

James watched her leave. When she had disappeared through the portrait whole he opened the Quidditch catalogue and took out a crumpled piece of parchment, a letter he had received that morning, and read it one more time.

_My dear son James,_

_I have a feeling I won't be around for much longer. The healer tells me that the dragon pox is now irreversible considering this is the third time I've had it. So, I'm writing this letter in case I don't have the opportunity to tell you this in person._

_I want to say I'm sorry for being so busy during your childhood. I never meant to be and I realise that you were disappointed when we didn't see you off to Hogwarts again this year. I also know that it must have been hard on you when we always left you with Linda and we never spent any time with you. I have missed the opportunity to get to know you personally and for that, I am sorry. I am sorry we were never that close. I want you to know that it was not because I don't love you, but because I was trying to make the world a better place for you. Unfortunately, that meant we weren't able to spend a lot of time together when you were home. I've talked to your mum about this though and I want you to know that things will change. Even though I won't be able to see you off to Hogwarts and spend time with you during the holidays, your mum will._

_I love you son and I am so proud of you. Also, a little bit jealous that you still have the Potter good looks whilst I'm covered in giant spots. Not fair in my opinion. Keep doing what you're doing and I am sure you will do well in life._

_I'd like you to do me a favour and keep your sense of humour. You have made so many people smile and laugh with it, me included. I remember when I was late for work one morning, when you replaced all the yolks in our eggs with golden snitches! Linda wasn't best pleased but I was amazed at your magic. Never did figure out how you did that. You were only twelve! It would be a terrible thing to waste. Your…unusual talent, for mischief. I received more owls about your antics then I would care to count._

_Look after your mum when I'm gone and don't forget to throw me my Hawaiian party! A luau I think their called? Ah, what the hell, throw a Mexican party too! A fiesta! I do like piñatas!_

_From what I've seen, but mostly heard, (unfortunately,) you're a good kid and I couldn't have asked for a better son. You're loyal and brave and loving. A Gryffindor through and through. Just like your dad!_

_I love you._

_Dad._

* * *

**Reviews are not necessary but always welcome!**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	12. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter Eleven! **

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Eleven**

'I can't do it!'

'Yes you can!'

'No. No I can't!'

'Why not?'

'It's against the laws of nature!'

'Sirius!'

'James!'

'Don't say my name when I've just said yours!'

'Don't say my name at all!'

'What am I supposed to call you?'

'Elvendork! It's unisex!'

James sighed and shook his head. He had been trying to persuade Sirius to apologise to Severus Snape for putting his life in danger. It was the right thing to do and it had been over a month since the incident had happened. But Sirius just wouldn't do it.

'Why do I have to apologise?' Sirius whined, 'I'm already in lifetime detention, I've been taken of the Quidditch team, I'm not allowed to go to Hogsmeade _and _I've been banned from Quidditch!'

'You said that already!' James interrupted

'How's the search for my replacement going anyway? I heard that one of the third years is very good and-'

'Don't change the subject!' James laughed.

'Fine!' Sirius huffed, 'But I'm still not apologising! I've apologised to you, Moony and Wormtail. Why do I need to apologise to that slime as well?'

'Because it's the right thing to do!' James said exasperatedly.

'Why?' Sirius replied, 'What do you thinks gonna happen? That we'll all suddenly become friends and skip off into the sunset holding hands? No thank you! Don't you think I've been punished enough?!' Sirius looked aghast.

'It's still the right thing to do!' James argued for the final time.

Sirius looked at James blankly. 'I don't like you this year.' he said in a toneless voice.

'What?' James asked surprised and confused by Sirius' sudden declaration.

'Yeah. You've changed. You've grown up. I don't like it!' Sirius said.

'I'm still me. And I've not totally grown up - I mean, who was the one who magically sewed up all the Slytherin's arm holes on their robes last Monday?'

Sirius looked at James in shock. 'Me!' he burst out.

James was speechless for a second whilst he tried to remember. 'Oh yeah…' he said, 'But I did the same to the head holes!'

'Well yeah you did but-'

'I haven't changed!' James laughed, 'It's just with…N.E.W.T's, I thought I had better spend more time studying and doing the homework. The only thing I stopped doing from last year is pranking random people in halls.' James said before adding in his mind, _or what some people would call bullying._

Sirius looked down and scuffed the floor before saying, 'Ok. But I'm still not apologising!'

* * *

It was time for the second Quidditch match of the season and, unfortunately, the weather wasn't ideal. They were a week into December and snow had begun to fall. It wasn't settling however. The ground was wet from the rain from the previous night so any snow that landed turned to either ice or slush.

As soon as the two teams, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, were up in the air they could all feel the bitter wind whip their robes around their ankles. They couldn't hear the crowd over the screaming gale and it was hard to grip their brooms with their frozen hands. They all pushed through it though, mounted their brooms and took off into the air when Madam Hooch blew her whistle, and began to play.

'Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff!' Mary McDonald yelled her voice amplified through the sonorous spell. She was commentating on the game again. 'The long anticipated game. Unfortunately, the long anticipated winter weather has also decided to make an appearance! Seems like that's not affecting our players though! Hestia Jones is in possession of the Quaffle. She dodges the Ravenclaw Beater. Flies towards the hoops. She shoots. SHE SCORES! Ten points to Gryffindor.'

Hestia flew back down the pitch high-fiving James as they passed.

James zoomed towards the falling Quaffle and caught it in one arm. He flew back round to the front of the hoops and threw it up in the air where Hestia was waiting. She caught the Quaffle and was about to make another shot when a Bludger knocked the Quaffle out of her hands breaking her fingers.

'And the new Gryffindor Beater takes it out on one of his own!' Mary yelled, 'The new choice for beater is sixth year Dirk Creswell. Judging by his performance just now, people are questioning James Potter's choice on the replacement of Sirius Black. It's still unclear why he has been kicked off of the team but, knowing his reputation as we all do, it's probably as a result of one of his many pranks!'

'Mary. Do comment on the game! You are not running a gossip show!' McGonagall said strictly.

'Sorry Professor.' Mary said, she did love to gossip. 'So Hufflepuff's Gwenog Jones in possession. If there ever was a match for Gryffindor's James Potter, She's it! Jones, Hufflepuff's Jones, shoots and scores. Ten points to Hufflepuff!'

James soared through the sky, the bitter wind slapping his face. He caught the Quaffle and passed it to Hestia. He flew below her as she made her way through the other players on the team. She was a good fifty metres from the goal posts when the Hufflepuff chasers surrounded her. She dropped the Quaffle to James below her who flew up to the goal posts and threw it through the middle hoop, scoring Gryffindor's second goal.

'Are they allowed to do that?' Lily asked Sirius in the stands. He was sitting between her and Remus with a gloomy expression etched across his face.

'Yes.' he sighed in response to Lily's question. He hated not being in the game. And Lily's constant questions about the game wasn't helping this fact at all.

Remus could see this and clapped Sirius on the back comfortingly. 'Don't worry mate!' he smiled, 'There's only one game left and you can re-join the team next year!'

'If Prongs lets me back on!' Sirius grumbled.

'He'll let you back on!' Lily said confidently.

'How do you know?' Sirius said grumpily, 'You only just decided you were friends a few days ago!'

'I know. But you two have been friends for six years.' Lily said as if were obvious.

'I guess.' Sirius said a little bit happier.

'I hope this game finishes soon!' Alice said from beside Lily, 'I'm freezing!'

'Do you want my scarf?' a voice said from behind them. It was Frank Longbottom, another sixth year Gryffindor.

'No its ok!' Alice said before turning to face Emmeline who was next to her. She didn't notice Frank's disappointed face.

'Aren't you cold?' she asked Emmeline.

'The cold isn't something you should reject, but, rather something you should embrace.' she said serenely.

Alice looked at Lily who shrugged her shoulders.

'I'm with you on this one. The only thing I'm gonna embrace is a jumper!' Lily laughed.

'You can't really embrace a jumper Evans!' Sirius said as he watched the Gryffindor seeker circling the pitch, 'She needs to be lower…' he added.

Lily looked confused. She hadn't seen Sirius watching the seeker. 'What do you mean?' she asked him.

'Well she can spot the snitch from up their but she's not equal distance from the snitches lowest and highest altitude which means if she sees the snitch below her it's gonna take more time to reach it. The other seeker could get there first.' Sirius said knowledgably.

'What?' Lily asked still thoroughly confused.

'The snitch can only go up to a certain height. It's charmed to stay in the pitch at all times and can only go up to five hundred feet. She needs to be at two hundred and fifty feet to maximise the catch.' Sirius rambled.

'Right…' Lily responded. What Sirius had just said had gone in one ear and out of the other. 'How are we doing?' she asked Remus as she tried to save face.

'One hundred to ninety at the minute. The Hufflepuff's are up by one goal.' he answered not daring to take his eyes off of the game. 'It's Gwenog Jones! She's the only one who is actually level with James' standard. Add in our mediocre keeper and Hufflepuff could win.'

'That's why our seeker needs to come lower!' Sirius said frustrated. As he said this however, the Gryffindor Seeker zoomed skywards with her arm outstretched. She clasped her hand around what the spectators assumed was the snitch and rapturous applause broke out for Gryffindor's win.

'You were saying?' Lily said to Sirius.

'Well obviously, on this occasion it was a good thing but not always!' he retorted.

Lily and Alice laughed and Remus chuckled until Sirius gave him a sharp glare.

'Gryffindor win! Two hundred and forty to one hundred points!' Mary yelled to the cheering stadium.

James and the team flew down instantly and rushed out of the cold and into the changing rooms. Once inside, James congratulated the team and put out a bowl of chocolate frogs for them to take as they pleased.

'Oh boy! Chocolate frogs!' Sirius said excitedly as he entered the changing room. He had rushed down from the stands under the pretence of wanting to be the first to congratulate James on the win. Really, he just wanted the treat.

'Go ahead!' James sighed as he changed out of his Quidditch robes, 'Where's Moony?' He asked as he pulled on a blue jumper.

'He's outside with Evans and those other two!' Sirius said through a mouth full of three chocolate frogs.

'What about Wormtail?' James continued as he looked in a mirror running a hand through his tousled hair and straightening his glasses.

'Had to do some astronomy bla bla bla!' Sirius answered leaning in for another chocolate frog.

'Astronomy bla bla bla?' James asked with a laugh.

'Like I really care about what he's doing!' Sirius said.

'Sirius!' James scolded.

'Well I don't!' Sirius said as Hestia walked towards James. They always walked back to the castle together because Hestia was obsessed with having feedback about her performance. James didn't mind because more often than not Lily was with them and he liked to spend time with her. What was better was that they were actually friends now so she wouldn't spend the time sulking about James being there and James wouldn't spend the time constantly asking her out.

_Ahh, the good old days! _James thought to himself, reminiscing.

'Ready?' Hestia asked James.

'Sure. Coming?' James questioned Sirius who was filling the pockets in his trousers with all the chocolate frogs they could hold.

The three of them walked out to meet Remus, Lily, Emmeline and Alice but were stopped when Gwenog Jones walked up to them.

'Good game Potter!' She smiled, 'I still say girls are better Quidditch players than boys, but you're not half bad!'

'Thanks! I think…' James said, returning her smile.

From a distance, Remus and Lily saw this exchange. Remus groaned at the fact that James was stood their talking and for some reason Lily had an urge to go and interrupt James smiling session with Gwenog. She was cold and wanted to get back to the castle as quickly as possible. She assumed this was the reason.

'So, Gwenog!' James said as they began to walk towards where the other four were waiting for them, 'Leaving this year aren't you?'

'Yep!' She replied, 'Got a spot as a reserve for the Holyhead Harpies. (Slughorn introduced me to the captain.) Anyway, it's gonna be good!'

'Sounds it!' Hestia said fascinated. She was walking the other side of Gwenog Jones, rapturously paying her her full attention as if she was already a celebrity.

'So this was your last school Quidditch match before you hit the big leagues then?' James asked her.

'Yeah…' Gwenog said sadly, 'Still got plenty to look forward to though!'

'Well, as you're leaving soon,' Hestia began steering Gwenog towards the castle and away from James and Sirius, 'Can you give me a few tips…'

James and Sirius reached the others only a short while after Hestia had directed Gwenog away from them.

'Where's Hestia going?' Lily asked James.

'She's trying to get some tips of Gwenog.' James replied casually before Alice started to whiter about the cold.

They started to make their way back towards the castle and James tried to make sure that he was walking next to Lily. He tried to do it inconspicuously but Sirius saw what he was trying to do and, just to be awkward, didn't move from James other side. Remus had, unconsciously, started to pull ahead and was talking to Emmeline whilst Alice had been caught up by Frank Longbottom and was now talking to him.

'What'd you think of the game then?' James asked Lily. She was on his right side and Sirius was on his left.

'The seeker needed to be lower!' Sirius interrupted childishly before Lily could answer.

'I know. I did tell her before we started the game because she kept doing it in the last three practice sessions. Luckily the snitch was above her this time.' James said before pointedly saying, 'What about you_, Evans, _what did _you _think of the game?'

'Too cold, too long.' Lily said simply with a smile much too James' amusement.

'It is winter.' James replied with a laugh.

'And?' Lily retorted, 'Doesn't mean it has to be cold! I'm freezing!' Lily said.

James continued to laugh whilst Sirius sniggered sarcastically at his side.

'Why didn't wear a jumper? Or even a scarf?' he asked her.

'I wasn't cold when I got up!' she said as if that was obvious.

'You were indoors.' James chuckled warmly.

'So?' Lily replied.

'Do you want to borrow my scarf?' James asked casually. Sirius looked towards Lily curiously waiting for her answer.

'Are you sure?' Lily said biting her lip.

James nodded and gave her a smile. He unwound his scarf from around his neck and put it around Lily's.

'Thanks!' She said gratefully, shivering as James warm hands touched her neck. She put it down to the cold because as soon as James had finished putting the warm scarf on her she had stopped. She inhaled, smelling the scarf's sweet scent. It smelt familiar and comforting. Like beech wood.

'So what are you doing for Christmas?' Lily asked James and Sirius.

James looked a little sad but told her that he was going home to spend it at home with his parents. Sirius was going with him.

'What about you?' Sirius asked Lily, 'Gonna go to another of Slughorn's ridiculous shin-digs?'

'No!' she laughed, 'It's on Christmas eve. I'm missing it because I'm going home too.' Lily said a little sad also.

'Can't beat Christmas!' James said.

* * *

Lily was sat at her desk in transfiguration, scribbling furiously. It was the test McGonagall had promised to give them before they broke up for Christmas. Even Gryffindor's recent win four days ago hadn't changed her mind. When the lesson had started James had tried to persuade her to reward their victory by giving them the lesson off, much to the classes amusement, but all McGonagall had done in response was wave her wand at the board causing the test questions to appear. So the class had reluctantly sat down and took the test.

They were half way through and Lily was finding the test rather hard. Transfiguration wasn't her forte. If she was taking a charms or potions test however, she would breeze through it with no problem. It was only transfiguration which she thought was a labouring test. Her and her best friend Hestia had been studying all night for this test. Well, she had. Hestia had fallen asleep at around half eleven. Before that, they were discussing the rumour that in their O.W.L's the previous year, only one person had received an outstanding. Everyone else had only been able to manage an E. They didn't know for sure who it was who obtained the outstanding but they thought it may have been Remus Lupin. They believed that their suspicions would be confirmed when they all got the results back from this test because the chances were, whoever got the outstanding in the O.W.L's, would probably get the highest mark in this test.

So, now Lily was in the middle of the test which she had crammed for but she still wasn't very confident in her answers. She was now trying to describe the method of turning an inanimate object into a living animal. It was very complicated because you had to take into consideration, not just the outside appearance, but the inner working mechanisms like the heart as well.

The only good thing about this test was the fact that once you had finished, no matter if it was in five or fifty minutes, you could leave straight away.

'Done already Mr Potter?' Lily heard Professor McGonagall say quietly to James who was in front of her desk.

Lily looked up. She didn't really know why she did this because she could pretty much assume what was going on without having the need to see it. But, nevertheless, she looked up and saw James handing in his transfiguration test. McGonagall looked through it to check that all the questions were answered. When she seemed satisfied she placed the piece of parchment to the side of her desk and gestured towards the door allowing James to leave. As he passed her desk, he flashed a smile at Lily who was unaware that she was staring at him. She quickly smiled back at him, feeling hot under the collar, before looking down at her own test just wishing that she was able to leave with him.

James left the class room feeling pretty confident with the answers he had given on the test. Transfiguration, after all, was his best and favourite subject. He was able to complete the tasks with ease.

He ran a hand through his dishevelled hair before leaning against the wall with his arms folded and legs crossed in his usual stance. He had agreed with Sirius and Remus before class that he would wait for them after he had finished his test. (They all knew he would finish first) So that's what he did. He didn't have to wait long before one of his friends turned up, but, not one of the ones he was waiting for.

'Wormy!' James exclaimed happy to see his friend who looked ecstatic at being acknowledged by him, 'What are you doing here?' he asked.

'I have a free.' Peter said before beginning to doubt himself. 'I'm sure I do. Thursday? Fourth period?' he started to fumble around for his timetable. 'I was going to come and meet Remus for care of magical creature's next lesson. Unless it's not Thursday. Is it Thursday?'

'Yes it is.' James laughed good naturedly, 'And you do have care of magical creatures next but that's not for another half an hour yet!'

'Oh…' Peter said, a little disheartened.

'We were gonna come and find you once we'd all finished the test!' James smiled.

'Should I go back then?' Peter asked confused.

'Why?' James laughed.

'So you can come and find me.' Peter replied innocently.

'Well you're here now so that would be a little bit pointless.' James said with a chuckle at his friend's naivety, 'You can keep me company whilst I wait for Moony and Padfoot to finish their tests. So what are you doing in care of magical creatures at the minute?' James asked attempting to start a conversation.

Peter imitated James stance before replying, 'I'm not in care of magical creatures at the minute.'

James bowed his head trying to think of a new way, a simple way, to rephrase the question. He settled on, 'What are you studying in care of magical creature's next lesson?'

'Oh!' Peter said, just then grasping what James was actually asking him, 'We're studying the ministry's rating of magical creatures.'

'That sounds…interesting.' said James who had never had a desire to understand the ministry's rating of magical creatures. As far as he was concerned, if it was poisonous, had talons, claws or fangs, he was going to stay away from it. He had always though that the ministry deciding to rate the creatures using amounts of X's was a little bit silly and confusing.

'What are you doing in…what's your next lesson?' Peter asked James as he looked up at him with adoring eyes which James didn't notice.

'Me and Padfoot have a free.' James replied as he looked at his watch, 'He should be done soon actually. I think we'll probably go to the kitchens. You know what Padfoot's like!' James laughed.

'Always hungry!' Peter said killing the mood a little as he stated what was blatantly obvious to anyone who knew Sirius for more than a minute.

'Yeah…' James said trailing off. He did like Peter but it was always hard to keep a conversation going with him. He never left his sentences open for response and he always killed the atmosphere by pointing out the obvious. He was alright if you were in a group but alone, he wasn't the best conversationalist. James only hope was if Remus or Sirius appeared.

Luckily for James, both of his friends appeared at that moment saving James from having to stand in an awkward silence.

'PRONGS!' Sirius shouted as soon as he saw James. 'I thought you'd have left me all alone!' he said dramatically.

'What am I? A lump of wood?' Remus asked Sirius with his arms relaxed out in front of him.

'Well now that you mention it…OW!' Sirius yelled. James had just slapped him round the back of his head, 'What was that for?'

'Felt like it!' James smirked before beginning to walk away with Remus who was laughing.

Sirius watched the two tall boys walk away for two seconds before running to catch up to them. Peter had followed Sirius but, as the hallways weren't that wide, was stuck behind his friends whilst they walked side by side in a three.

'What'd you think of that test then?' Remus asked James.

He was about to answer before Sirius cut in and whined, 'Do we _have _to? It's bad enough I had to take the test once!'

Remus and James rolled their eyes before James answered Remus' question. 'Wasn't too bad actually.'

'Maybe not for you!' Sirius continued to whine, 'You're brilliant at transfiguration. I'll be lucky if I even get a D!'

'You won't get a D!' James said reassuringly before adding, 'Probably a T!'

'That's even worse!' Sirius said with his mouth open in shock at the little confidence his best friend had in him.

Remus looked at his watch and realised that it was time to go to his next lesson. He told James and Sirius before disappearing only to come back realising he had forgotten about Peter.

'So,' Sirius said when Remus and Peter had gone, 'Kitchens?'

* * *

That night Lily began to pack her trunk so that she would be well and truly ready to go home for Christmas. She wasn't packing everything and, unlike muggle children away boarding school, she didn't need to pack any clothes that may need washing because the house elves never left anything unclean for long. She decided to only pack some books and the Christmas presents she'd bought for her family so that she would have enough room in her trunk to bring her summer clothes back to school. Christmas was the only time Lily went home during the school year because there were always end of year exams at Easter and Lily needed to study. So, every year, when Lily went home for Christmas, on her return to Hogwarts, she would bring back all the clothes she would need for the summer season. It was her mother's idea and she had carried it out since her first year.

She rooted around in the drawers beside her four poster bed for the Christmas presents she had bought in Hogsmeade for her family on her last visit a week ago. She had bought her mother a blank wizard's recipe book. She thought it would be a nice present for her as her mother loved to cook. It was personalised to her mother's tastes with the cover; a simple, old fashioned, peach print, leather bound cover with her name in the centre and a rose boarder. All she had to do was write any of her recipes down in the book and they would automatically transform into print, correcting any spelling mistakes or grammar errors that a person might make. It was the perfect present for her mum who often created her own dishes. She was a brilliant cook, a skill which she had tried to pass down to Lily. It had worked. Kind of.

For her father, she bought some cufflinks. They were goblin made and so were very sturdy. Embossed on each of the cufflinks were her father's initials which were glazed with special potion paint. This paint would change colour to match the outfit you were wearing. All you had to do was rub the cufflink over the fabric in the colour you wanted and it would replicate it. Her dad was always going to fancy dinners for work so had to wear many suits. He always complained about his cufflinks though. Half way through the night he would invariably loose one of them. This is what inspired Lily to buy him some cufflinks for Christmas. Being goblin made, once attached to the suit, (or dress robes as they were originally intended for), they wouldn't fall off unless manually removed. It was the perfect gift for her father.

Her sister Petunia was a bit trickier. Since she started Hogwarts Lily's sister had resented and loathed her. It had made getting Petunia the perfect present kind of impossible, not that Lily hadn't tried. In the past she had bought her sweets from Diagon Alley only to have Petunia throw them away saying that she didn't want to eat poisoned freak sweets. She had also bought her a book of wizard fairy tales and a pair of goblin made earrings. These generous gestures had all been thrown back in Lily's face. Now the sensible person would have stopped giving Petunia magical gifts or gifts all together, but Lily was nothing if not persistent and she was going to try again.

Whilst in the Hogsmeade parchment and quill shop, where she had bought her mother recipe book, Lily had seen a diary with petunias on the cover. Her sister had always kept a diary and Lily thought she'd like a new one, but this wasn't an ordinary diary. Not for a muggle anyway. When someone would write in the diary, the writing would only be visible to them. Nobody else would be able to read it as the writing would be invisible to everyone else but the writer. Lily hoped Petunia would appreciate it.

She put all three presents in her trunk and closed it. Lily then got out the presents she had bought for her friends and placed them at the foot of the respective beds. She had bought Hestia a charm bracelet which had protection qualities against minor jinxes and curses. For Emmeline and Alice she had given them a quill and ink set; it included three quills, one eagle feather, a peacock feathered one and a pearly white swan feather. The set also included four bottles of ink; one was a colour changing ink, another was invisible ink, the third was a glow-in-the-dark ink and the last was your bog standard black ink. Lastly, there was some fine parchment. She had bought Mary a little something too because she felt bad about buying her four roommates presents and not Mary. Even if they weren't close, she did still feel bad. It wasn't much. Just a mix of Honeydukes sweets.

She looked back towards her bed where one last present sat atop of the covers. It was a small basket and, like Mary's present, was filled with a mix of Honeydukes sweets. She originally wasn't sure whether she was going to buy it, but in the end she did. After all, they were all friends now. The only worry she had was how they would react. She didn't want them to feel pressured into giving her a present too. She'd appreciate it if they did, she did love presents. But it wasn't necessary. She wasn't too fussed.

Lily sighed, walked over to her bed and sorted through the basket. She made sure everything was inside it before reading the card one more time. It was your typical Christmas card. She hadn't put any effort into writing any fancy verses or funny messages. It said, 'To Black, Lupin, Pettigrew and Potter. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. From Evans.'. She had used last names because that is what they called each other by.

She grabbed the basket off of the bed and headed towards the door making her way down the spiralling staircase to find the marauders.

She managed to spot James and Sirius in the centre of the common room playing a hand game. The pat-a-cake game you would play as a small child. She made her way over to them and put the basket on the floor next to James' where he and Sirius were sat cross-legged.

'What are you two doing?' Lily asked, unable to keep her curiosity at the boys' strange behaviour inside any longer.

'Hand game.' replied Sirius casually as if they always spent their Thursday nights this way.

'How old are you two?' Lily laughed watching their hands with fascination. They were clapping them together so fast you could barely see where they were coming and going from.

'Today we're four.' James said turning to look at Lily and smile. His hands were still flailing around as if independent from his body.

'Four?' Lily repeated thinking she was at least six when she started playing that game, 'You don't seem like four year olds…'

James and Sirius stopped playing their game and James said, 'Sirius. Check your shoe'

Lily rolled her eyes at the boy's immaturity. It wasn't so much exasperation as partial fondness for their antics.

'Fourte-fourteen?' Sirius said looking at the bottom of his shoe in shock. 'Oh…'

James shrugged and smiled at Lily with wide eyes. 'Well…' he said 'Seems we're not four were fourteen.' he paused before looking back to Sirius with a curious look on his face. 'Fourteen?' he questioned. 'You have big feet.' he then added.

'I do not have big feet!' Sirius said indignantly.

'Size fourteen is big.' James said sarcastically sympathetic.

'What size foot are you then?' Sirius retorted with a bit of an attitude.

'Eleven.' James replied, for some reason obviously proud of his ordinary sized feet.

'Eleven?' Sirius asked looking a little upset in realisation. 'Wow I do have big feet.'

'Mmm.' James nodded. 'Smelly ones too!' he pinched his nose dramatically.

'Smelly?' Sirius said, offended

'Like blue cheese!' James sighed, visibly relaxing his stiff posture.

'What do you know about blue cheese?' Sirius challenged. He loved cheese. The smellier the better.

'I am the cheese master for your information.' James said pompously, dusting fake lint from his shoulder in an upper-class way.

'Oh yeah!' Sirius said, with a glint in his dark eyes. 'Name five types of cheese!'

'Oh. All right.' James scoffed, 'Blue, red, orange, yellow and white!'

'Pft!' Sirius said, blowing a strand of his handsome black locks out of his face, 'They're not types of cheeses! Their just colours!' he continued knowledgably.

'Fine. You name five types of cheese!'

'Ok. Stilton, brie, cheddar and red Leicester.'

'Ha!' James laughed pointing at Sirius triumphantly, 'That's only four! You only know four!'

'Gloucester!' Sirius said smugly. 'That's five.'

James lowered his arm in silence and he sat in the quiet for a couple of minutes before saying under his breath, 'Your feet still smell.'

'Ok.' Lily said making her presence once again known. She had stood and watched their childish back and forth with amusement. They seemed so innocent although she suspected, and knew, they were far from it.

'Forgot you were here Evans!' James said apologetically.

'I know.' Lily laughed good naturedly. 'Err…' she started not knowing what to say, 'I've brought you all a Christmas present.' She picked up the basket and placed in on James' lap. 'It's not much, but, there you go.' she said before smiling at James and turning away.

'Wait!' James said taking the basket off of his lap, shoving it on Sirius' and standing up quickly.

Lily watched him walk over to the corner of the room and grab his bag. He undid the clasp and took out two badly wrapped presents from it. He walked back over to Lily and gave her the two presents.

'We all pitched in together.' he said to her, 'We were gonna give you them on the train next week but since you just gave us a present now…'

'Thank you.' Lily smiled at James, his warm hazel eyes smiling back.

'No problem.' James said back, 'Thanks for ours too.'

Lily nodded her head and walked back to the spiral staircase which lead back to the girl's dormitories. She turned back to look at James who was sat back in the middle of the floor playing his pat-a-cake hand game again with Sirius. She smiled to herself and walked up the stairs.

'So…' Sirius said, still playing the hand clapping game with James, 'When exactly did we all chip in and buy Evans a present?'

'When I ordered it the other day.' James replied nonchalantly.

Sirius stopped playing the hand clapping game and looked at James sympathetically.

'Don't look at me like that.' James sighed.

'Do you really think anything's gonna happen?' Sirius asked James seriously.

'Well, I'm not hanging _all_ my hopes on it-'

'You're not moving on either!' Sirius said in exasperation.

'No, I'm not. But we are friends now.' James said, shrugging his shoulders, 'Things might change.'

'All right!' Sirius said reluctantly, 'If you say so.'

* * *

**Reviews are not necessary but always welcome!**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	13. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader! **

**Here's chapter Twelve! Bit of a sad one.**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Twelve**

It was soon time for those who were going home for Christmas to board the Hogwarts express and leave the school. They all made their way down to Hogsmeade station where the train was waiting ready for them to board.

James, Sirius and Peter were going home for Christmas whilst Remus had to stay at Hogwarts. Unfortunately, the full moon fell two days before Christmas eve. James, Sirius and Peter had said goodbye to Remus and left for the train which they were now getting on.

They pulled their trunks the length of one of the carriages until they found an empty compartment. They deposited them on the luggage racks overhead and flopped into the seats. Sirius took out a pack of exploding snap cards from his pocket and threw them across to James. James caught them and then threw them back to Sirius who returned the shot.

The compartment door opened and Lily walked in. None of the boys noticed as she was very quiet.

'You do realise that that's a pack of cards and not a ball right?' she said causing Sirius to drop the pack of cards. The moment they hit the floor, they started exploding. The three boys immediately picked up their feet and tucked them onto the seats. Lily too, jumped onto the seats to protect her feet from being stung by the cards.

'Ah man Evans!' Sirius whined, 'That was my last pack!'

'Well if that's what you do with them I'm not surprised!' Lily laughed sitting down on the seat properly. 'You don't mind me sitting here with you guys do you?' she asked, suddenly aware that she may have invaded some kind of private sanctum.

'No, no!' James said quickly, smiling at Lily kindly.

'Thanks!' Lily replied gratefully, 'Hestia isn't going home.'

'What about you're other two friends?' Sirius asked, 'Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee?'

'Padfoot!' James said kicking Sirius in the shin.

'OW!' Sirius said rubbing his leg, 'Well it's true!'

'Subtlety isn't your strong point is it?' Lily asked Sirius with a sideways head tilt and curious eyes.

'Well it _is_ true!' Sirius said stubbornly. He looked over to James who was looking at him as if he was a little bit crazy. Sirius sighed and rolled his eyes before deciding to back up what he had said. 'Tweedle-dum. That Prewett girl. Doesn't have the slightest clue that Frank in our year is crazy over her.'

Lily looked gob smacked. 'Really?' she said in surprise, 'Frank?!'

'Not finished!' Sirius said holding his hand up to Lily to stop her from talking. He continued. 'Tweedle-dee. Vance. Bases most of her decisions on divination, the most stupid, pointless and, as McGonagall says, imprecise branch of magic going. Also, she spouts out random bits of nonsense about embracing the cold.'

'Ok. So Emmeline's a little quirky but you can't blame Alice for not knowing about Frank!' Lily said to Sirius, 'I mean, he's not exactly given her any hints!'

'He offered her his scarf when she was cold!' Sirius said getting agitated.

'That doesn't mean anything.' Lily said shaking her head. She didn't notice James closing his eyes and hanging his head, just hoping she wouldn't realise that he had done the same thing as Frank. Luckily, she didn't.

The journey went by quickly. It consisted of James, Sirius and Lily trying to build a playing card tower out of the burnt exploding snap cards. Peter didn't join in, scared of being singed, and just decided to watch. They all talked about their Christmas plans and expressed wishes of what they hoped to receive. James wished for a new broom, Sirius wanted a miniature Quidditch set, Peter wanted a remembrall and Lily wanted some new books. They also talked about small traditions carried out by their families every year. Peters family didn't have any traditions. Lily's family would tie ribbons around candy canes and give them to all of their neighbours. And James' family would just have a family dinner and say one thing they had achieved that year. Sirius had no family traditions as he had run away from his home and was now living with the Potters. He would take part in their traditions.

'Isn't it cramped in your home now you've got another person living there?' she asked James, not knowing how rich his family was and that they lived in a huge mansion built on a hundred and fifty acre lot of land.

'It not as confined as you might think.' Sirius laughed whilst James said, 'We make do with what we've got.'

They all focused on the positive aspects of the Christmas holidays and didn't let their worries interfere with the last few hours they had with their friends before they left for their homes. They couldn't keep their fears at bay forever though, and for some of them, those fears would shortly be a very big part of their realities.

* * *

Back at Hogwarts, Remus was trying to enjoy his last few hours before he would be smuggled down to the shrieking shack to undergo the painful transformation of becoming a werewolf. He sat in his empty dormitory reading a book and trying to push the thought out of his head. He just couldn't shake it however and decided to take a walk.

He exited the Gryffindor common room and just wandered freely around the halls. He soon ran into some fifth year Hufflepuff girls who pestered him to find out if Sirius Black was single. Remus shook them off eventually after telling them that he was in a very committed relationship with his reflection. He kept strolling silently around the almost empty school thinking about all the offers his friends had received over the years. Sirius would always jump at the chance to go out with a pretty girl but after a week would go by, he would move on to someone else. Peter had never been asked out. James had been asked out more times than Sirius but always declined and rejected the girls which truly liked him and even those who didn't and were just after his money. He got a lot of those so it made it hard for him to know who liked him for him. Remus suspected that James had never actually been out with a girl. Actually, he _knew _James hadn't been out with anyone because he had pinned all his hopes that maybe one day, Lily Evans would like him back and finally agree to go out with him. Remus admired his faith and hope, although he did have to wonder if his best friend was wasting his time. But hopefully his patience would pay off one day. As for Remus, he had been asked out by a few girls but, like James, always turned them down. (Sirius was always there to comfort them however!) Remus turned down girls for a different reason than James though. James turned them down because he had hope in another. Remus turned them down because he believed he was a monster. No matter what his friends had told him, he still believed it to be true and wouldn't allow himself to fall for anyone in case he ever hurt them. He believed he was dangerous and would only disappoint people. He thought it was better to reject them then to allow them to love a monster.

Remus carried on drifting through the halls, passing various students who had stayed behind for the Christmas holidays. He smiled and nodded at the few that he knew and even to those who he didn't. He was quite a popular boy and many people liked him. That's what you got for being a marauder.

He looked at his watch and sighed. There was only an hour left before he had to go into the whomping willow tunnel. He headed outside to get their early and sat by the black lake. It was very cold outside and it had begun to snow. This time it was settling and Remus had an inkling that they might have a white Christmas this year. He smiled to himself and picked up a rock which lay near his feet. He skimmed it across the lake and searched for another one. He kept skimming stones until he was tapped on the shoulder by madam Pomfrey, alerting him that it was time to go.

She led him to the whomping willow and immobilised the tree with a wave of her wand. Remus thanked her and entered the tunnel. He turned around to see it close, leaving him in complete darkness. He couldn't light his wand as he didn't have it with him. He could break it if he did. So he made his way down the steep tunnel in the pitch black. Soon the tunnel began to rise and Remus found himself in the dimly lit room of the shrieking shack. He looked around and saw the remnants of some furniture he had broken during the many times he had been left in this shack. He only wished his friends were there with him.

At the beginning of their fifth year, James, Sirius and Peter had become illegal Animagi for Remus. James had mastered the task first after working on it for the whole of fourth year and the summer holidays. He was the best at transfiguration. Sirius completed his transformation shortly after, with James' help. Peter was the one who took the longest but had succeeded just after Christmas in their fifth year. He had to have James constantly tutor him on the specifics of the change for him to finally get it. But after all their hard work, Remus' three friends had finally mastered what he had thought near impossible. James had become a stag, Sirius a dog, and Peter a rat; Prongs, Padfoot and Wormtail.

After they had become Animagi, they had spent nearly all of Remus' transformations with him. Their presence helped him retain some of his human sanity. They helped him curb his wolf instincts. Soon after they had started spending the full moons with him, Remus had started to enjoy the full moons. He came back with fewer injuries and was content in his friends company. In fact, when they were with him, he barely remembered that he was a werewolf at all. When they had been doing it for a while, he had also stopped thinking about the risks he posed to their safety, wellbeing and health, and started to focus on what their next adventure would be. Leaving the shack and roaming the forbidden forest or the empty streets of Hogsmeade or even the hills and the caves that surrounded the village and the woods beyond them. He had a good time.

He couldn't always shake the feeling of guilt; guilt for betraying Dumbledore's trust in him, guilt for letting his friends break the law, and guilt for putting everyone in danger. He did however, manage to suppress that feeling a lot of the time. When his friends weren't there though, his guilt rose to the surface and he took it out on himself.

Remus could feel the time coming nearer and he braced himself. He could feel it happening. His hands became paw-like with long claws extending out from them. His eyes turned mustard yellow, his face became wolfish with a long snout and razor-sharp teeth. His human ears retracted in and wolf ears grew from the top of his head, poised and listening for human blood. His spine lengthened and became hunched, tearing his clothes. His knees buckled and he landed on all fours, his legs doing the same as his arms. As his transformation completed itself, he howled into the night signifying the arrival of the werewolf. Remus had become Moony.

* * *

It was late when the train finally pulled into the station at kings cross. The students got off the train and stepped out on to platform nine and three quarters to find their families waiting for them.

Lily was helped with her trunk by James who passed it to her off of the train. They said good bye and wished each other a merry Christmas before they parted ways.

Lily saw her mother and father waiting for her near the entrance to the platform. She made her way over to them and embraced them in a hug.

'Who was that boy?' her father asked suspiciously, looking over to where James was now saying good-bye to Peter.

'Oh, that's just James Potter.' Lily said casually.

'Potter?' her father repeated with a strange look on his face, 'The same Potter who you call an arrogant toe-rag every time you come home?'

'That's the one!' Lily laughed, 'We're sort of all friends now…'

'Oh well that's lovely dear!' her mother said pointedly to her husband before he could say anything more on the subject. 'We've got the car ready outside. Let's go.'

Lily's father took one more look in James direction before picking up Lily's trunk and following his wife and daughter out of the station.

James and Sirius had just finished saying goodbye to Peter when the house elf who served the Potter family appeared with a crack. Her eyes were filled to the brim with tears and she couldn't look James directly in the eyes.

'Linda?' James said quietly, 'what's wrong?' he continued, knowing the answer but hoping it wasn't true.

Sirius put a hand on James shoulder for support as he also knew what Linda was about to say.

'I is so sorry master James. But I has some bad news.' Linda couldn't finish her sentence. She burst into tears on the spot and caused everyone still on the platform to look at the crying house elf.

James gulped and closed his eyes tight. 'When?' he whispered to Linda.

Linda swallowed a few of her sobs long enough to squeak out, 'This morning.'

James nodded silently, no tears escaping his eyes and running down his cheek. 'Guess we've got a Hawaiian luau to plan then.' he tried to joke sadly to Sirius who nodded with a sad smile. He, unlike James, was allowing silent tears to trickle down his cheeks.

'No sense in standing here crying though.' James continued, as he took Linda's hand.

Her big sad eyes looked into James'. His eyes said that he was devastated but he had a small supportive smile looking down on Linda. She nodded and grabbed Sirius' hand as well. The boys grabbed their trunks and Linda disapparated back to James home; the Potter mansion.

* * *

Severus was sat at his desk in his dormitory in the green glow of the Slytherin lanterns. He was scribbling in the margins of his potions book, his writing getting smaller and smaller. His pen suddenly slipped as he heard a wolfs howl scream into the night. He knew who the source of the noise was and the thought of it made him mad. It was a secret which he had sworn not to tell but in the end, to stop the one person he cared about from being hurt, had had too…

'_You have news for me?' Voldemort said to the maske__d death eater who sat on his right hand side. He had his snake wrapped around his neck and was stroking her as if she were a pet cat or a dog._

'_Yes my lord.' the death eater said, eying the snake cautiously. 'We have placed the assistant to the minister under the imperius curse, my lord. We shall now be fed information from inside the ministry my lord.'_

'_Excellent work Lestrange!' Voldemort replied with a truly evil look in his eyes. 'You.' he said suddenly pointing at Avery who was sat next to Severus, 'You have a list for me, do you not?'_

'_Yes my lord!' Avery said with his head bowed. He pulled out a folded piece of parchment from the insides of his robes and placed it on the table in front of himself._

_Voldemort waved his wand and the piece of parchment flew into his hands. He unfolded it and read the list. 'And you are certain that these are all the mudbloods currently in residence at Hogwarts?'_

'_Yes my lord.' Avery mumbled respectively._

'_Good.' Voldemort said, 'You may stay.'_

'_Enough of this!' came a voice from the corner, 'When will I know who I am to call? Which is the boy?'_

'_Patience Greyback!' Voldemort shouted in a commanding voice. What was about thirty death eaters fell into pure silence and hung their heads. They were all seated around a long rectangular table in a grand room with oak beams and marbled floors. It caused Voldemort's voice to echo and reverberate around the room._

'_But which is the werewolf boy I am meant to persuade?' Fenrir Greyback asked walking forwards and out of the shadows. 'Who is he?' Fenrir had an uncomfortably hungry look on his face._

'_He will tell us!' Voldemort smiled maliciously, pointing a long bony finger towards Severus who gulped. The moment had come. He thought about what could happen if Voldemort read his mind to retrieve the information. What if he didn't stop there? What if he were to delve deeper into Severus mind. What if he discovered the feelings that Severus was secretly harbouring. He thought about Lily. Surely, saving her life was worth breaking his word to Dumbledore? He decided it was._

'_He is a Gryffindor.' Severus started._

'_We know that!' a woman hissed from near Voldemort._

'_Patience__.__' Voldemort said, silencing the woman, 'The boy is just trying to be dramatic, I'm sure.'_

'_Yes my lord.' the woman whispered adoringly before all the attention was once again focused on Severus._

_Severus kept his eyes on the table in front of him, not daring to make eye contact with Voldemort. He had read that eye contact was key in performing legilimency._

'_My lord.' Severus began again, 'His name is Remus Lupin, most his transformations are taking place in Hogsmeade's shrieking shack. He is a half-blood.'_

'_I remember him.' Fenrir said evilly, 'I turned him. His father gave me trouble. He will be easy to call! He will respond to my call. He has known no other.' Fenrir grinned showing a collection of horrible yellow teeth._

'_Excellent.' Voldemort said._

Severus wished that Remus would stop howling so that he would be able to stop reliving the moment when he broke his word to Dumbledore. With every howl he heard he also remembered the time his life was put in danger by the imbeciles in Gryffindor. Why people always liked that house the best he had no idea. Even Lily, who, when they were children, he had constantly told how horrible the house was, seemed to love being one of them. How, when they were all obnoxious idiots, had they won his Lily?

He took a deep breath and clenched his fist before banging it down on the desk he was sat at. At the force of Severus fist one of the drawers in the desk opened. He looked at his dormitory door to make sure no-one was coming in before he opened the drawer and looked at what he knew was inside.

It was a pile of letters that Lily had sent him over the years. He couldn't bear to part with them. They were his most prized possessions. She was the only one who had ever really cared for him. His father was a drunk and a sleaze-bag who loved to make Severus' life miserable. When he wasn't making Severus' life miserable, he was making Severus mothers life even worse. She always forgave him though. She claimed it was because, if she left, her son and herself would have no-where to turn, but Severus knew it was because she loved him. Even after everything he had done to her and to her son, it didn't matter in her eyes because she loved him. And for that, Severus would never forgive his mother. She had subjected him to a life and a home he hated and she never cared what she had done. This was why he wasn't at home for Christmas.

Severus took out the letters and ran a soft hand over Lily's hand writing. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath savouring the feel of the parchment beneath his hands. It didn't bring Lily back to him, but it did bring her closer. He could see her clearly in his mind. Her long dark red hair which shone when it caught the light. Her soft rosy cheeks and smiling lips. And lastly, Severus could see her bright, emerald green eyes. She was a vision.

He placed the letters back into the drawer of his desk, closed it and magically locked it, ensuring no-one but he could open it. This way, none of the other Slytherin's, and none of the other death eaters, could find them. His greatest fear was putting Lily's life in danger because of his love. But he couldn't stop loving her. It was impossible.

He decided to write her a Christmas letter. He didn't believe it would be a big deal because that's what you did at this time of year. You write letters to everyone you know, old friends that you haven't spoken to in a while, and you wish them a merry Christmas and a happy new year. It was the polite thing to do.

He took out a piece of parchment and a quill and tried to start his letter. He wanted it to give off a certain vibe. One that would show that he accepted that she had moved on and that didn't put across his feelings to her. A neutral letter if you will. He started many times before finally being happy with what he had written.

_To Lily,_

_Wishing you a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. Hoping that you receive all you want and achieve what you wish. Giving my greetings to your family at this happy time. _

_Have a good Christmas_

_Love Sev._

In truth, he hated what he had written. It sounded so corporate. But, it was the best he could do in the current circumstances. He rolled up the parchment and scraped back his chair, heading to the Owlery to post his letter.

* * *

James and Sirius had arrived back at Potter mansion with Linda a few hours ago. The place looked familiar but felt very foreign and the happy disposition the mansion used to exude had been replaced by a sad and mournful atmosphere.

They were currently in James' father's grand study, not saying a word to each other, but silently mulling over the death of Mr Potter.

James had no idea what he was feeling. He was sad because his father had just died. He felt as if a small part of him, the traits that he and his father had shared, had died too. It was the only thing that connected him and his father as they weren't that close in reality. On the other hand, he was proud to have had a dad like his and even though they had almost never spent much time with each other after he had started Hogwarts, he was glad he had had the father he did.

James looked around his dad's office which was plastered, wall to wall with achievement awards, certificates and declarations of honour for being one of the top auror's in the business. He smiled to himself and breathed deeply.

He was getting bored of the silence and suddenly stood up announcing, 'I am going to look awful in a grass skirt.'

Sirius smiled up at James. He was glad to see that he was dealing with the situation. He was becoming very uncomfortable. What do you say to someone who has just lost their dad? Especially when that person was your best friend and he and his dad weren't that close anymore and your best friend didn't cry or let his emotions show. He settled for acting as normal as possible.

'With those scrawny legs and knobbly knees who wouldn't?' Sirius said also standing up.

James pushed Sirius in a brotherly fashion before walking out of the office. He closed the door behind Sirius and they began to cross the house to the kitchen. They went through the entrance hall, two dining areas, a ball room and three sitting rooms before finally reaching the kitchen. The mansion was very big and it took almost ten minutes to cross.

'Ooh pie!' Sirius said upon entering the kitchen.

James looked expecting to see Linda baking the pie but got the surprise of his life when he saw his mum standing with a pie in her hands.

'It's coconut!' Mrs Potter said sniffing sadly and placing the pie down on the counter. 'For your luau.'

And from that moment on, James knew that everything would be all right.

* * *

The next morning, Lily woke up wondering where she was. It took her a moment to realise she was in her room at home. The walls were wallpapered with a soft green paper which had lilies climbing up them. Her mother had chosen the wallpaper when Lily was a young girl because she thought that it would bring out Lily's eyes. She was right and Lily had grown to love her room.

It was a large room but still the smallest bedroom in the three bedroomed house. She had three tall maple oak bookcases across the back room one of which was completely dedicated to her magic books, the other two were muggle books she had collected over the years; ones which she had bought herself, ones which were given to her and ones which she had inherited like the classics.

She had a window on one of the walls. He bed was pressed against this wall. It was a single bed. She wanted a larger bed because she moved around a lot during her sleep but at the same time, there was something comforting about the confines of a single bed. Still, she moved around a lot. She would start off with her head on the pillow at the top of the bed and end up with it discarded onto the floor. She never slept in one spot and comfortably. She had tried but she could never figure out why she couldn't sleep peacefully. It was like something was missing.

Next to her bed was a small bedside table with a small electric lamp on top of it. Next to her lamp, the only other thing on her bedside table was a picture of her and her sister Petunia when they were younger. In the picture, Petunia was nine and Lily was seven. They were at the beach where they used to take family holidays all the time. Lily loved these holidays as she loved the beach, but Petunia, as she grew older, started to hate the beach so they stopped going. But Lily still held onto the memory.

She had other pictures in her room. They were all in frames, stood on her maple oak chest of drawers. She had pictures of her parents and all her friends; ones from primary school and ones from Hogwarts.

Next to her chest of drawers was her wardrobe. It too was maple oak but it wasn't decorated with memories and photos. Instead, there were notes and charts adorning the wardrobe doors from when Lily was planning what to do in sixth year. There were pro/con lists on each subject which she was thinking of taking. There were lists of jobs and what subjects she would need for each and every one of them. This method is what she always used to make her decisions. She liked to analyse things.

Lily yawned and swung her legs out of bed. She had woken up with her head on her pillow which was an achievement for her. The downside was her pillow was at the foot of her bed. She scrunched her toes and felt the furry rug under her feet. She stood up and yawned before crossing to her chest of drawers and dragging out an old pair of jeans and a top and pulling them on. Then she pulled them off again because she realised she had forgotten to take off her pyjamas. When she was dressed properly she went down stairs to get some breakfast.

'Hello love!' her mother said as she stood over the stove to check on the eggs which were boiling.

'What's wrong?' Lily immediately said. Her mother only made her favourite breakfast when she wanted something or when something was wrong.

'Does something have to be wrong for me to make my daughter-?'

'Just tell her!' her father said turning the page in his newspaper. He was sat at his usual place at the table in the kitchen. He had a plate of uneaten toast in front of him and a half-drunken class of fresh orange juice.

'Don't tell me what to do Richard!' Lily's mother said sternly pointing the blunt knife she was using to butter some toast 'soldiers', (to go with Lily's boiled egg), at her husband.

'Sorry dear.' Richard said sliding down in his chair to avoid his wife's eyes.

'Tell me what?' Lily said becoming impatient.

'Well sweetie,' her mother began, 'Do you remember your sister's boyfriend, Vernon? Well he's spending Christmas with us this year. Isn't that nice?'

'Depends on how you would define nice…' Lily said folding her arms and giving her mother a suspicious look. There had to be more to this then she was letting on.

'Yes well…' her mother began before trying to change the subject, 'Your breakfast is ready sweetie. Here we go, on the table, in your usual spot, just the way you like it-'

'Heather…' Richard said to his wife, still reading his paper.

'I'm getting there Richard! Give me a minute!' Heather said shrilly, 'Anyway,' she continued breathing deeply and smiling at Lily a little creepily, 'Well, it's just, Lily sweetheart, she hasn't…told him-'

'That I'm a witch.' Lily finished for her mother. She sighed and tilted her head in defeat.

'Well…' Heather smiled shakily before her expression dropped, 'Yes. And she would like it if you didn't mention anything to do with magic or do any magic.'

'That was one time!' Lily said with an unbelieving laugh, 'I turned a cup into a rat, _one time!_ I was excited to show my _sister, _what I was learning!'

'I know dear, but-'

'Does she not remember that five minutes after I did that, I got a letter warning me not to do it again!' Lily continued, interrupting her mother and becoming a little irate. 'How is it that she doesn't remember _that_?' Lily threw her hands into the air and flopping down into her seat to the left of her father. She picked up her spoon and started tapping the shell of her boiled egg with it to get the top off.

'Just please don't mention magic sweetheart?' her mother asked with a small pleading smile.

Lily didn't answer her mother but instead picked up a toast 'soldier' and dipped it into her boiled egg which she had now got the top off. The yolk was runny and ran over the side of the shell. She ate her boiled egg in silence if a little moodily because she was being told to hide who she was for the sake of her sister, (who hated her), and her boyfriend.

Petunia had been with her boyfriend for three years, since she was sixteen. She was nineteen now and she still hadn't told him about Lily. Lily was sure that she hadn't even told him about her at all and, if she had, she would have made up some stupid story to explain why Lily wasn't at home during the school year.

Lily suddenly thought of something. 'What am I meant to do about the presents from my friends?' she asked her Mum who was now starting the washing up.

'Do you think you could open them upstairs please, sweetie?' Heather asked her daughter whilst scrubbing the pan she had used to cook Lily's egg in.

Lily sighed and got up. She made her way upstairs only to find her way blocked by her older sister.

Petunia was a tall girl who was so unpleasantly thin, you could see all of her bones and the veins in her neck. She looked ill most of the time even though she was a perfectly healthy young girl. She had thin blonde hair and glazed, muggy blue eyes which looked like the life had been sucked right out of them. Her cheeks were sallow and her face had the look of someone who had just been slapped. She wrinkled her nose upon seeing Lily, as if she smelt bad. And when she spoke to Lily, you could hear the clear disdain in her voice.

'Whilst Vernon is here, I don't want you to do any of your freaky business!' Petunia sneered, 'I've told him you go to a school for girls with behavioural problems.'

'You could have just told him the truth!' Lily said looking up at her sister who was standing on the step above her.

'And tell him what?!' Petunia whispered fiercely, bending down and levelling her face with Lily's, 'That you're a _freak!_ I don't think so!'

'You're going to have to tell him sooner or later!' Lily replied not wavering under Petunia's loathsome glare.

'Well I choose later!' Petunia snarled at Lily before pushing past her on the stairs. She turned back to her younger sister to say one last thing, 'And if you dare say anything about your freak school, your freak friends or anything to do with your freakiness!If you do any freaky stuff, you'll be sorry! Very Sorry!' And with that she stormed away leaving Lily on the stairs shaking her head.

Lily walked up the hallway to her bedroom and closed the door, muttering to herself as she went. 'When I turn seventeen, _then _I'll show her some 'freakiness'. Only a few weeks to go.'

She walked over to her trunk, which she still hadn't unpacked, picked it up and heaved it onto her bed. She undid the clasp on it and threw open the lid to reveal a tangled mess of presents, clothes and books, which had been jumbled during her long journey.

Lily picked out the presents and laid them on her bed near the pillow. She then emptied the rest of her trunk and put her clothes and books in her chest of drawers and bookcases respectively. After she had finished she shoved her now empty trunk under her bed and turned back to the presents which were on her bed. She stood staring at them for a moment before deciding, as she wasn't allowed to open them downstairs on Christmas day with the rest of her presents, she thought she might as well open them now. She had always been impatient with Christmas presents. Too excited to wait to see what was underneath the wrapping paper but she had always managed to hold on till Christmas day. But seen as she couldn't open them with the rest of her presents, why wait?

She grabbed the present from Hestia first. It was neatly wrapped but Lily suspected that Hestia had had it wrapped in the shop where she had bought it from. She did every year because Hestia hated wrapping presents unlike Lily who actually quite enjoyed it. Lily shook the present by her ear. She couldn't identify the sound it was making so, without any further hesitation, she ripped the wrapping paper off and threw it on the floor leaving Hestia's present in her hands. It was a hand carved wooden box. Lily opened it and saw that it was designed to hold potion ingredients. There were small compartments to hold various items. In one of these sections were a set of instructions. Lily picked them up and saw that if you were to tap the right corner of the box, it would expand and reveal more layers of compartments including a bottom layer which held six empty glass vials ready to be filled up with samples of potions. Lily thought this was an excellent gift but it didn't feel like one Hestia would give her. Something was missing. Then she saw some labels on the potion vials; one said love potion, the next said smartness potion, then waking up potion, lucky potion and lastly, a sleeping potion. Lily shook her head. This was Hestia's 'subtle' way of asking Lily to make potions that did all of that for her.

Lily put down Hestia's present with a smile. She then picked up the next present on her small pile and looked at the label. It was a present from Alice and Emmeline. Lily didn't bother to shake the present by her ear. Her impatience got the better of her and she tore the wrapping paper off. They had bought her three boxes of her favourite Honeydukes sweets. They knew Lily had a sweet tooth so they had bought very large boxes of exploding bon-bon's. Lily smiled and immediately opened one of the boxes and threw a bon-bon into her mouth. She bit into it and felt the bon-bon fizz in her mouth before it began to pop or 'explode'. She waited and swallowed before experiencing the delicious after taste.

Putting down Alice and Emmeline's present she picked up the smallest present on her pile and saw that it was from Mary. She smiled and thought that it was very nice of Mary to get her a small something for Christmas. She opened it and saw another box of exploding bon-bon's. She smiled. Her sweet tooth would be satisfied for quite a while now that she had four boxes of her favourite sweets!

There were two presents left on Lily's pillow. They were both badly wrapped in odd shapes leaving no clue as to what was inside them. Lily realised that these must have been the presents that the marauders had bought her. She grabbed the one nearest to her. It was a quite heavy. Intrigue set into Lily's mind and she ripped the wrapping paper away to reveal a book. After thinking how on earth someone could wrap up a square book so that it resembled an unrecognisable shape, she looked at the title of the book. It was a book of new and unique charms. Lily had seen this book on sale in Hogsmeade the time she had snuck out of detention with James. She had pointed it out and James had obviously remembered and he and his friends had pitched in and bought it for her. Lily smiled at her first present from the marauders. She then put it down onto the pile of her opened presents and reached for her last. This too was badly wrapped into an unrecognisable shape but turned out to be a box. The box contained a set of rare potion ingredients set which also included a book of unusual potions using the ingredients.

Lily smiled and felt really happy with the presents she had received. The only thing she wasn't happy about was the fact that she was unable to open her presents downstairs on Christmas morning with her parents watching her. She didn't usually like to wait to open her presents but when she was told that she couldn't, she began to want to wait. She _wanted_ to open her presents on Christmas morning with her family surrounding her, the Christmas tree all decorated and the smell of the slowly roasting turkey coming from the kitchen. The ambiance of Christmas had been taken away from her and she didn't like it. If only her sister would accept her, she wouldn't be feeling this way. It was Christmas after all.

* * *

Birds were chirping. It was morning after the third and final night of the full moon. Remus rolled over to discover a broken chair lying on its side next to. It looked as though it had been through the mill; the wood was splintering and there was a giant chunk missing from the leg of the chair. Remus sighed and closed his eyes tightly. If the chair was in that bad of a state after being attacked by him, he hated to think what he looked like. He had always resorted to taking his pent up werewolf anger on himself after getting bored of beating up the furniture. Remus looked down at his torso and opened his eyes slowly. He had a large gash across his stomach which was still bleeding and sure to leave a scar. His arm had bite marks all the way down it which didn't look too deep or serious but his hand was contorted at a strange angle and he could see part of his knuckle peeping out from under his pale white flesh.

These were minor injuries as far as Remus' maladies went. The night before, Remus' knee cap had somehow dropped down to his ankle and his femur was sticking out where his knee cap should have been. These kinds of things were always happening to Remus during this time of the month and he had kind of gotten used to the pain. That was the sad truth about being a werewolf. You got used to pain. And loneliness.

Remus had only ever found one cure for his injuries and loneliness. Well, three cures. His best friends in their Animagus forms. He had found that, when James, Sirius and Peter were with him, he had had fewer serious injuries. He was also in the good company of the three most important people in his life, besides his parents. And the nights and full moons Remus spent with them, were the best of his life. Unfortunately for Remus, his friends had all gone home for Christmas leaving Remus all on his own.

He sighed and stood up carefully. When he was stood up straight he suddenly doubled over, the pain from the gash in his stomach finally catching up with him. Remus took a slow staggering breath before attempting to stand up again. He looked around for something to cover his wound with so that it wouldn't get dirt in it when he climbed up the tunnel that led to the Hogwarts grounds via the whomping willow. Remus saw a moth-eaten, faded red blanket thrown over the headboard of the four-poster bed that was in the shrieking shack. So Remus stumbled over to it and picked it up, tying it tightly around his waist to stop the bleeding, or, at least, delay it.

Breathing patchy breaths, Remus made his way to the sloping tunnel and began to climb. The pain from his stomach had started to cease because Remus had tried to put it out of his mind, but sometimes the pain would come out in waves every time he tripped over a small rock or clump of dirt in the passage.

He made it out of the tunnel to find Madam Pomfrey waiting for him as usual. Remus smiled at her in pain and stepped out from the tunnel. His foot crunched and Remus was sure it wasn't him. He looked down and laughed a little unbelievably. He walked a little further out of the tunnel so that he was now at the edge of the perimeter of the whomping willow. Remus smiled and looked around at the trees, the ground and the lake. They were all covered in a thick, white blanket. Remus smiled to himself. It had happened for the first time since he had been at Hogwarts; a white Christmas.

* * *

**Reviews are not necessary but always welcome!  
Thanks for reading!**

**The next update will be on 10/12/12**

**Galindaba**


	14. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader! Thank you to my second reviewer: JunW22054. I shall try to take all your suggestions on board cause your review was so nice and constructive but I hope you understand if I don't change certain things. But thank you ever so much for the nice comments. :)**

**Here's chapter Thirteen! **

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Thirteen**

Jane Potter rolled over in bed to put her arm around her husband only to find he wasn't there. He was gone forever. Her heart sank. She missed her husband. Even his constant snoring which she should be listening to right now.

Jane forced herself to sit up in her bed and swing her legs over the side, slipping her feet into her slippers. She side and looked around her room lost, her eyes settling on the picture she kept by the side of her bed. It was when her son James was twelve years old and her husband and herself had managed to get a day of work. It was the only one they had that summer so they had decided to take James on a picnic to a wildlife park. It was a few miles away from the Potter mansion though no one would have known it as the Potter mansion was protected by many enchantments and could only be found by those who were invited or had been told of the location by an authorised person.

The picture was of James and his father. They had matching crooked, laughing smiles and their messy hair. James' glasses were swinging off of his face and he trying to stop his dad from taking them off him completely. His dad was ruffling his hair as well, making it even messier.

Jane looked at her husband as he played with his son in the moving picture. She smiled a wet smile before deciding to go downstairs. She grabbed her dressing gown and, putting it on, walked through the door and out of her bedroom.

She was at the front corner of the second floor corridor in the Potter mansion. The corridor was a three sided indoor balcony. Each side was placed at a right-angle to the other like a square missing one of its sides. Around this balcony, were four grand bedrooms, (with individual en-suites in each one), as well as three family sized bathrooms unattached to the rooms and four corridors leading from the balcony. One lead to a back staircase which lead to another floor above, which you could see if you looked up as there was a similar layout on the third floor, (they both had the three-sided balcony). The staircase along the corridor led to the many large attic rooms on the third floor and the second floor of the library. That corridor, along with the other three, also lead to other rooms further along the back and sides of the mansion; eight more guest bedrooms with en-suites, the library and two upstairs sitting rooms.

At the other side of the balcony from where Jane was stood, in the room dead opposite from hers, James and Sirius slept. When James was thirteen, he decided he didn't want the bedroom next to his parents anymore, (too mature for such close proximity), so, with the help of his dad, he had dragged all his personal belongings to the last bedroom on the left hand side of the corridor. Jane smiled at the memory.

She walked down the corridor, turned left into the next straight, and then into the middle of that one. This was where the grand staircase which led to the second floor was placed. Jane walked halfway down it. Here there was a middle platform which housed the fact that the stairs now split into both directions, both curving round to lead to the middle of the grand foyer. Jane chose to walk down the left side of the now split staircase, careful to miss the eighth step down because it was a sinking step. When James was seven and developing his powers, he had pulled a strop towards his father who had walked away from him. When his dad was on the eight step, James became so angry he had unintentionally caused the step to sink. They hadn't been able to fix it. Jane smiled at the memory.

She began to walk through the Potter mansion and made her way to the third sitting room. (There were only three on the ground floor; one for her, one for James and one to entertain guests in.) When she got there she sat down in her high-backed armchair which faced the fire. She missed her husband so much she was literally aching. Just walking through the mansion brought all her feelings to the surface and caused her to miss him more. At least she had her memories to remember him by.

There was a loud crack which suddenly filled the room, but Jane, completely used to the sound, didn't flinch. Jane looked up and saw Linda, her house-elf, with a tray loaded with breakfast.

'Morning Mistress Potter!' Linda squeaked putting the tray down on the end table next to Jane's chair.

'Thank you Linda.' Jane said with a small sad smile.

Linda looked up at her with her big round eyes. 'Is you alright, Mistress Potter?' she asked Jane.

Again, Jane smiled a sad smile. 'Yes, Linda dear. I'll be fine.'

Linda didn't look convinced but bowed and disapparated out of the room leaving Jane on her own once more.

She was wallowing. It was the only word left to describe how she was feeling. She was wallowing in the misery that was now her life. It wasn't all bad though. She still had her treasured son James, her only child, the only living piece of her late husband left. And although she still had him, this didn't begin to fill the void she now had in her heart.

Jane was busy thinking about her son when she heard him and Sirius thudding down the stairs and through some of the downstairs rooms on their way, assumedly, to the kitchens for breakfast. They would take around half an hour to fill their stomachs before they would come rampaging through Jane's living room to get to their Christmas presents. And if, when they stormed in, her was still food displayed, Sirius would be sure to find a way to eat it. So Jane pulled the breakfast tray on to her lap and began to eat. The food turned to mush in her mouth as she didn't particularly want it. It was more out of necessity that she was eating.

It took her ten minutes to pick at her food. When she felt she had eaten all she could, she called for Linda to take the tray away.

'Was everything all right for miss?' Linda asked as she grabbed the tray.

'Yes thank you Linda. When will lunch be served?' Jane asked, not really because she wanted to know, but so she had something to say.

'At one o'clock mistress Potter.' Linda said, 'Is there anything else my mistress would like?'

'Yes. When will dinner be served?' Jane said, actually wanting to know this time.

'At six-thirty mistress Potter.' Linda said, taking a low bow before disapparating out of the room.

Jane looked up and took in a great sigh. In a few moments her quiet despair would be interrupted by two sixteen year old boys running through her sitting room. She began to prepare herself for this, wiping the silent tears which had been dripping down her cheeks. She composed herself and waited.

Sure enough, five minutes later James and Sirius ran through.

'Hi Mum. Bye Mum.' James yelled as he entered and exited the room respectively.

Sirius said nothing and just followed his best friend through only making contact with Jane Potter as he waved to her on his way past.

Jane laughed a little at the boy's behaviour. They were both coping with the death of Mr Potter rather well. Jane had a sneaking suspicion it had something to do with the coconut pie she had made the other day. As Sirius had said that day, unthinkingly so, 'Pie makes everything better!' Jane smiled at the memory.

She listened to the boys next door. Hurried ripping sounds were all she could hear. The sound of tearing paper stopped and started, the pauses being filled with gasps of surprise and excitement and the occasional voiced exclamation of glee. Jane smiled. Their happiness was now her first priority so it was good to hear their delight, even if it was too soon for her to be around that kind of unfathomable joy. At least they could find it in themselves to be happy.

James ran back into the room unexpectedly. Jane looked at him questioningly.

'You. Are. Awesome!' James said, his voice so happy it couldn't be described.

Jane smiled at her son and simply asked, 'Is that all right then?'

'It's the new Nimbus 1500! Of course it's all right! It's more than all right it's-'

'You. Are. Awesome!' Sirius butted in also too happy for description. He held in his hands an instruction manual on how to build a motorcycle, plus an armful of parts.

Jane smiled a Sirius and repeated her question to him.

'Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesy esyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesye syesyesyesyesyes! YES!' Sirius shouted quickly.

'That's good then.' Jane said with a genuine smile.

James and Sirius smiled back at her. 'Thank you!' they said in unison with James adding at the end, 'Merry Christmas Mum!'

The two boys ran out of the room, anxious to get to their new presents.

Jane watched them out of the room. 'Merry Christmas.' she said.

* * *

'Peter!' Mrs Pettigrew yelled lovingly to her son who was in his room in the small two-bed roomed bungalow, 'Will you come out of your room! Preferably without hurting yourself!'

A door opened and closed. Heavy footsteps got louder until they stopped outside the living room door where Mrs Pettigrew was waiting for her son.

Peter opened the door and walked into the room.

'Good. You didn't fall over your own feet!' Mrs Pettigrew smiled with shining eyes at her son, 'I bought you a Christmas present but I didn't wrap it in any paper just in case you give yourself a paper-cut.'

Peter sighed and quickly wished he was back at Hogwarts with Remus and James. People, friends, who didn't treat him like a walking disaster zone. Who trusted that he didn't need twenty-four hour observation to make sure he didn't burn off his eyebrows. Not Sirius though. Sirius patronized him and was unnecessarily cruel. Peter hated the way Sirius made him feel. It was the way he felt when his mother mollycoddled him. Small.

'I was going to put it in a plastic bag but I didn't want you to suffocate on it.' Mrs Pettigrew said sweetly as she handed her son a long, flat and thick cardboard box.

Peter accepted it and smiled gratefully at his mother, muttering his thanks.

'I thought you'd be safer with a box.' Mrs Pettigrew said with a sympathetic face.

Peter lifted the lid off of the box and saw the hand knitted scarf in the colours of Gryffindor. He picked it out of the box and stared at it. 'I already have a scarf.' he said tonelessly.

'It was getting old and tatty.' Mrs Pettigrew said as she hurried over to him and took the scarf off of him. She wound it round his neck and said, 'It could have given you a rash so I thought a new one would be safer for you. The wool is silkier.'

'Thanks.' Peter said ungratefully. 'I'm going back to my room. Merry Christmas.' he said.

* * *

Severus looked around his empty bedroom holding a tin can; a port key. He looked at the mucky and tatty bed, the thin brown blankets, the stained, thin pillow, the worn mattress with springs poking out. He looked at the broken wooden chair; splintered. The only other thing left in his room was his Hogwarts trunk, still packed, from when he came home from school. He hated his room. It held unhappy memories. But they would be taken care of soon enough.

He closed his bedroom door behind him and walked down the narrow staircase in his house, crept past the open living room door where his father was drinking, again. Past the kitchen, where his mother was preparing his father's dinner in contented silence, and out of the front door. He shoved his hand in his pockets and walked across the street. When he reached the house opposite his, he turned around and leant against their wall, staring back at his house and through the living room window.

It was ten minutes past eleven in the morning. The time he had been told to leave his house so family matters could be taken care of.

He was waiting for five minutes before he heard a faint pop coming from inside his house. Through the living room window he saw a tall figure in a black cloak towering over Severus' father. The figure raised his wand. Severus smiled. A flash of green and the figure turned around to face the window. Lord Voldemort smiled evilly back at Severus before turning around on the spot and disapparating. It was done.

Severus didn't bother waiting to see what his mother's reaction was. He had other walls he wanted to sit on today.

He kicked a stone and followed it down Spinners end to the corner of the street. He walked into the next street, and the next, until he stopped in the middle of the fifth street he went down.

He had stopped outside the back of Lily Evans' house, just hoping to catch a glimpse of her. He had given up on trying to rebuild their friendship for now. She had made herself perfectly clear that she now wanted nothing to do with him. Severus still hadn't accepted her decision completely, but had decided to respect it. A small part of him wished she would change her mind and another part was convinced that, after the space he was giving her, she would.

He entered the back gate, (the only entrance the Evans' used for their house), which had a path leading to the back door of Lily's house. Ignoring this path, however, he stepped off it and onto the grass of the small back garden. He sat on the wall, which separated the property from the street, and gazed in through the kitchen window. He was placing the tin can, which he was still carrying, onto the wall next to him when he saw her.

He saw Lily, still in her pyjamas, helping her mother prepare the Christmas dinner they would all sit and eat together, as a family, in a couple of hours. He smiled wistfully, wishing that it was him she was cooking, having fun and laughing with. He ached to talk to her.

Severus sat watching Lily for several minutes. He memorized everything about her. Her flowing red hair, her shining emerald eyes and her laughing smile. He had very little time to take all of Lily's beauty in. He had a meeting of sorts to attend. He took one last fleeting look through Lily's kitchen window. She was tucking a loose strand of her deep red hair behind her ear. Severus sighed and, regretfully, grabbed the port key and disappeared.

He reappeared in front of a small mouldy looking wooden shack and threw the tin can to the ground. He purposefully, and more confidently than in previous times, strode towards the shack. He felt the familiar cool sensation washing over him as he walked through the protection charm which ensured only people with permission could enter.

Severus opened the shacks rickety door to reveal a large hall with high raised ceilings which had oak beams running across them and candle torches running along the stone walls. He made his way to his place at the long rectangular table, in the middle of Avery and Mulciber, and sat down to wait for the meeting to begin.

'Welcome my friends!' Voldemort hissed softly as he came out of the shadows and to the head of the table. He sat down and looked around at his loyal followers before continuing. 'I have summoned you all today to discuss our, ha, New Year's, celebrations. But first,' he said, 'Merry Christmas.'

* * *

Lily, Petunia and their parents were sat in a stiff silence at the table in the dining room. The turkey was sat in the middle of the table, un-carved by her father. The Christmas dinner was slowly cooling as the Evans' waited for Petunia's boyfriend to arrive.

The Christmas spread looked mouth-wateringly tasty. Richard Evans, unable to resist, reached forward slightly to try and sneakily grab a roast potato.

'Put. It. Back.' Heather Evans said sternly to her husband enunciating her consonants.

Richard looked like a deer caught in the headlights of a car as he slowly returned the roast potato to its original position in the bowl on the table.

The silence returned, now more awkward than ever. Lily could hear the gentle ticking of the kitchen clock in the next room.

There was a knock at the door and Petunia hurriedly scrambled out of her seat to get to the door and let her boyfriend in. Lily watched her disappear out of the dining room and down the hall.

'About bloody time too! I'm starving!' Richard said grabbing his napkin enthusiastically and tucking it into is shirt below his neck.

Lily giggled to herself and smiled at her father whilst her mother gave him a disapproving look.

'You better be nice to this boy Richard.' Heather said to her husband whilst rising from the table, 'Take that napkin off and come and greet him.'

'But…' Richard said motioning to the food on the table.

'Richard!' Heather said impatiently.

'Yes dear.' Richard replied with a sigh as he took his napkin off and rose from his seat. 'Come on Lily.' he continued as he walked over to his daughter, 'If I have to greet him, so do you!' He patted Lily's shoulder and left the room.

Lily sighed and followed her father reluctantly out of the room. She went down the hallway and met her family at the door where her older sister was being engulfed by a whale of a man.

Lily's eyes widened when she eventually took in the mass which was Petunia's boyfriend. Petunia was a pretty girl and sickly thin. Lily, shamefully, couldn't help wondering how her sister had ended up with this man. Then again, there is no rhyme or reason to who you fall in love with and, they do say opposites attract.

Petunia was finally released from her boyfriend's grasp and Lily was finally able to take him all in. He was an inch taller than Petunia and was about twenty times her size. He had no neck and his face was a dull red as if he was constantly hot. He had a retreating mop of mousy brown hair which was unusual considering he was only around twenty-two years old. The last defining feature of this man was the patchy moustache under his nose. He was clearly trying to grow it but it hadn't filled out yet.

Lily took her eyes off of him to look at her sister's face. She was looking up at her boyfriend with a sappy look in her eyes. It was rather disturbing.

'Vernon Dursley.' he said pompously bobbing up and down on his heels looking at the Evans family as if they smelt bad. He sharply stuck his hand out to Richard and grasped his, almost breaking his hand in the shake.

Richard looked down at the hand shake in pain and, struggling, took his hand away. 'Hello Vernon.' he said nodding his head and shaking his hand to relive the ache. 'This is my wife Heather and my youngest daughter, Lily.' Richard motioned to both of them in turn.

'Come through Vernon.' Petunia said pushing past her family with Vernon in tow, 'Dinner's already on the table. I helped cook it you know…' Her voice disappeared around the corner and Heather Evans followed her eldest daughter through into the dining room.

Lily and her father however, stood near the front door looking at each other with raised eyebrows.

'You can always judge a man by his handshake Lily.' Richard said, putting his arm around his daughters shoulders and beginning to walk slowly with her down the hallway. 'If I'm right, by my almost broken hand, that man is brutal.'

Lily looked at her dad with wide eyes, a little scared. 'How is he brutal?' she asked.

'Stands for no nonsense.' Richard clarified in a whisper as they turned into the dining room. They separated and returned to their respective seats.

Lily's dad carved the turkey. He dished it out to everyone in turn.

'Help yourself to the rest Vernon.' Heather said as she passed the carrots to Lily.

'Thank you.' Vernon said stiffly, giving the food a look over with slight disdain. He settled with spooning out some runner beans, roast potatoes and some carrots once Lily had finished with them.

'So where did you two meet?' Lily asked Vernon as her sister shot her a dirty look for even daring to talk to her boyfriend.

'Petunia had a summer job typing at Grunning's didn't she?' Vernon grumbled to Lily who he didn't particularly want to talk to. He also couldn't understand why his girlfriend's sister didn't know about her summer job. It was all very strange, but he humoured her. 'She did some dictation work for me.'

'Oh.' Lily said.

Silence ensued. It was extremely awkward. Lily could see her father attempting to restrain a silly comment, her mother getting ready to tell him off, her sister ignoring her dinner and looking at Vernon lovingly as he pushed his food around his plate with a grimace.

'So, Vernon,' her mother started attempting to break the silence, 'do you still work at Grunning's?'

'Yes I do.' Vernon said seizing the opportunity to put down his fork and disregard his dinner, 'I'm up for a promotion at the moment to go into orders…'

For the next half an hour, Lily sat through the most boring monologue she had ever heard. Vernon Dursley went on and on about filling out various forms to order in drills for the company. But he didn't stop at the different forms. He went on to tell the Evans family about the different drill heads you needed to do various jobs.

She found herself thinking what could make this situation better and eventually came to the conclusion, that if the marauders were listening to this, they would make some joke or pull some prank.

Lily was snapped back into reality as her mother tapped her on the shoulder and asked for help clearing the dishes away. She realised then, that everyone had finished eating their Christmas dinner and were now making their way through to the living room for tea and biscuits.

Lily watched them go whilst she collected the dinner plates. She carried them into the kitchen where her mother was filling the sink with soapy water ready to wash the dishes.

'What do you think of him then sweetie?' her mother asked her as she squirted some more washing up liquid into the water filled sink.

'Do you remember when I was nine and I said I liked whales because I thought they were interesting?' Lily said thoughtfully as she planted the dirty dishes on the side.

'Yes.' her mother replied turning the tap off and grabbing the scrubbing sponge and the first plate on the pile Lily had just deposited.

'I take that back!' Lily said rolling her eyes. She walked back into the dining room to collect the rest of the dirty dishes on the table. Whilst doing so she peered through into the living room where she saw Vernon still going on about his drills, Petunia staring lovingly up at him and her father staring at a pencil on the coffee-table which she was sure he was trying to move with his mind. She laughed to herself and walked back into the kitchen, heaving the last pile of plates onto the side.

'Do you need any help?' Lily asked her mother who was humming as she washed the dishes, 'Because I think Dad needs rescuing.'

'Lily Evans your sister's boyfriend is not that bad!' Heather said putting a clean but still soapy dish on the drying rack, 'But by all means go and rescue him. There's only so much one can hear about drills.'

Lily smiled at her mother who was trying hard not to smile back. She turned around, walked through the dining room and into the living room. She sat down on the sofa next to her father who was now blowing at the pencil on the coffee-table.

Vernon went on for another half an hour about drills. Lily admired the Christmas tree, Richard admired his shoes and Petunia admired Vernon.

Heather walked in to see all this admiration. Strangely, her entrance seemed to shut Vernon up about drills.

'Ah good. You're done.' he said gruffly as Heather sat on the sofa, sandwiching Lily between her parents.

'Yes I am.' Heather said blankly, wondering why this mattered.

Vernon turned towards Petunia on the two-seater sofa they were sat on, and took her small bony hand into his beefy one. 'Petunia.' he began with an almost bored and grave voice, 'I wanted to ask you something but I thought I'd wait for your family. We've been together for almost three years now and I think it's time we take this to the next level.'

Lily looked at her parents and saw that they two were looking a little cautious.

Vernon continued as if he was making a business deal, 'Petunia, the next step is marriage. Will you marry me?'

It wasn't the most romantic proposal in the world but Petunia seemed to be welling up over it. Lily didn't quite get it. She would be so mad if someone put that little thought into the most important question of a girl's life. He didn't even get down onto one knee. But Petunia was now in a flurry of tears, overcome with emotion, and had thrown her arms around the bug lump which was Vernon Dursley. She had said yes.

Richard looked like he was in a state of shock and Lily heard him faintly mumble, 'He didn't even ask my permission.'

Heather had tears in her eyes but seemed to be a little bit angry. She was muttering, 'She's only nineteen. She's not old enough to get married.'

Petunia's euphoria was clear to see on her face. She was laughing and crying whilst she was clasped in Vernon's fat arms. They were rocking side to side happily and seemed to be in a bubble of their own. They broke apart and Vernon began to dig deep into his pocket. Petunia bounced happily on her seat knowing what was coming whilst Richard and Heather took in deep horrified breaths, also knowing what was coming. Lily was interested to see if the ring was a horrible as the proposal. It was.

The velvet box was a mustard yellow colour with bronze trim. It opened to reveal the engagement ring. It was a large square diamond on a too tiny gold band. It looked as if it had been glued on wonky. It didn't look as if it had been made by a real jeweller or at least a decent one. More like a plastic ring you would get out of an arcade machine. But Petunia seemed to like it. In fact, she loved it.

Vernon slipped the ring onto Petunia's bony finger and they hugged again, their bubble once more encircling them whilst Lily, Richard and Heather sat across from them; speechless.

Lily was in shock but was able to find one thing to say to her parents as they watched Petunia embrace her new fiancé; 'Merry Christmas' she said.

* * *

Remus opened his eyes and saw the ceiling above him. He had no idea how long he had been asleep for, but he was almost certain that it was now mid-afternoon. He was sure he had missed most of Christmas day. The breakfast and the light lunch. He just hoped that he wasn't going to miss the spectaculars Christmas dinner that was bound to be served to the few Hogwarts students left who didn't go home for the holidays.

He tried to roll over but was stopped by a sudden wrenching pain in his stomach. He'd forgotten about the giant gash in his side. He had fallen asleep almost immediately after he had lain down on the bed so he hadn't been able to drink the healing potion which had been placed by his bedside. So now, he dragged himself painfully up into a sitting position, took the goblet full of potion, and drank it all down. Remus felt instantly relieved and when he looked down, he saw that his wounds had been healed enough for movement. They couldn't, however, heal them completely. Only time would heal his cuts fully.

He put the goblet back down on the bedside table and threw his sheets off of himself. He swung his legs over the edge of the hospital bed and stretched them. The sensation ran all the way to the very tips of his toes. He had a dull ache through the whole of his body but he tried to ignore it. He looked around to find the last set of clothes he had brought in to the hospital wing a few days ago. He spotted them neatly folded on the chair which visitors used in the corner. Remus suspected that Madam Pomfrey was the one who had folded his clothes as he never did. He grabbed his jumper and pulled it on, wincing at the slight pain that came when he moved his shoulder. The potion obviously didn't cure bruises. He then pulled his trousers on and stood up. He turned around and made the bed before pulling apart the curtains that surrounded it.

'Ah you're up!' Madam Pomfrey said, bustling over to him, 'You've had some mail delivered and there are some presents in my office for you.'

'Thank you.' Remus said. He followed her to her office where she heaved a mount of presents into his open arms. He thanked her again, wished her a Merry Christmas, and left the hospital wing. He wouldn't need to return there for another month. He relished in that piece of news.

The castle was decorated to the hilt. There were Christmas trees in every available corner and a few of the suits of armour were wearing funny hats which had obviously come out of some wizarding Christmas crackers in previous years. A few mice were being chased through the halls by Mrs Norris but were allowed a moment of relief when the scraggy old cat saw Remus.

Remus smiled. Maybe it was because he spilt a shrinking potion on her in his second year, or, more likely, it was because he was a werewolf and with Mrs Norris' cat senses, she could smell it, but she had always disliked him. She shrank away when she saw him coming or else she would hiss and her hair would stand up on end in alert. Now Remus usually loved animals as he felt he was somewhat part of that kingdom, but there was always an exception to the rule, and Mrs Norris was it.

Mrs Norris was still frozen in the corner where she had stopped when she had first seen Remus. She kept her eyes on him and he her as they past each other in the hall. Neither of them blinked. Suddenly, Remus lurched forward a little scaring Mrs Norris out of her skin. She ran as fast as possible past him and round the corner. Remus chuckled a little to himself before checking his watch. He saw that it was ten minutes to four and decided it was time to head up to Gryffindor tower.

Before they had left to go to the Potter mansion for Christmas, James had given Remus his two-way mirror from the set he and Sirius shared. This was so they could contact and talk to each other on Christmas day.

So Remus walked up many flights of stairs until he reached the portrait of the Fat Lady on the seventh floor. He said the password and was granted entry. He looked around the common room and couldn't help but notice it seemed to be desolate. Hardly anyone stayed at Hogwarts for the Christmas holidays so the common room was empty and oddly enough, tidy. Remus bypassed the common room however and walked up to his, also empty, dormitory.

When Remus opened the door, he was greeted by the voice of Sirius, singing. He rolled his eyes and walked further into the room to find the two-way mirror.

'Moony! Your head is shaped like a banana! I am a charmer! Pancakes are great! Prongs is now irate!' Sirius sang, his voice getting louder as Remus approached the mirror.

'You're a terrible singer Padfoot!' Remus laughed as he picked up the mirror which displayed Sirius' smiling head.

'MOONY!' Sirius shouted happily before being shoved aside by James in the mirror.

'Oh Moony thank Merlin you're here!' James said in a relieved voice, 'One more verse of that and I'd have shoved my head through the wall!'

'Why didn't you just use a silencing charm on him?' Remus asked.

'Because I'm a good boy and don't use magic out of school!' James said.

Remus raised his eyebrows at this obvious blatant lie.

'Ok so I didn't think of it!' James sighed, giving up, 'Not all of us are quick-thinking geniuses!'

Remus laughed before taking on a bit of a sympathetic face, 'So…are you alright?'

James sighed sadly before saying, 'I'm dealing.' There was something in his voice which told Remus he didn't really want to talk about it, especially through a two-way mirror, so he decided to change the subject.

'What did you get for Christmas?' Remus asked.

James suddenly became very animated, as did Sirius. Whilst James was saying, 'You'll never believe it! I got the new Nimbus! You know, the Nimbus 1500! Latest model!', Sirius was saying, 'I got the best present ever! I'm telling you moony! It's so awesome you won't believe it! I got a book!'

'Whoa, whoa, whoa!' Remus said, interrupting his two best friends who were talking over each other. He hadn't heard a lot but he had heard one word. 'You got a _book _Sirius? And you liked it?'

'Yeah! It's an instruction one to build my very own motor-bike! I got all the parts too!' Sirius exclaimed enthusiastically.

'That makes more sense!' Remus muttered. James laughed and Sirius looked confused for a moment before catching on and saying, 'HEY!'

The three boys talked happily for ten more minutes, James and Sirius convincing Remus to open the presents he had received and brought up from the hospital wing. He had received three books, one on care of magical creatures, another one called one hundred and one undetectable prank charms and the last on how to care for your pet dog, a joke present James had bought him. He thought it would come in handy for coping with Sirius. Remus also got lots of sweets and chocolate, homemade baked goods and some new clothes.

'So when you coming back to Hogwarts?' Remus asked Sirius and James after they had exhausted the topic of Christmas and the presents they had received.

'Were coming back on the thirty-first of this month so we can go to Hogsmeade on New Year's day. I think Pete's coming back then too, but I'm not too sure…' James said.

'Who cares what Wormy's doing! Point is we're going to Hogsmeade!' Sirius continued, 'Gotta stock up on some Zonko's products! Ooh! And some Honeydukes chocolate!'

'Didn't you just get both of those things for Christmas? Giant baskets full?' Remus asked through the mirror. He didn't comment on the fact that Sirius wasn't actually allowed to go to Hogsmeade anymore.

'Really Moony?' James said in disbelief, 'He ate all his Honeydukes chocolate within ten minutes of receiving them and there are currently six holes in the roof of my four poster bed which prove he has used all of his Zonko presents too!'

'You're right!' Remus laughed, 'What on earth was I thinking?'

All three boys laughed until Sirius realised they were sort of laughing at him so he stopped and was suddenly moody.

'Anyway, I've gotta go!' Remus said as he checked his watch, 'Christmas dinner will be served soon and I am starving!'

'Alright Moony!' James said, 'See you in a few days'

Remus put the mirror down and sighed. He missed his friends, especially for the past few nights when he was cooped up in the shrieking shack. He was lonely on his own. But when his friends were there, he wasn't. When his friends were around, he didn't feel like a werewolf. He felt focused. They kept him in his human mind. Kept him from doing something he might regret. And when they weren't there, he worried he might do something awful. It plagued on his mind. Next month, his mind would be clearer however as his friends would be back and he and everyone in Hogsmeade and Hogwarts would be safer.

Remus walked down the staircase that led down from the boys dormitories into the common room. He saw Alice, Hestia and Emmeline just coming down the girls staircase. They were the only Hogwarts girls not to go home for Christmas. They exchanged pleasantries and left the common room together.

All four of them walked down the seven flights of stairs to the great hall. It was decorated fabulously. There were twelve Christmas tree's all decorated with extravagant strings of icicles and frosted baubles. The ceiling had falling snowflakes and the windowsills were covered in glimmering snow. In the centre of the great hall was a huge round table with seventeen chairs and place settings around it.

Remus, Hestia, Emmeline and Alice sat down in the last four available chairs at the table. The other thirteen were taken by two Ravenclaw's, four Hufflepuff's, three Slytherin's, one second year Gryffindor, Professor Flitwick, McGonagall and Dumbledore.

'Ah. So glad you could join us!' Dumbledore said as they sat down.

No sooner than the words had left his lips, and the four sixth year Gryffindor's had sat down, the table was filled with a delicious feast. One that very few Hogwarts students got to experience, and one which was, without a doubt, the best meal of the year. There was a great range of food. You had the traditional English Christmas foods; the turkey, roast potatoes, vegetables, pigs in blankets and Yorkshire puddings. There was also a honey glazed ham, a large leg of lamb and a cut of gammon. These were the more normal foods which Dumbledore had requested the house-elves make for this Christmas dinner. The more unusual were; haggis, escargot, cold fish and strangely, a dish called battered mars-bars.

In jugs around the table there was mulled wine, eggnog, pumpkin juice and some sparkling apple juice.

The students and teachers alike reached forward and grabbed what they could and scooped it all onto their gold plates. They also reached for the jugs of drink and filled up their golden goblets to the brim.

When they had grabbed all the food and drink they thought they would be able consume in this sitting, Dumbledore stood up to address the table.

'Well, this is quite a feast which has been put together.' he began with a kind smile. 'Just out of interest, who is going to try a battered mars bar? I came across them a few weeks ago and found them rather curious.'

The table chuckled. _Classic Dumbledore! _Remus thought.

'Before we dig in,' Dumbledore continued, 'I'd like to say one more thing. Merry Christmas.' he said.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Reviews are always welcome but not necessary.**

**Galindaba**


	15. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader! **

**Here's chapter fourteen! **

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Fourteen**

On the thirty-first of December, those who had left for the Christmas holiday and still hadn't returned to the school already, were boarding the Hogwarts express as it was the last day the train would make the journey across to Hogsmeade station.

James Potter and Sirius Black stood with Jane Potter saying their goodbyes.

'I'll see you at the end of school then dear.' Jane Potter said hugging her son tightly, not wanting to let him go. He was all she had left.

'Mum! I need air!' James laughed. Jane let him go reluctantly. He ran a hand through his ruffled hair and pushed his glasses back up his nose whilst Jane had begun to crush Sirius in a hug.

When she had let Sirius go, she looked at both the boys and then around the station. 'I can't remember the last time I was here!' she said with a sad smile.

'The end of my second year.' James said without a solid expression, 'You and Dad. You both came to pick me up. It was when I started my third year you stopped dropping me off. Picking me up'

Jane had a little hurt and guilty look on her face. 'I'm so sorry James.' Jane sniffed, 'We focused all our attention on protecting the rest of the world and we didn't focus hardly any on you. I am sorry James. Things will be different now. I'm just sorry your Dad had to die for me to realise that things need to change.'

'It's alright Mum!' James said smiling at her. He looked over at Sirius who was looking at the high ceiling, bobbing his head like a pigeon.

'Anyway mum, we better go before Sirius starts to show any more bird-like features!' James said, hugging his mum one more time.

Sirius looked at James confused. James just shook his head with a laugh.

'Come on! Let's get you on the train!' James said pushing Sirius towards the gleaming scarlet steam train, 'Bye Mum!' he yelled back at Jane Potter.

'See ya Mrs P!' Sirius yelled back just before James dragged him onto the train.

Jane Potter saw her boys disappear onto the Hogwarts express and sighed. She now had to go back to a huge, empty mansion by herself.

She took a step back to turn around and leave but she bumped into someone.

'I'm so sorry.' she said to the man before walking away.

'No problem!' he shouted after her.

'What's no problem?' Heather Evans said approaching her husband and her daughter who was busy stowing her trunk on the train.

'Nothing dear.' Richard replied putting his arm around his wife's waist as she turned to face their daughter.

'Now have you got everything?' Heather asked Lily who exhaled a large breath after finishing heaving her trunk on the train.

'Yes!' She replied glumly.

'Cheer up sweet heart!' Richard said with a smile, 'She'll come around!'

'No she won't.' Lily said sadly shaking her head, 'This was it. She'll never forgive me now.'

Her parents couldn't reply to Lily's statement so they just hugged her goodbye and assisted her onto the train.

Lily watched her parents walk towards the entrance to the muggle world. She saw them disappear through the barrier before turning around to walk down the now moving train to find a compartment. Halfway down, she found her path blocked. She had been looking at her feet as she was walking and now she saw two black shoes stood in front of hers. She looked up and found herself staring into the eyes of Severus Snape.

She took a deep steadying breath. 'Excuse me.' she said tonelessly.

Severus slowly stepped to the side and let her passed. He watched her wistfully down the train. His staring was interrupted by some laughing in the compartment he was stood with his back too. He turned around with a sneer to see James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew racing chocolate frogs across a make-shift race box. Severus rolled his eyes and walked away leaving the marauders shouting in their compartment.

'I win!' Sirius said happily, picking up his chocolate frog and biting off its head.

'Yours didn't even finish the race!' James laughed, 'You picked it up and ate it!'

'So?' Sirius said with his mouth full, 'It finished the race to my mouth!'

'That doesn't count!' James said also picking up his leaping chocolate frog and biting its leg.

Sirius and James ate their chocolate frogs whilst they watched Peter try and catch his jumping chocolate frog for ten minutes.

Peter finally caught his frog and exhaustedly, flopped down on the seat next to Sirius.

'How was your Christmas then Pete?' James asked him.

'All right.' Peter said with a shrug of his shoulders.

'Did you get anything nice?' James continued.

'A scarf.' Peter said in a bored fashion, 'Mum said the other one was tatty and could scratch my neck. What about you?'

'Err…books, money, an owl,' he indicted to the cage next to him. Inside, a Rufus Legged owl was sleeping, 'sweets and, best of all, a Nimbus 1500!' James said happily going into an in-depth analysis on the speed and aero-dynamics his new racing broom could exhibit.

After twenty minutes of hearing about how James broom could go from naught to one-hundred in fifteen seconds. Peter decided to change the subject.

'I heard there was a huge raid a couple of days ago.' Peter stuttered, a little scared that the attention was now on him but enjoying it none-the-less. 'All the top auror's were there. Was your dad there Prongs?'

James' smile dropped. Sirius thumped Peter on the arm angrily.

'OW!' Peter yelped, 'What was that for?'

James took a deep breath and stood up. He turned to Sirius and said, 'Fill him in. I'm gonna go and find the trolley.' before opening the sliding door and leaving the compartment.

He heard Sirius shouting at Peter and telling him he was being insensitive as he walked away from their compartment. He didn't have any idea where the trolley would be at the moment, so he just decided to wander up and down the train for a bit. He looked into the other compartments as he went, just nosing into how the other Hogwarts students spent their train journeys. Some were playing wizard's chess, some were reading and some were just talking. He then bypassed an almost empty compartment. He would have just gone straight past if he hadn't have recognised the deep red hair. Even though her face wasn't turned towards him and she was just looking out of the window, James knew it was one Lily Evans.

He opened the compartment quietly and walked forwards. He reached out his hand to tap her on the shoulder when she turned around.

'Oh my god!' Lily said, startled by someone else in her compartment.

'Sorry Evans!' James said, trying not to laugh, 'Didn't mean to make you jump!'

'It's all right.' Lily said looking straight at James, her heart beating ten to the dozen, 'I just didn't hear you come in! You scared me!'

'Sorry!' James said a small chuckle escaping him finally, 'I didn't mean to honestly. Just wondered if you were alright?'

Lily looked into James' kind, crooked smile. 'I'm all right.' Lily said, returning the smile.

'Good, good. Well it's good to see you!' James said about to leave the compartment.

'It's good to see you too.' Lily said, surprised at how true the statement actually was.

James stopped in his tracks and decided to go for it. 'Do you want to come and sit with us in our compartment?' James asked her.

'Err…' Lily said, a little caught off guard. She thought for a moment about his offer. It would be nice to sit with others on the train journey. She did sit with them on the way home and that was fun. And she _had_ missed them over the Christmas holidays. Surprisingly. Plus, being in a compartment with the marauders did have its perks. For one, Severus would stop walking past her compartment and leering in at her. Also, she could always count on having a laugh and a good time when she was with them. She always had fun when they hung out in the only free periods when her friends weren't there. (They were in Divination)

'Sure.' Lily said standing up and reaching for her trunk.

'I'll get that!' James said leaning over Lily's head and grabbing her trunk for her.

'Thanks!' Lily smiled, moving out of James' way.

They both walked out of Lily's compartment and down the train to where Sirius had finished yelling at Peter.

Lily opened the door for James who was carrying her heavy trunk without issue. She was kind of impressed at his strength.

'Hey! Look who I found!' James said as he entered the compartment. Peter was now shrunken in the corner and Sirius was sprawled out on the opposite seat.

'Hey Evans!' Sirius said with a yawn, 'D'ya get me any chocolate frogs then Prongs?'

'Not yet.' James said heaving Lily's trunk into the overhead holder.

'You're useless.' Sirius said with a tut.

'I'll go get some now.' James said walking back towards the compartment door, 'Anybody else want anything?' he asked the compartment at large.

'No thank you.' Lily said smiling at James. He smiled back as the train jolted suddenly. Lily's heart leapt.

'What 'bout you Pete? Anything?' James asked turning his attention to Peter who was still looking at his feet, curled up in the corner. He shook his head.

'Okay.' James said pulling open the compartment door once again. 'See you in a bit.'

* * *

James, Sirius, Peter and Lily walked into the Gryffindor common room later that night to find Remus, Hestia, Alice and Emmeline sat around the fireplace. Remus was reading one of the books James gave him for Christmas, Emmeline was reading a book on translating dreams and Hestia was painting Alice's nails.

When James, Sirius, Peter and Lily headed for the other four Hestia was changing the colour of Alice's nail polish with her wand. She stopped when she saw Lily.

'LILY!' she yelled, throwing her wand down so hard red and gold sparks flew from it. She clambered over the back of the couch Remus was sitting on, knocking over the tower of cards he'd built earlier so they exploded, in the process of trying to reach her best friend. When she got to her, Hestia squashed Lily in an enthusiastic hug.

'I missed you!' she said in a baby's voice jumping up and down whilst she was still hugging Lily.

'I can tell!' Lily laughed.

'Where's my welcome Remus?' Sirius asked, jumping over the sofa Hestia had just also jumped over, and plonking himself directly next to Remus. He was so close to him he might as well have been in his lap. 'Didn't you miss me?' Sirius continued.

'Nope.' Remus said without tone or expression as he continued to read his book.

Sirius turned to James. 'I feel the love!' he said with a nod of his head.

James chuckled. 'Anything new happen here?' he asked Remus as he walked around the sofa and sat on the floor, crossed legged, in front of the fire place.

'Apparation lessons start next week.' Remus said closing his book to look at James.

'Sure. You close your book to look at him!' Sirius said nodding his head. 'Don't worry. I won't take it personal-OW! What was that for?'

Remus had flicked Sirius on the nose. Sirius shut up and was looking confused and a little upset at Remus. Remus just smiled and raised his eyebrows. He had learnt that in the how to train your dog book James had got him for Christmas.

'Come on Lily!' Hestia said who had been squeezing the life out of her best friend since she entered the room, 'Let's go plan our shopping day tomorrow!'

'Oh great!' Lily said sarcastically.

* * *

Early the next morning, Lily was stood in the cold entrance hall, shivering. Hestia had dragged her up at the break of dawn so they could have the entire day shopping. Then, when Hestia had realised that she had woken up Alice and Emmeline, she forced them to get dressed too and come out for the day with Lily and herself. So now, Lily, Hestia, Alice and Emmeline were all stood in the entrance hall waiting for Filch to check their names off of the checklist.

Hestia had enough energy for all four of them. She was literally bouncing off of the walls. She had always been a morning person, unlike Lily who was yawning and shivering in the cold along with Alice. Emmeline was swaying softly and seemed unaffected by the weather.

Hestia bounced over to Filch to ask him if they could go yet. He apparently said yes as she then bounded back to Lily, Alice and Emmeline and dragged them out of the entrance hall into the thick snow which was settled on the ground.

It took them less than ten minutes to reach to the gate which led from Hogwarts to the road to Hogsmeade and the outside world. A journey which would usually take around fifteen minutes or more at a normal pace but Hestia was in a rush to get to the New Year's Day sales, giveaways, deals and celebrations. There was no slowing her down.

They soon reached Hogsmeade and, because of how early it was, the shops were only just opening and setting up for the New Year's Day event.

'Isn't this great!?' Hestia asked Lily, who she had linked arms with and had practically dragged into the village. Emmeline and Alice were trailing along behind them, about twenty feet away.

'Great isn't particularly the word I'd use.' Lily said grumpily, (she wasn't a morning person) 'Early, perhaps. But not great!'

'Oh stop being such a mope Lily! Enjoy yourself! Look around!' Hestia said, walking with Lily further into the village.

'There's nothing to look at yet!' Lily said in high disbelief at Hestia's suggestion, 'They've only just started to set up! Can't we just sit down for a bit?'

'You wimp!' Hestia grumbled, 'Fine! We can go sit by the shrieking shack! I heard that the alleged 'ghoul's' were making a huge racket a few nights ago!'

'Oh joy! Just what we need!' Lily mumbled, 'Angry ghouls!'

Hestia laughed at her best friend. Alice and Emmeline had caught up with them at this point and were told of their plan to go and sit near the haunted building. They were more than happy to go along so all four of them set off further down the main village lane until they came to a small sloping hill covered with trees. They walked halfway up the small slope until they came to a bench which was placed in front of a rickety wooden fence which surrounded the shrieking shack and its grounds.

Relieved all four girls sat down on the cold bench and looked up at the broken building.

'It's beautiful isn't it?' Emmeline said dreamily.

Lily, Hestia and Alice turned their heads slowly to look at Emmeline and her expression of awe.

'Are we looking at the same building?' Hestia whispered to Lily through the corner of her mouth.

Lily elbowed Hestia in the ribs to shut her up before saying to Emmeline, 'How do you mean?'

'Even though it is broken, there is beauty in all the cracks.' Emmeline philosophised.

The girls started talking about what they were going to do that term at Hogwarts. None of them could wait for apparation lessons so that they could retrieve their licences and travel all over the world. They talked for an hour and a half uninterrupted. Then, Hestia saw the time and realised how much shopping time they had missed out on. She soon rallied the other three reluctant girls into moving and heading back into the village.

They were almost at the Hogshead Pub on the edge of Hogsmeade, when a giant tawny owl flew down and landed in front of Lily. Lily held her arm out for the owl to land on. When it did, she untied the letter from the owls outstretched foot, slipped three Knut's into the money pouch around its neck an let it fly away.

Lily looked at the letter. It was in a muggle envelope and there was a stamp in the corner. Obviously there were wizards in the muggle post office, monitoring the post and sending it on to the witches and wizards it was addressed too. The writing on the letter was familiar to Lily, but she hadn't seen it in a very long time.

Lily hadn't realised she had stopped walking but was told of the fact when Hestia shouted back to her to get a move on.

'Err…' Lily yelled to her three friends, 'I'll… catch up with you a bit later. I need to read this…' She turned around and walked back in the direction she had just come from.

'Where are you going?' Hestia shouted at Lily's retreating figure.

'Back to the shrieking shack!' Lily yelled, turning the letter over in her hands, 'I'll see you later.'

She headed back to the bench and sat down facing the shrieking shack.

_It couldn't be… _she thought to herself.

Lily opened the envelope and took out the two small sheets of thin paper. She read the letter, becoming more and more irate as she read further. Finally she reached the end and was out of words to describe how she was feeling. She didn't know whether to scream or cry. She just sat there. Stunned.

* * *

All Hogwarts students who had permission, the third years and up, were now Hogsmeade for the New year's day celebrations, (even Sirius who was technically banned from the events due to his unfortunate prank on Severus Snape). The celebrations were now in full swing and seemed to be going really well. This was only the second year the village and local businesses had done this. The Three Broomsticks was giving everyone a free butterbeer and Honeydukes were giving out free samples of their new, new year's chocolates. But Zonko's was where you could find most of the Hogwarts students, including James, Sirius, Remus and Peter. Zonko's had slashed all of their prices to less than ten percent. People were coming out of the store with their arms full and James, Sirius, Remus and Peter were four of those people.

'I think I bought the entire shop!' Sirius said happily.

'And then some.' muttered Remus as James laughed and Peter tittered.

The three boys walked along the street, heading for the Three Broomsticks pub to grab a butterbeer. As they were walking James began counting all of his bags. He had a fair few, but still discovered one missing.

'Ah great.' James sighed causing his fellow marauders to look up questioningly. 'I left one of my bags back in Zonko's.'

'Idiot!' Sirius said smacking James over the back of his head making his already messy hair even messier.

'Sure!' James said in a sarcastic fashion, 'Cause in your life you've never forgotten anything have you?'

'NEVER!' Sirius yelled causing Remus and James to chuckle and Peter to titter slightly.

'Yesterday we were just outside the mansion, all ready for Mum to apparate us to Kings Cross, and what had you forgotten to pack?' James asked Sirius, 'You're underwear.'

Remus burst into loud laughter and Sirius looked slightly abashed, a novelty for him.

'Go get your bag!' Sirius said through jokingly narrowed eyes

'I'll be right back.' James said smiling to his friends as they walked into the three broomsticks. He turned on his heel and walked casually back to Zonko's Joke shop ignoring the admiring looks he was pulling from the various girls who were walking through Hogsmeade. James shook his head and rolled his eyes, looking at the ground.

He reached Zonko's joke shop and was about to open the door when a small figure bumped into him and fell backwards.

James bent over and stretched out a hand to help the person up. 'I'm so sorry!' he said sincerely.

'No, no it's my fault.' sniffed the person.

James had no idea who had bumped into him as she wouldn't look up. He had a few clues though. She was obviously a Hogwarts student as her woolly winter hat had the schools emblem emblazoned on it, centre front. All her hair was tucked into it so he couldn't see the colour. She also had a scarf on. It was red and gold, a Gryffindor scarf. In the corner were two initials; J.P.

James felt his scarf-less neck before realising who the girl was. 'Evans?' he asked.

Lily looked up slowly, sniffing. Her face was tear stained and her large emerald eyes had such sadness and hurt in them.

James was worried. 'Evans are you ok?' he asked her again.

Lily burst into a fresh wave of tears. She was attracting stares from passers-by and James could see she was uncomfortable crying in public. She just couldn't seem to stop herself.

'Come on.' James said, leading Lily gently away from Zonko's. He turned down a small side street, still guiding Lily by the small of her back.

'Where are we going?' Lily sniffed, as they walked down the small back lane where the side entrances to the shops were located.

'Out of the way.' James said as they sped up. They came out onto a street lined with odd shaped houses which wizard families lived in. There was a small passage way between two of the houses which James took Lily down. It came out onto another street with odd shaped wizarding houses, except this time, they were surrounding a small portion of land. It was covered with snow but tufts of grass were poking out from underneath. There was one large leafless, snow soaked oak tree to the right of the ground and a bench loaded with snow underneath it.

Still crying, Lily was led over to the bench by James. Before she sat down, James took out his wand, waved it and all the snow, which was covering it, disappeared.

'Heat charm.' James said as he and Lily sat on the now, slightly warm bench. 'So what wrong Evans?' he asked her concerned.

Lily ignored his question and sniffed quietly. She had almost stopped crying but a few silent tears were still running down her cheeks. 'How did you know it was me?' Lily questioned James. 'I was looking down so you couldn't see my face. My hair is tied up and tucked into my hat and-'

'It was the scarf.' James smiled. Both of them looked at the scarf around Lily's neck.

James pointed at the corner of the scarf where the initials 'J.P' were stitched on. 'I gave you my scarf at the last Quidditch match.' he said.

'Oh…' Lily replied. She hadn't realised that she still had James' scarf. She had never noticed the initials in the corner and had forgotten how she had come to possess the scarf. All she knew was that it was now her favourite scarf and it smelt really good. Like beech wood. She looked up into James' eyes breathing deeply.

'So what's wrong?' James asked, his eyes filling with worry.

Lily sighed and swallowed, trying her hardest not to cry as she said, 'I've lost my sister.'

James sighed in understanding so Lily went on, 'I've known for ages that I was losing her, but, I tried to deny it. Then about, twenty minutes or so ago, I got this letter.'

She showed his the piece of paper which was scrunched up in her hand. James didn't take it as he didn't want to intrude in her privacy.

'When did she… when did you lose her?' James asked.

'Christmas day.' Lily sniffed.

'That's harsh.' James said sadly, and Lily was surprised to see his eyes were also rather hurt. Lily was touched but a little confused. Why was he showing such emotion over her problem?

'I lost my dad a few days before Christmas.' James confided in Lily.

'What?' Lily said taken aback. She was starting to realise that he had gotten the wrong idea.

'Dragon pox.' he said blinking, no tears escaping him, 'How did you lose your sister?' he asked her.

'Err…' Lily said, 'I'm sorry for your loss.'

'Thanks.' James smiled sadly.

'I, err… this is kind of humiliating, but, I…my sister hasn't… passed away.' Lily said slowly, trying to be delicate at the situation.

'Okay…' James said a little confused. Then a lot confused. 'So…you know what, you're gonna have to start from the very beginning, cause I'm very confused right now.' James then gave a single breathless laugh.

Lily smiled a little and took a deep breath, not really believing that she was about to tell the boy who she had sworn to hate forever, the one thing which really tore her up inside. But something in the way he was looking at her, the compassion in his eyes, urged her too. It was a compassion which Severus had never shown her on this topic.

'When…' she began, trying to summon the words and courage to tell this part of her life, 'When my sister, Petunia, and I were little, we were…inseparable. Then I got my Hogwarts letter and she…well…I found a letter which she had written to Dumbledore asking to come to Hogwarts too. Of course, she isn't a witch, so he wrote a very kind letter back explaining why she couldn't come too.' Lily had started to cry again. 'Ever since, she hasn't talked to me unless it was to, call me a freak or insult me. Tell me not to do something.'

James was looking a little bit shocked that Lily's sister had blamed Lily for _her_ not-being a witch.

'I never gave up though. I was convinced…I convinced myself that things would change. I tried showing her some cool things from this world. Any presents I got her were magical, which, in hindsight, probably wasn't the smartest idea.' She choked a laugh, as did James in response to hers.

Lily looked up into James' eyes again and continued, 'This year, at Christmas, my sister warned me not to do, or talk about any magic as her boyfriend was coming over for Christmas dinner, and she had told him I attended a school for girls with behaviour problems. He didn't know I was a witch. So I tried to keep my promise but I had forgotten that I had given my family magical presents which I had bought from Hogsmeade. I didn't realise till later.'

'So what happened?' James asked speaking for the first time in Lily's story.

'Her boyfriend proposed. Horribly. But he did propose. She said yes and everything seemed fine. Then we all opened all of our presents and, of course, Petunia had a bit of explaining to do after he saw the shop labels. He ended up walking out of the house he was so shocked, and appalled. Petunia chased him down the street. She yelled at me so bad when she got back. Then she told me she wished I was dead. That I wasn't her sister anymore. That I was a freak. And she hasn't spoken to me since. That was until I got this letter.'

She held the crumpled letter out in her hand. James tentatively took it and read;

_Freak,_

_Thanks to you, my relationship with Vernon was almost torn to shreds. I can't believe you were so selfish and stupid to give me that garbage from your freak school. Luckily, Vernon is a very decent and kind man and has generously decided not to hold your abnormality against me. He said it wasn't my fault you were a freak._

_I don't actually know if this letter will get to you, and I don't care, because I sent it the normal and RIGHT way. Not with your filthy bird. If it has I want you to know that you are dead to me. I hate you and you are not invited to my wedding. Yes. Despite your attempts to ruin it by being a freak, I am still having a wedding to marry my sweet Vernon._

_I HATE YOU!_

James finished reading the letter. He gave it back to Lily and sat there a little bit angry. How could anyone think Lily, the sweetest person he knew, would be vindictive enough to ruin her sister's relationship?

'It's not your fault.' James said to Lily who was still staring at him. She had been watching his expression whilst he read her letter.

'It wasn't your fault. You're the sweetest person I know. That letter was probably written in the heat of the moment. Don't worry about it. I'm sure that one day she'll realise it's not your fault that she's not a witch. That you didn't mean any harm by finding that letter from Dumbledore. And you giving her gifts from the wizarding world wasn't to spite her or to rub her face in the fact that you're a witch and she's not. She'll realise that it was just…a way of you inviting her into your world. A way to bring you closer together. She may not realise it at this moment. But she will. And you'll be invited to her wedding. You'll become as close as you were when you were ten. She'll come around. You'll just have to be patient.' James said in a hopeful, peaceful, but positive tone which would be enough to make anyone feel better and optimistic about a situation.

Lily's face softened. How? How had she misjudged this boy so much? This sweet, sweet boy who didn't have to listen to her worries. Who could have walked away and thought her pathetic. Who had his own worries to deal with which were far greater than hers. How? How had she misjudged this boy so much? She was about to thank him for his kindness but was interrupted by an unexpected loud bang.

James looked up fully alert. Lily looked at James.

'What's-'

'Shhhh!' He said placing his finger to Lily's lips which opened slightly. Lily's heart started to beat faster.

The silence was tense. Suddenly, screams filled the air and you could see flashes from curses in the distance over the tops of the buildings.

James sprang up and pulled out his wand.

'What are you doing?' Lily asked standing up as well and grabbing James arm as he tried to walk away.

James looked down at his arm where Lily's hand was, then back into her eyes. 'You have to go back to the castle.' James said speaking fast. 'Go straight down this road then turn left and you will be out on the road that leads back to Hogwarts. This is a death eater attack and they will be after muggleborns. I want you safe.'

'No.' Lily said pulling out her wand as well. 'I'm not running from this. That's how they'll win.'

'Lily!' James said using her real name for the first time, pain in his eyes as he pleaded with her to go back to the castle.

Lily noticed that he used her given name and she tried not to smile at hearing him say it. 'You can try all you like James,' she began, also using his given name for the first time, 'but I'm going to fight.'

James sighed and reluctantly said, 'Fine. But only if you stay behind me!'

Lily nodded reluctantly and the both began to run. Lily had a problem keeping up with James as he was a very fast runner. They came to the end of the side street which opened into main Hogsmeade. James threw his arm out to stop Lily going out into the street.

It was chaotic; around twenty death eaters were shooting curses at the shop owners. All the Hogwarts students were in the shops as they took cover from the attack. Curses were flying left right and centre and there were mad cackles of laughter from a few of the more excited death eaters.

James looked across into the three broomsticks and saw Sirius' and Remus' faces in the window. He started to root around in his jeans pocket.

'What are you doing?' Lily asked in scared whisper.

'Invisibility cloak.' James whispered back, finding it and throwing it over them both, 'Never go anywhere without it. We need to get to the three broomsticks. Keep up with me. We need to stay together or this won't work. Do you trust me?'

Lily hesitated but nodded her head. James gulped and grabbed her hand to which Lily did not pull back from. It was to keep them close together.

They dodged and ducked curses which were flying at their invisible selves from all angles. James managed to cast a few protection charms at people who had curses fired at them from behind.

Lily opened the door to the three broomsticks slightly with her free hand and James cast one more protection charm before she dragged him in.

They pulled the invisibility cloak off of themselves surprising those students hiding in the pub.

'Well, well, well!' Sirius said with bobbing eyebrows, looking at James and Lily's entwined hands, 'What's going on here then?' he said.

Remus slapped Sirius round the back of the head. 'Now is not the time!' he said through gritted teeth. Whilst his was happening James dropped Lily's hand. Remus turned to James, 'What do we do?' he asked him.

Lily was surprised that everyone turned to him, James, for help. She turned to him too, waiting with baited breath to see what plan he would, or could, come up with. She had never pictured him as the type to take charge. More of the one to cause the trouble.

James sprang into action. 'Okay. Peter. Take the cloak; go down the side street and that way back to the castle. Get Dumbledore. Be careful!' he warned.

Peter nodded and caught the invisibility cloak James threw at him. He put it on and disappeared. A moment later the door opened and closed.

James spoke again, 'Right. Err…' he said looking around, 'Frank!' he said spotting Frank Longbottom sat in the corner booth looking worried, 'You and Remus need to cast disillusionment charms on yourselves. Then go into the other shops and cast charms on those people too. Take them down the side street and back round to Hogwarts. We need to get as many people out as possible and you two are the best at those charms.'

'Bar you.' Remus said standing up with a smile.

James laughed. 'Thanks!' he said, 'Anyone who wants to fight is welcome but it is dangerous.'

'Ah shut it Prongs!' Sirius said, 'Let's just go kick their butts!' he enthused.

James smiled and breathed out. 'Here we go.' he said. Everyone stood up and either cast a disillusionment charm on themselves or got their wands out ready to fight.

Lily was looking at James in awe. She was so impressed with his plan. James looked at her and for the first time, Lily saw a fleeting look of pain and panic.

'Please go back to the castle.' James pleaded to her.

'No.' Lily said defiantly.

'Ugh!' James said angrily. He was shouting at her. 'Why are you so stubborn?'

'Because I'm a red head!' Lily said with a smile and a glint in her eyes.

James didn't smile back. His face still looked angry.

'Come on James!' Sirius shouted from the door, 'Let's go whoop some death eater arse!' he said.

James looked at Lily one last time, wishing she would listen to him, before going to join Sirius in waiting by the door. Lily followed.

'We open the door on three.' James said to the visible crowd. 'Wands ready?' he asked being shown nearly twenty wands, 'One, two…THREE!'

The door was flung open and the crowd from the three broomsticks swarmed out onto the street. Straight away, curses were shot at them as they cast blocking and shield charms to deflect the curses.

Sirius had begun to battle a the death eater in front of Zonko's to distract him whilst Remus and Frank ducked in to help the people trapped in the shop to get out.

Hestia and Alice, who had also been in the three broomsticks, were duelling with one large death eater in front of the post office and Lily was attacking the death eater outside of Honeydukes.

James was duelling with two death eaters at once, having taken over Emmeline's opponent after she had been knocked out almost straight away.

It was chaotic. Everyone was trying to focus on their own battle but was worried about their friends. They were all a bit distracted.

During this disarray of fighting, doors from the shops had been opening and closing and students, cloaked with the disillusionment charms Remus and Frank had performed were escaping down the side street and back to Hogwarts.

Lily's opponent was strong, but Lily was quick and was able to block the curses that were sent her way. Soon, she managed to send out a stunning charm but the death eater dodged it. The charm flew across the street hitting Sirius in the back causing him to fall down, and leaving his death eater free. Lily was so distracted that she had hit someone she knew, that her death eater took full advantage and sent a curse at Lily. At the same time, James had just immobilised one of the death eaters he was fighting when he saw Lily get hit. His stomach dropped and he tried to get over to her.

Everything then happened all at once. Sirius was on the ground due to Lily's spell. Lily was on the ground due to her death eaters curse. James had immobilised one of his death eaters. The death eater Sirius had been fighting shot a curse at James' back. At the same time, James second opponent shot one at his chest as did the death eater Lily was fighting when he saw James heading towards him. They all hit James simultaneously with a loud bang. The loudest one yet. You could hear the crack of his ribs as the pressure of three different curses squashed and crushed his chest tight together. Then it was James' turn to fall to the floor. Motionless.

* * *

**Thanks for Reading**

**Reviews are not necessary but always welcome**

**Galinaba**


	16. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader! **

**Here's chapter Fifteen! **

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Fifteen**

'Is he OK?'

'What happened?'

'You'll have to talk to Evans. She saw the most.'

'Why aren't I getting any sympathy?'

'Because you weren't hurt!'

'I was knocked out.'

'And ten minutes later you woke up. UNHARMED!'

'But I still-'

'Shhhh! He's waking up.'

James opened his eyes to find himself in the hospital wing. There was a crowd of people around his bed. Some he knew. Some he had only seen in passing. And a few girls who he had turned down for dates in the past couple of years were stood with chocolates and flowers and sympathetic expressions.

'Err…' James managed to squeeze out before he started to choke.

'Move. Move. Out of the way. Out of the way!' Madam Pomfrey said barging through the crowd to get to James with a glass of water. She helped James to drink it as he choked, relieving him.

'That's it everybody out!' Madam Pomfrey said pointing to the door.

'No.' James strained to say, 'Not them.' James pointed to his friends.

'Fine. But everyone else, out!' Madam Pomfrey ushered the crowd from James' bed out of the door. They reluctantly left James alone with Remus, Sirius and Peter.

'What happened?' James asked quietly, a pain rising in his chest as he spoke.

'You have a crushed left lung. And a punctured right lung. Three broken ribs. And a scratched left ventricle.' Madam Pomfrey said bustling around James and fixing his bed and pillows.

'So I'm fit as a fiddle.' James tried to joke before starting to cough again.

'Don't talk.' Madam Pomfrey said, 'They're just the normal issues. Because three different spells hit you at the same time, they have reacted together and until we know which curses they were, I don't want to treat the burn it has caused on your torso. Meaning I can't fully treat your normal injuries. All I could do for now is temporarily slow the injury effects and reduce your pain.' Madam Pomfrey then filled his glass with some more water and left him alone to talk, or rather, listen to his friends.

'It won't take long to find out what those curses were.' Remus said in attempt to comfort a silent and stony faced James.

'Yeah.' Peter said in a tentative agreement.

'Look mate.' Sirius said slamming his hand down on James' shoulder, only to remove it again when he saw the pain in James' face. 'Sorry.' he said to James' glare. 'Anyway,' Sirius continued, 'Dumbledore is the only one who can identify those voo-doo spells the death eaters made up and he'll be back soon. He's just putting some protection around Hogsmeade for the locals, you know…helping them put some things back together. He'll be done in no time…' Sirius finished uncertainly as James was now glowering darkly at Sirius. 'Remus?' Sirius said turning to Remus to help him out.

'You're a wimp.' Remus said to Sirius, 'You know that?'

'Yeah.' Sirius said to Remus nodding his head, 'I do.'

'So…death eaters you can handle. But not James?' Remus said with raised eyebrows.

'James scares me.' Sirius said a little defensively.

'But death eaters are evil!' Remus said in disbelief.

'James could be evil too!' Sirius said.

James banged his hand down on the table next to his hospital bed, frustrated that he was unable to talk under the instructions of Madam Pomfrey.

Sirius and Remus looked at James' angry and annoyed face.

'See.' Sirius muttered, leaning into Remus, 'Evil.'

James banged on the table again.

'Jeez calm down!' Sirius said, receiving a smack round the head from Remus.

'Anyway.' Remus said, 'when Dumbledore identifies the curses, he'll be able to tell if the potion that you need to take to heal all your normal problems, will react to any of them. Then they'll be able to get started on healing the damage that the curses did to you.'

James looked at Remus a little bit confused. His expression asked Remus what he meant.

Remus got up and pulled back James' bed sheets. 'Do you mind?' he asked James, pointing to the pyjama top he had obviously been put in when he arrived in the hospital wing.

James took a moment before he motioned his acceptance to Remus.

Remus unbuttoned James' pyjama top and pulled the sides of the shirt away to reveal James' chest.

James looked down shocked, horrified and a little confused. It was a mess. His chest was now a mix of green, black and purple. The black and green looked like mould and ash all at the same time. The purple injuries stood out a mile away. Looking down, the right side of his chest had three deep lilac gashes whereas the left side of it had numerous amounts of little violet dots which looked like gnat bites.

James swallowed and sighed. He hadn't realised the extent of the damage the mixed curses had done.

Suddenly the hospital wing doors swung open with a bang and in swept Dumbledore. His expression was calm, but from his entrance, James had a sneaking suspicion that he was a bit angry.

'Ah Mr Potter.' he said, stopping at the edge of James' bed, 'You look well.' he said with a small smile.

James smiled back into Dumbledore's twinkling eyes which glanced disappointedly at Sirius. He obviously knew that Sirius had snuck out to Hogsmeade after the privilege had been revoked. For some reason though, he didn't seem to press on with that matter. He had more important things to deal with and apparently, punishing Sirius for betraying his trust and orders wasn't one of them.

'Well.' Dumbledore said, clapping his hands together, 'Shall we see what curses, charms, spells and what-not's have hit you then?'

James nodded his head and Dumbledore walked to his bedside and took out his wand. He placed the tip of his wand onto James' chest and closed his eyes, listening to his wand. It took five minutes for Dumbledore to open his eyes again and slip his wand back into his robes.

'Well, seems you were hit with one curse, one hex and one charm.' Dumbledore began, 'The Cruciatus curse, the Flagrante curse and a blasting charm. It's a good job it was the blasting charm and not the curse or else, we would have had quite a different situation to deal with.' Dumbledore chuckled a little before continuing. 'From the look of things, the cruciatus curse caused the cuts, the flagrant curse caused the dot like burns and the blasting charm caused the mould like deterioration. Because all of these spells occurred at the same time, the Cruciatus curses effects were not put to their usual standards. Instead of harming you mentally and torturing your body, the curse cut you physically. The magical residue from the combined spells is what's causing the discolouration. However, you will be able to drink the potion to heal your internal injuries without causing you any harm. Then you will need to start a course of potions and pastes to reverse the effects of the combined curses. It should take about three weeks, maybe a little longer depending on how you react to them.' Dumbledore finished. He nodded his head to James and then to Remus, Sirius and Peter in turn, and then left the hospital wing with one last sweep of his cloak.

Madam Pomfrey, who had come out of her little office when Professor Dumbledore had first appeared, now bustled over to James with a goblet full of a steaming potion. It was a silver colour with a jumping surface. It smelt like gas. James made a face as Madam Pomfrey presented it to him. He took it reluctantly and drank it down as quick as possible as it tasted like oil. Then Madam Pomfrey got out her wand and tapped James chest, saying a silent spell, to heal his broken ribs.

'Give it five minutes and you can talk again.' Madam Pomfrey said putting the goblet down, cleaning it with her wand and then filling it up with water, 'After four hours I shall administer the first round of your treatment; the healing paste.' And with that she bustled away, leaving the four boys to sit silently for five minutes whilst the potion healed James' internal organs.

* * *

Severus was sat in his dormitory in the Slytherin dungeons He was staring at a letter he had found on his pillow when he arrived back from the Christmas holidays. It was the letter he had written to Lily before they all went home to be with their families for the holidays. Because he hadn't received a reply from Lily, he had hoped that she was just deciding whether or not she should write back and had actually read the letter she was sent. Now he saw that she had returned it, unopened, and the reason he hadn't received it, was because she had sent the owl straight back to his dormitory which he had left to get on the Hogwarts express.

This deep-seated hope that Severus was carrying around with him, didn't seem to be going away. It was like a virus. It kept coming back when he least expected it to. The last time was on the train back to school. They had bumped into each other on their separate ways to find compartments. She didn't really say much to him, but no nasty words were exchanged. After that, he kept walking by her compartment, hoping that she would either invite him in or tell him to go away. Either way, she would have spoken to him. Then, the last time he walked by, she was gone. And on his way back to his own compartment, he saw her deep red hair in the compartment with James Potter and his annoying friends.

It was un-nerving, this hope. Not because he didn't want to be hopeful, but because of the consequences should any of his fellow Slytherin's or death eaters find out. They would surely tell Voldemort, and then his and Lily's lives would be over. He had been trying to learn Occlumency, but had no idea if he was succeeding in applying it against Voldemort. He just had to pray that he was.

Severus rapped his knuckles on the desk he was sitting at, thinking. He was thinking about what had happened previously that day. What he had helped orchestrate. It was what Voldemort had described as their own New Year's celebration at their last meeting. He had a plan to try and draw out the mudbloods. It was to randomly attack villages, wizarding or muggle, so that any who dared to stand up to him would fight and hopefully, in Voldemort's opinion, die and take their rightful place in the ground. Also, during these attacks, he would scout about, invisibly, for some talented witches and wizards who he thought could be persuaded to join his cause. He wanted the strongest. Those who were skilled and, most of all, those whom people seemed to trust so that that they could convince others to join up too.

For the Hogsmeade attack, it was Severus and the other Slytherin's jobs, to alert the other death eaters when the most mudbloods, witches and wizards were in the village, so that the most damage could be done. It was a small but crucial part of the attack. They weren't actually allowed to fight yet as they were still Hogwarts students and they would be no use to Voldemort if any of them were expelled. He needed them inside of the school. To be his eyes and ears on the education all of the young witches and wizards were being given. They were to tell him if they believed anyone to be willing to join the ranks. Or if the person Voldemort wanted, was susceptible enough to be bribed, blackmailed or tricked into signing up. And at the moment. Voldemort, unbeknownst to many and confided in a few, was wanting to recruit werewolves.

He had asked Severus to keep an eye on the situation. To inform him when Remus was the weakest during the full moon and when he would be the most susceptible to succumb to Voldemort. Now Severus, after witnessing the bond between Remus and his Gryffindor friends, knew that even attempting to sway the werewolf over to the dark side was impossible. The marauders, however annoying, irritating and insufferable they had proved to be towards Severus, had a strong sense of loyalty and each were strong enough to overcome the advances of any dark magic. Severus had told Voldemort, his head bowed in reverence and his voice shaking in terror, that it would be highly unlikely that Remus would ever even consider joining Voldemort's death eater army. But Voldemort was adamant in getting as many of, what were considered 'dark creatures', as possible. Acting on the information Severus had given him over the last two months on Remus' strength during the moons cycle, Voldemort was sending in Fenrir Greyback, the nastiest werewolf there was, to attempt to turn him. If he failed, Voldemort would know that it was a lost cause. But Fenrir hadn't failed him yet, so he was hopeful. Severus on the other hand, knew that nothing would work and was anxious to be assigned a new task which would take his out of the marauders path. He couldn't stand to watch them for another day.

It was getting late. Severus looked at his battered watch, the one his mother had given to him a few years back for Christmas, to check the time. It was ten past eleven at night and none of his dorm mates were back yet. Severus decided to call it a night anyway. He placed the letter he had written to Lily in the draw where he kept all his Lily related things, locked it and got up. He put on his pyjamas and got into the four poster bed pulling the green and silver sheets up to his chin and staring at the green canopy above his head. He soon fell asleep, thinking of the Christmas present Voldemort had given to all of his death eaters; a family of three dead muggles.

* * *

Lily was reading the Daily prophet. Hestia had brought it to her that morning. Only a day had passed since the attack in Hogsmeade but the paper was filled with news of the attack, missing witches and wizards killed by the death eaters. The headline of the Daily Prophet read, 'Havoc in Hogsmeade'. Lily shook her head and tutted.

'What's up?' she was asked. The question came from her left.

'More news.' she replied, 'It's getting worse out there.'

'Well we are in a war.' the person talking to her sat up. He moaned as he did, pain racking through him.

'Are you ok?' Lily asked concerned, 'Are you even meant to sit up?'

'No.' he said, 'I have tried flying but I can't seem to do that without my broom.'

Lily laughed. 'Maybe you should take your situation a bit more seriously Potter.'

'What happened to James?' James said, hoping he wasn't pushing his luck with her.

'What?' Lily asked, her heart beating loudly and her hands a little bit sweaty. _From holding the paper, _she thought.

'When we were talking in Hogsmeade you called me James.' James said with a nervous smile.

'You want me to call you James?' Lily said with a deep and shaky breath as she put down her paper on the bedside table

'It is my name.' James said with a cheeky smile.

'Fine.' Lily said as she smiled at him, 'James. Now don't you think you should lie back down?'

'How come you can sit up then?' James said doing as she said and lying back down but keeping his head facing Lily, 'You were hit with the same curse as me.'

'Well technically, yes.' Lily said rolling onto her side in her own bed in the hospital wing, which was next to James', so that she could see and talk to him better. She continued, 'But you also got hit with _two _other spells. I however was only hit with a mild Flagrante curse which means my recovery process is quicker than yours. Also, my injury doesn't hurt as much as yours meaning, I can sit up.'

'Unfair!' James said whilst Lily nodded with a smile, 'So, are you gonna tell me what happened then?'

'What do you mean?' Lily said.

'Didn't you see what happened to us all?' James asked, 'The Flagrante curse normally doesn't knock you, it burns your flesh but doesn't knock you out unless it's really strong and judging by your health it was quite weak. So you probably saw everything that happened. Even if you don't realise it.'

Lily looked down momentarily, and a little guiltily. She believed it was her fault that he was hurt. The chain of events started at her hand. If she hadn't stunned Sirius, she wouldn't have been distracted and hit with the Flagrante curse. James then wouldn't have tried to see if she was alright and wouldn't have gotten hit with three spells from the three death eaters Lily felt she had 'set free' or, 'let go'.

'I don't really remember actually.' Lily said, trying to feign confusion.

James looked a little suspicious but must have accepted it as he shrugged his shoulders and said, 'Oh well. Guess we'll never know!'

'Guess not.' Lily said with a small smile to James.

'One good thing about being in the hospital wing is we don't get all the homework.' James laughed, changing the subject.

'No we still get the homework.' Lily said, hiding a smile.

'Really?' James said depressively before continuing on in deep dramatics, 'That sucks. How am I meant to write when I can't lift my arm for pain?'

'Well…' Lily said, still trying to hold back some laughter, 'The way I look at it you have two options.'

'Let's hear it then.' James said, catching the smirk Lily was trying to hold and knowing she was having him on, but playing along anyway.

'Well you could either write with your feet,' she began, 'Or stop being such a pansy, man up and deal with the pain!' Lily smiled and laughed under her breath.

'You're so nice to me.' James said sarcastically.

'I know.' Lily replied with an angelic smile, 'Tactful too!'

James laughed at her and shook his head.

At this moment Madam Pomfrey bustled over with a large tub of paste which healed the Flagrante and reversed its effects.

'Great.' James moaned, 'It's my favourite part of the day!'

'Well if that's how you feel about it then I may just have to sweet talk Madam Pomfrey to upping your dosage!' Lily said sweetly.

'See.' James smiled, 'So nice to me!'

* * *

Classes at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry started on the fourth of January. The school was still buzzing about the Hogsmeade attack. It seemed to be the only topic worth talking about. Sirius seemed to be the only one getting tired of the relentless subject.

'Can't people just get over this already?' he asked Remus as they walked to their Defence Against the Dark Arts class.

'Is this still about you getting no attention?' Remus said with a knowing smile.

'Well I was hit too!' Sirius suddenly yelled causing some second years near him to turn around. He regained his composure enough to wink at the two girls, setting their hearts racing. He then returned to his original state of distress.

Remus shook his head at Sirius' attention span before continuing, 'But you got up!' he said slowly.

'After ten minutes!' Sirius said dramatically, 'I could have died!'

'From a stunning spell?' Remus said.

'It was a fatal ten minutes!' Sirius continued in dramatic mood, 'I bet it was the worst ten minutes of your life!' he said turning to Remus, 'Not really knowing if I was dead or alive-'

'I knew you were alive-'

'If you would ever see me again-'

'I prayed I wouldn't-'

'Moony!' Sirius said stopping in the middle of the corridor.

'Sorry.' Remus said with a smirk and pushing Sirius playfully forwards to go on with their journey to Defence Against the Dark Arts.

They continued to walk towards their lesson in silence. Sirius had childishly turned his head away from Remus. Remus was thoroughly amused by this and was chuckling under his breath when they finally reached the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom.

They both walked in and took their seats near the back of the room. Peter was already there.

'Wormy! There you are!' Sirius said, being uncharacteristically nice to the small podgy boy, 'Where have you been?'

'I've been sat here for two hours.' Peter said a little embarrassed, 'Someone set my watch two hours early.'

Sirius burst into laughter, roaring his head off. It was a mad cackle which would have turned heads had they not been the only students in the room at that moment.

'Didn't you get a little suspicious when no-one else turned up?' Remus said, laughing himself, 'Why didn't you leave?'

'Someone put a sticking charm on the chair, so I can't get up.' Peter said looking down sadly.

Sirius continued to laugh loudly. Other Gryffindor's had started to enter the room. Hestia, Alice shaking their heads as they did so. Emmeline not taking much notice in her dreamlike state.

'Why didn't you reverse the charm?' Remus asked, struggling to compose himself.

'I couldn't reach my wand.' Peter said pointing at his bag which had a battered wand sticking out of the front pocket.

Sirius' laughter was getting louder. He was nearly out of breath and was holding a stitch in his side. The room was slowly filling and now others were laughing along with Sirius' infections laughter. Frank Longbottom, Dirk Creswell and Mary McDonald included.

'Why didn't you just, well, jump the chair along?' Remus said, now making no attempt to stop the waves of silent laughter.

Peter looked down again and tried to rock the chair, 'Whoever stuck me to the chair, stuck the chair to the floor.'

Remus managed to stop himself laughing after five minutes, long enough to take out his own wand and mutter the reversal charm, freeing Peter from his prison.

'Thanks!' Peter said gratefully to Remus as he stood up and stretched, his body aching from being stuck in one position for two hours, 'Where's Prongs?' he asked looking around Remus and Sirius as if he expected James to just jump out.

'He's still in the hospital wing Wormy!' Sirius said harshly, now stopping his excessive laughter altogether at the mention of his best friend. 'Merlin Peter!' he continued, 'You were stuck here for two hours not two weeks! Prongs won't be out till then.'

'Sorry.' Peter murmured as he sat back down in his chair.

Remus sat down next to him and Sirius next to Remus in the chair which James normally occupied, leaving the chair which was usually Sirius', free. They all got out their wands hoping for a practical lesson. It wasn't likely, but they liked to think positive.

'Did you hear that?' Sirius whispered to Remus.

'Hear what?' Remus said as he levitated a crumpled up piece of parchment, which was on the floor, into the bin.

'I swear I just heard Prongs.' Sirius said a little bit freaked out. He was looking around himself as if he was expecting to see James randomly crouching in a corner, waiting to jump out at them and scare them.

'Aw. Are you having withdrawal symptoms?' Remus said in a mocking voice, 'Don't worry, we'll go and see him after this.'

'I'm not having withdrawal things.' Sirius said.

'Symptoms.' Remus corrected as he got his text book out of his bag.

'Whatever.' Sirius said grumpily. He too began to get his text book out of his bag. Suddenly, he slammed it onto the table, causing Peter to jump out of his skin. It didn't seem to affect Remus.

'I heard him again!' Sirius said with wide eyes, looking around the classroom which was now filled with the rest of the class who were also getting their equipment out of their bags. 'Maybe he's a ghost!' Sirius continued in a dramatic fashion.

'Or maybe,' Remus began, flicking through his text book, 'He's talking into the mirror.'

'Oh yeah.' Sirius said, diving into his bag and taking out his part of the two-way mirror that he and James had found in the Potter mansion's attic four years ago. They found it when they were exploring some parts of the house they had never been in. Four years later, they still had not been everywhere in the huge mansion.

'Prongs!' Sirius said happily. Remus leaned over Sirius' shoulder and smiled into the mirror where James' face was smiling out.

'Moony! Padfoot!' James said gladly before his tone changed and he spoke to Sirius, 'You better not be in my chair!'

'No!' Sirius said, sneakily sliding over one seat to the left.

'Whatever!' James laughed, 'I'm bored!' he continued, 'Skip class and come entertain me!' he said like a child.

'What about dear sweet Evans?' Sirius said with bobbing eyebrows, 'Isn't she keeping you company?'

'Lily's asleep.' James said, shrugging his shoulders.

'Lily?' Remus asked, 'Since when are you on a first name basis with her?'

'What can I say Moony?' James said, 'The hospital wing is a magical place where magical things tend to happen.'

'Nah mate!' Sirius said, 'That's just Hogwarts.'

'Whatever.' James said, 'So you gonna come and keep me company or what?'

'All right.' Sirius said with no hesitation, putting his text book back in his bag, 'You coming Moony?' he asked Remus, now swinging his bag over his shoulder.

Remus sighed and thought for a moment before saying, 'Sure. Why not.' and he too gathered his books and put them back in his bag, 'It's not like we're doing anything special.'

'See you in a bit!' Sirius said into the mirror before shoving that too in his bag. He stood up and headed through the crowd of students in the classroom. Remus followed him. They had forgotten to inform Peter, who had his face buried deep in his bag looking for his text book, where they were going.

* * *

At the end of the week, Lily was released from the hospital wing. She was gathering up the stuff she had been brought by Hestia and other friends during the week. There was a packet of muggle playing cards, around seven newspapers, (one for every day she'd been in the hospital wing), boxes of exploding bon-bon's, books and get well cards and gifts.

'You gonna come visit me?' James asked now able to sit up in his bed. His treatment was moving along quickly. Madam Pomfrey was confident that, if things kept going the way they were, he would be out of the hospital wing in just a week and a half. Three or four days before it was originally estimated.

'Sure.' Lily said as she took down her get well cards and put them in a pile, _If I don't feel too guilty to face you, _she thought.

'Good.' James said with a defiant nod of his head, 'I'll be bored when you're gone. No one to annoy!' he continued with a cheeky smile and a raise of his eyebrows.

'You didn't really annoy me!' Lily said, returning the cheeky smile, 'I had fun.'

'It was fun.' James said with starry eyes, 'You reading me boring stories. Playing that muggle card game; wish.'

'Fish!' Lily corrected.

'Right, right. Fish.' James added before continuing with his list of activities they had done that week whilst bedridden in the hospital wing, 'Playing wizard's chess and then the decidedly more dull muggle chess. Stuffing our faces with too many sweets in an attempt to satisfy your sweet tooth. Hiding the healing paste so Madam Pomfrey couldn't torture us with it. Being yelled at by Madam Pomfrey for hiding her healing paste. Giving Madam Pomfrey her healing past back. And finally, when we rearranged the hospital wing from the comfort of these uncomfortable beds.'

'I swear on that one Madam Pomfrey nearly had a fit!' Lily laughed, 'I bet she'll be glad to get rid of you in a couple of weeks!'

'Nah. She loves me!' James replied before pointing a finger at Lily, 'Besides, that last one was your idea! Think you've developed a taste for breaking the rules!'

'Show me the rule that says I can't rearrange the hospital wing when I want!' she smirked piling up her books.

'Fair do's!' James said smiling at Lily.

Lily smiled back looking into James' eyes and feeling instantly relaxed. 'I'm sure you won't be that bored.'

'What makes you say that?' James said suspiciously.

'Well if this weeks any measure to go by, I think Lupin and Black will be able to keep you company.' she said with raised eyebrows.

'They're not here that much!' James said waving her comment away.

'They skipped all their lessons!' Lily laughed.

'I seem to remember Jones skipping a few lessons to come down here!' James said mockingly disapproving.

'That doesn't count!' Lily said, 'It was only divination. A subject she hates and one of no particular substance or significance. Lupin and Black skipped _all _their lessons!' she laughed.

'Only Defence Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Potions, Herbology and when Remus has Care of Magical Creatures!' James said.

'That's all of them!' Lily said, now gathering up her newspapers. She could do all this magically, but, for some reason unknown to herself, she wanted to stay where she was for as long as possible. She supposed it was because the bed she had been staying in was really comfortable. She had been sleeping well that past week. Comfortably and undisturbed unlike in her dorm where she found Hestia's broom cleaning supply's under her mattress and where she would be woken in the night by Hestia's sleep-talking.

'No it's not. We would never miss transfiguration!' James said seriously, shaking his head.

'Why not?' Lily asked, almost finished with her packing. She picked up a large bag of chocolate frogs which Hestia had thought would cheer her up, 'Want these?' she asked James, tossing them over to him.

'Thanks.' he said, 'We don't skip transfiguration for two reasons.' he said putting the bag of chocolate frogs on his bedside table, next to the potion he had to take in ten minutes time, 'One, because transfiguration is actually my favourite subject. And two, McGonagall scares us.'

Lily laughed loudly, 'You wimp!' she managed to spurt out during her peals of laughter.

James nodded his head. 'Yes I am. But hey. If she didn't scare us senseless then she wouldn't have gotten such good results out of us in our O.W.L's.'

Lily's laughter faded out as she thought about a conversation she and Hestia had had before Christmas. It was three days after the Quidditch game against Hufflepuff, the night before the end of term Transfiguration test McGonagall was adamant on giving them. She and Hestia were studying and were discussing the rumour that only one person had managed an Outstanding in their transfiguration O.W.L. With full marks it seemed. At the time, they had thought it was Remus but now…

'Out of interest,' Lily said, trying to seem casual, throwing some rubbish in the bin next to her hospital bed, 'What did you get in your Transfiguration O.W.L?'

'Why?' James asked, not really wanting to divulge his grade. McGonagall had told him he was the only one with that particular mark.

'Just curious.' Lily said, smiling kindly at James and breaking any hope he had of trying to keep his mouth shut.

'I got an O.' he said almost reluctantly but unable to deny her her request. 'What about you?'

'An E.' Lily said with a smile, 'I better go then. I told Hestia I'd meet her at breakfast.'

'All right.' James said memorizing her as she looked then. 'Come and visit me!' he said as she picked up her things.

'I will.' she smiled, 'See you later!'

'Bye!' James said. They smiled at each other one last time before Lily headed towards the exit.

She had reached the doors at the end of the hospital wing, when she was inexplicably felt the urge to turn around and look back to James one last time. She did so to find his eyes still fixed on her. Her hand became sweaty on the door knob. She held up her other hand in a good bye, James did the same, and Lily opened the hospital wing doors and left the room.

She closed the hospital wing doors behind her and took a long sigh, resisting the urge to go back in.

'Are you ok?' came a voice from the shadows in the left corner.

Lily recognised the voice. It was a voice which had just ruined the good mood she had had for over a week. 'What do you want?' she said venomously as Severus Snape stepped out of the shadows.

'I wanted to know if you were all right.' he said through gritted teeth. Every wave of Lily's hatred for him was knocking him down. It hurt him to see the loathing in her eyes. 'I heard you were hurt in the Hogsmeade attacks.'

'I'm fine.' Lily said with a stiff jaw, 'Thanks for asking.' She began to walk away. Severus followed her.

'What happened?' he asked her, trying to keep up with her as she sped up.

'I'd have thought you'd have heard by now.' she said stiffly, turning a corner. Severus was still following her in the shadows. Lily continued with one last piece of information hoping to appease him and allow him to leave her alone, 'I was hit with a Flagrante curse.'

'But your fully healed now?' he asked, allowing a slight hint of worry to escape into his voice.

This worrying tone in Severus' voice stopped Lily in her tracks. She turned around to face him giving him, for the first time, a chance to start a conversation.

'I was going to come and visit you in the hospital wing,' he began, 'but I get it now. I've been trying to grasp the idea ever since we stopped being friends but I think, now, I finally get it. I'm not just convincing myself that I get it like I've been doing for almost eight or so months now or, maybe I am…I'm trying to get it. I really am.'

'You're rambling.' Lily said with a straight face, her patience wearing thin.

'I'm sorry.' Severus laughed, hoping to get her laughing too. He was unsuccessful. His laugh wasn't infectious like some peoples. 'I just wanted you to know that, I'm trying understand why you don't want to be my friend. I'm trying come to terms with it. And I'm trying respect your decision. I'll stop bothering you now.'

'Thank you.' Lily said, 'That's all you wanted?' she asked. Severus nodded. Curious, Lily asked a question which in later years, she could either view as a mistake or the best decision of her life. 'Why didn't you come and visit me in the hospital wing? You just said you were going to. But you didn't. Why?'

'I'd have thought you'd have known.' Severus said, venom working up in his mouth and a sneer on his face, 'That…prat…Potter is in there too.'

Lily looked down, a smile forming on her face, one she couldn't restrain or force to go away, as she said one word, 'James.'

Severus looked at Lily's expression. He could only describe it as one he gave when he thought of her. It burned his skin and with murder in his eyes he said sharply and angrily, 'What did you say?'

'James.' Lily said looking up, innocence in her eyes.

'You're on a first name basis with that git, that swine!' he said, his voice getting dangerously low and quiet.

'He's my friend.' Lily said, realising that Severus was no longer playing nice. She saw his ugly side rearing its head once more.

'You vowed to never be his friend!' Severus said, shaking with rage, 'Are you stupid? You called him an arrogant toe rag on more than one occasion. You hated him! The way he always pestered you to go out with him. The fact that he bullied everyone in sight! The way he shows off! You hated him!'

'I can change my mind!' Lily yelled, the temper which came with her red hair flaring up. 'He is a sweet, kind boy who is my friend and is there when I need him! He's been better to me in these past few months than you ever were!'

'The way you're talking about him…' Severus spluttered furiously, his voice rising to an angry shout, his eyes blazing in vehemence 'It's like you actually like him! And not just as a friend!' he stopped breathing heavily after his outburst waiting for a response from Lily who was just standing there. Dumbstruck.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Reviews are not necessary but always welcome!**

**The next update will be on the 16/12/12**

**Galindaba**


	17. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader! Sorry for the late update. I know it's a lot later than I said I'd post but I had my first Uni Assesment so I was too egrossed by that. Sorry again.**

**To vampire-luver101. Thank you for your review! Made my day! :)**

**Here's chapter Sixteen! **

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Sixteen**

Lily shook her head as if to wake herself up from a daze. She took a step backwards and shook her head again before turning around and heading towards the great hall. Severus shouted after her but Lily didn't turn around. She was confused. Her feelings weren't exactly clear to her but she did realise that something had changed. She needed to talk to someone about it. And she knew exactly who that someone was.

'Hestia!' Lily said as she walked up to Hestia, who was eating breakfast, in the great hall, 'Can I talk to you?'

'Lily!' Hestia said, putting down the muffin that was in her hand and standing up to hug Lily, 'You're out of the hospital wing!'

'Yeah.' Lily said hugging Hestia back briefly before pulling away from her, 'Can I talk to you please?'

'Yeah sure!' Hestia said sitting back down and offering Lily the space next to her, 'What's up?'

'Err…' Lily said, looking around at all the students sitting within ear-range of what Lily was sure to be an uncomfortable conversation for her with Hestia shouting 'I told you so' a thousand times. 'Can we go talk somewhere else? Please?' Lily asked, almost begging Hestia to agree.

'Well-'

'You can bring the muffin.' Lily said impatiently.

Hestia looked at her muffin hungrily then back at Lily, 'Well I wasn't going to say that, but if you insist!' She grabbed her muffin and followed Lily out of the great hall.

Lily sped down several corridors before they came to the only staircase which had decided to stay where it was that morning. They climbed up it in silence, Lily racing ahead determinedly and Hestia trying to catch up with her whilst stuffing bits of muffin into her mouth.

'Err…' Hestia said as they reached the next floor and turned down another corridor, 'Not that I don't love running randomly down corridors and everything but, do you want to tell me where we're going?'

'Dormitory.' was the single word that left Lily's lips.

'And you don't want to give me any kind of hint as to why we're silently rampaging the corridors?' Hestia asked getting a little bit breathless from trying to keep up with the steamroller that was Lily.

Lily didn't answer. She was trying to sort through her feelings and make them clear to herself before she asked Hestia what she should do. She tried to remember if she had ignored any signs that her feelings had changed, but everything she could think of, every shiver or every emotion, had other reasons for being there.

When Gwenog Jones and James had been talking and smiling at each other after the last Quidditch match against Hufflepuff, she had wanted to interrupt them. But she was cold, she wanted to get back to the castle and the group wouldn't leave without James. When they were walking back to the castle, James had given her his scarf and she had shivered at the touch of his hands wrapping the scarf around her neck. But he did have warm hands and it was a cold day. And in the hospital wing, when her hands would suddenly become clammy whilst in the middle of a conversation with James. But she was always holding something and it was very humid in the hospital wing. There was always an excuse. But nothing explained why her heart always began to beat loudly when James smiled at her. When they looked directly into each other's eyes. Why she always felt comforted, relaxed and happy when she was with him. She needed serious help. Help only Hestia could give.

They finally reached the portrait of the Fat Lady on the seventh floor. Lily was racing to get back to her dormitory so she could release her emotions to Hestia who was busy finishing the last crumbs of her muffin as she attempted to follow Lily through the portrait hole.

The two girls made a beeline for the spiral staircase which led to their dormitory. They raced up the steep steps until they reached the door which opened out into the room they had shared with three other girls for the past five and a half years.

When both Hestia and Lily were safely in the room, Lily shut the door and locked it with her wand to make sure no-one would enter the dormitory and overhear what she believed would be an awkward conversation.

'So.' Hestia said, throwing herself down on to the end of her bed, crossing her legs and looking at Lily who had mimicked Hestia's pose but on her own bed, 'You gonna tell me what this is all about?' she continued looking across to Lily who seemed to be deep in thought.

'Have you ever liked someone?' Lily finally asked Hestia after she had let them both sit in an awkward silence for five minutes, 'Like liked them?' she clarified.

'Yes.' Hestia said, 'It was awful. He didn't actually - Hey!' she suddenly stopped looking excitedly at Lily, 'Do you like someone? Ooh! Tell me who! Do I know him?'

'I don't actually know if I definitely like him yet!' Lily said quickly, getting up from her own bed and flinging herself down next to Hestia so they were now both sitting crossed-legged and face to face on Hestia's bed, 'That's why I wanted to talk to you. Were there any, erm…obvious signs that you liked them? Anything feelings…or reactions that tipped you off?' she said slowly.

'I don't really know.' Hestia said looking up in thought, 'I know that I always felt happy when I spent time with him. Smiled when I thought about him or when I said his name. Ooh! Also, I would get this funny feeling in the pit of my stomach when I knew I was going to see him or when I saw him for the first time.' her face was glowing as she reminisced. She grabbed her pillow from the head of her bed and hugged it to her before continuing. 'My heart would beat faster and I would always feel a shiver when he accidentally touched me…or, pushed me over as the case may be.' she finished looking at Lily with a smile. Lily however was looking a bit confused.

'Pushed you over?' she asked sceptically.

'Yeah.' Hestia said dreamily before explaining, 'I was eight. He was my next door neighbour. He was also a muggle. He always pushed me over when I went to talk to him in the park across the street. The last time I saw him was after he, again, had pushed me over. I got a bit annoyed and performed my first bit of magic. I made all his clothes shrink until they burst off of him and he was left in his underwear. I embarrassed him in front of all his friends and he never pushed me over again.'

'OK.' Lily said looking at her reminiscent friend as if she was a little bit insane.

'Anyway,' Hestia said, shaking her head to get rid of her mental daydream, 'So who is it you like?' she continued excitedly, bouncing up and down on her bed like a hyperactive three year old.'

Lily thought about what Hestia said. And, although she was only eight when she believed she liked someone, a lot of the things she said did make a lot of sense. The smiling when his name was said. Thinking about him. Butterflies in her stomach. Her heart beating faster and shivering when they touched. And, even though Hestia hadn't mentioned it in her particular story, Lily was sure that her hands becoming clammy were also a sign of her inner feelings.

'I don't want to tell you who I like.' Lily murmured looking down at her hands a little embarrassed.

'Why not?' Hestia said, 'When did you realise you liked this person anyway.'

'Well, Severus -'

'SNAPE!' Hestia yelled in disbelief, 'IT'S SNAPE THAT YOU LIKE! Geez Lily! I thought that you would at least have some taste when it came to-'

'I don't like Snape!' Lily said with a repulsed look, 'That's disgusting!'

'Oh thank Merlin!' Hestia said in relief, 'So if he's not the one you like then what does he have to do with this?'

'Well when I left the hospital wing, he was waiting for me to see how I was.' Lily began.

'Still not seeing why he's-'

'Let me finish!' Lily snapped through gritted teeth. She then took a deep and carried on with her story, 'He said he was going to visit me but couldn't because someone else was there. When I said his name, I felt…happy. I was smiling and felt like I wanted to go back into the hospital wing and see him.' Lily was smiling as she told this story. She was looking down and twirling her thumbs meaning she didn't notice was Hestia's excited smile having figured out her crush. Lily continued, 'He noticed. And told me that the way I was acting made it seem like I had more than friendly feelings towards this person. I couldn't deny it.' Lily finished with a sigh. She looked up at Hestia who was smiling broadly at her best friend and looked fit to burst.

'What?' Lily said cautiously, looking at her friend suspiciously but also a little bit worried that she may have figured it out.

Hestia grinned and gave a little triumphant laugh before saying, 'You like James Potter!'

'Yes.' Lily said with a smile, 'I think I do! But what I don't get is that I spent five years hating his guts! Then I'm friends with him for around three and a half months and all of a sudden I like him? How?'

'Simple.' Hestia said with a deep breath, 'Because you had made up your mind to hate him, you only saw the bad stuff. Now you've decided to give him a chance, you can see all the good stuff. And you've fallen for him. You've fallen for James Potter.'

* * *

Apparation lessons were going to start on Sunday the ninth of January. Students had to pay ten galleons to take the course this year. (It was rumoured the price would be rising in the next couple of years). Only sixth years would be allowed to take the course and they were all excited to learn how to apparate. All sixth years were meant to gather in the main hall for their first lesson that morning at eleven o'clock.

It was currently forty-five minutes past ten, fifteen minutes until they were due in the main hall, and Remus, Sirius and Peter were listening to James complain again about not being able to take part in the first apparation lesson.

'It's just not fair.' James said folding his arms across his chest which was almost fully healed, 'Couldn't they just postpone the lesson until I was better? It's not my fault I'm not well enough to take part and-'

'Well as much fun as it's been to listen to you complain for half an hour,' Remus said, interrupting James rant and standing up, 'we have to go.'

'Don't worry though mate,' Sirius said, also standing up but placing a supportive hand on James shoulder, 'You'll be able to join us next lesson.'

Remus, Sirius and Peter then began to walk towards the hospital wing doors leaving James sulking in his bed.

'Thanks a lot guys!' he shouted at their retreating figures.

Remus held up a hand to James, Peter imitated him and Sirius shouted back, 'It's all right mate!'

They walked out the doors and immediately bumped into Lily who was attempting to peer around the hospital wing at James unnoticed. What she didn't count on, was not noticing other people around her.

'Evans?' Sirius asked as he, Remus and Peter exited the hospital wing.

'Yeah?' Lily said not really paying attention to who was asking.

'What are you looking at?' Remus said as he tried to follow Lily's eye line.

Luckily for Lily, she realised what she was doing and who she was doing it in front of and quickly stood up to look at the three boy who were staring at her like she'd started to do back flips.

'I was…I was…Looking for you!' she said quickly trying to cover herself.

'Who?' Sirius said looking side to side at Remus and Peter.

Lily paused. 'You.' she said to Sirius who looked a bit surprised but not as surprised as Lily herself was for saying it.

'Me?' Sirius asked, 'Why?'

'For…He-Hestia.' Lily stuttered, almost asking a question.

'Ahh.' Sirius said nodding his head like it was obvious, 'Finally admits she wants me. Got to say, I'm not surprised. Always did think she had a thing for me. But,' he sighed, 'unfortunately, I have a girlfriend this week but-'

'You do?' Remus asked, 'Who?'

'One of the girls James turned down for a date when she came to visit him in the hospital wing last week.' Sirius explained to Remus before turning back to Lily who was trying to hold back a smile at the news that James had turned down a date with another girl. Sirius didn't seem to notice and continued, 'Anyways. Can't do this week but if you tell Jones that I'm free next week then I-'

'She doesn't like you.' Lily said shaking her head. She felt happier now and knew exactly what she was going to say before running off to tell Hestia that she was supposed to be mad at Sirius. She was sure she wouldn't mind. She didn't particularly like him anyway. Lily continued, 'She thinks you've taken her last exploding snap cards.'

'How did she find out?' Sirius whispered loudly to Remus who shrugged.

'She'd like them back.' Lily said turning on her heel and walking quickly away from the three boys who began to follow her slowly.

She couldn't believe that the story she had made up on the spot had proved to be true. All she needed now was to tell Hestia the cover story for why she was outside the hospital wing. Lily turned the corner and came to the top of a fixed staircase and descended down it careful to miss the seventh step which was a sinking step. After two more sets of stairs, Lily came face to face with Hestia.

'Lily!' Hestia said, taking Lily's arm and guiding her into the great hall which was teaming with the vast majority of sixth year Hogwarts students, 'Where have you been?'

'You're mad at Sirius.' Lily said quickly.

'Ok.' Hestia said plainly.

'Wait,' Lily said, 'don't you want to know why?'

'Err…' Hestia thought, taking too long in her response.

'Well I was at the hospital wing and-' Lily began before being interrupted by Hestia.

'Whoa, whoa, _whoa!' _she said, stopping abruptly and turning Lily. Her voice then turned to a whisper, 'You didn't tell Potter that you…think you might like him. Did you?'

'Why?' Lily asked her exasperatedly, sure that some weird rule of hers would apply here.

'You never, _ever_, tell a guy you like him!' she said in a terse whisper.

'Why not?' Lily questioned, her voice lowering automatically to Hestia's level.

'It's an unwritten rule!' Hestia whispered as if it were obvious.

'Well…' Lily said, 'Maybe it needs to be re-written.'

'You can't re-write an unwritten rule it's unwritten!' Hestia said annoyed.

'Fine.' Lily said rolling her eyes. 'I didn't tell him anyway. I went there because I said I'd visit him. But…' she paused, 'I couldn't go in. I mean, what if I start to act differently now that I think I like him? Anyway, I was peeking round the door at him,'

'Aww!' Hestia cooed.

'Shut up!' Lily said before carrying on, 'So, I was peering around the door at him and I didn't notice Lupin, Black and Pettigrew coming out of the door. They saw what I was doing, so, to cover, I told them that you sent me to look for Sirius because you thought he stole your pack of exploding snap cards. Then he admitted that he did steal them, so, can you help me out?' she finished, hoping that Hestia of all people, her best friend, would understand her rant and come through for her.

'Ok.' Hestia said, nodding in understanding before turning around and looking into the crowds. Finally she found who she was looking for. 'Oi! Black!' she yelled across to him, 'Give me my cards back!' She then turned and grinned to Lily who was smiling back gratefully, before walking across to the three marauders. Lily followed.

They walked through the hordes of students teeming in the hall and made their way over to Sirius, Remus and Peter.

'Well, well, well!' Sirius said folding his arms and leaning against the wall, 'Couldn't resist me could you Jones?'

'You got my cards?' Hestia asked with an irritated expression.

'We'll give you them after this lesson which,' Remus said pointing over her head, 'is about to start.'

The five students turned around to see a tiny little wizard stood at the far end of the hall. He was stood on a large box, raising him a little higher that the students in the room. Professor Flitwick, also a smaller wizard, was stood next to the wizard on a slightly smaller box. He gave a small cough and began to address the students.

'Attention please!' he squeaked, his tiny voice capturing the halls attention, 'May I introduce, Wilkie Twycross.' He began to clap for the small wizard who bobbed up and down on his heels at his introduction.

There was a spattering of applause which rippled through the students in the great hall as Wilkie Twycross stepped forwards. He looked about fifty years old. His hair was starting to become see-through but you could still see his natural hair colour at the ends of his hair. He was pale and his eyebrows looked as though they would fall off at any moment.

'Hello sixth year students of Hogwarts!' Wilkie Twycross croaked in his tiny little voice which made the student stifle silent laughter, 'Today we will be learning about the three D's of apparation.' he finished.

There was a murmur through the crowd of the students attempting to figure out what the three D's are. Sirius and Remus were trying to as well.

'Dull, dreary and depressing.' Sirius whispered to Remus.

'Dismal, drab and despondent.' Remus whispered back with a laugh.

'You really think that's what they are?' Peter asked whilst Remus and Sirius laughed at him.

'The three D's,' Wilkie Twycross began again, silencing the hall once more, 'are destination. Determination. And deliberation.'

'I'd never have guessed that!' Sirius whispered to Remus who chuckled.

Wilkie Twycross waved his wand and around sixty wooden hoops appeared spaced out on the floor. 'Get yourself behind a hoop and we will begin.' he said.

There was a momentary silence and then a flurry of movement as sixty students fought to get near a hoop which wasn't covered in splinters.

During the chaos of trying to find a decent hoop, Lily bumped into a few people. She was apologising profusely to Amelia Bones in Hufflepuff when she felt a presence behind her. She turned around to Find Severus looming over her.

'Anything to say to me?' he asked her hoping that she remembered and that even though they weren't friends anymore, she wouldn't ignore this day. She was a nice girl.

Lily took a deep breath, steeling herself before saying, 'Yes I do. Leave me alone.' and she walked away leaving Severus standing there with a stony expression impressed on his face.

Nobody had remembered this day. He wasn't surprised. For years and years no-one had honoured this day. His so called 'friends' in Slytherin never did, neither did his parents, (or now just his mother). But Lily. Lily had always, _always _remembered and celebrated, no matter what. Until today. She hadn't honoured his birthday.

* * *

James rolled over and looked at the large clock hung on the wall in the hospital wing. It was a large blurry mess and he couldn't make out the time. He rubbed his eyes to make sure that it wasn't just because he had just woken up, and realised that he wasn't wearing his glasses. He swung out his hand and felt around on his bedside table for them. His hand finally felt the cold round rims. He put them on and looked at the clock again. It was ten minutes past two in the afternoon. James sat up and yawned whilst running a hand through his scruffy hair messing it up even more.

He looked around and saw no visitors waiting for him. He sighed. Maybe he'd missed any visitors because he had been asleep. But then again, maybe that was just wishful thinking. He began to tap his hand on his bed sheets making a dull clapping sound. He had been in the hospital wing for two and a half weeks. Three more days and he would be free from his bed prison. He tapped his hand louder.

He was suddenly aware of Madam Pomfrey stood by his bedside with her arms folded and an irked expression covering her face.

'Mr Potter' she began, 'If you continue to annoy me by tapping your hands on your bed, I shall have no choice but to break your hands and refuse to heal them.' She waited for a reply.

James was looking at her with a curious look. 'How long have you been standing there?' he asked a little bit scared of the answer.

'Stop tapping your hands Mr Potter.' Madam Pomfrey sighed and turned away.

'Wait.' James said causing Madam Pomfrey to turn back around, 'Did I have any visitors whilst I was asleep?' he asked hoping that he had.

'No Mr Potter you didn't. But don't worry, I'm sure Mr Lupin, Mr Black and Mr Pettigrew will be along shortly. Even if they are skipping their lessons. I would report them but I'm sure they'd just find another way to come and see you.' Madam Pomfrey said before turning away and walking into her office.

It was all very well. James knew his fellow marauders would here soon to keep him company. They had been doing ever since he had been put into the hospital wing. But Lily hadn't been to visit him. She had been out of the hospital wing for a week and a half and not once had she been to see him. Before she left she had promised him that she would. Obviously she had only said that to shut him up. Just when James had thought they were friends.

* * *

'So you still haven't been to see him?' Hestia asked Lily. They were once again sat on Hestia's bed crossed legged and hugging pillows. The only difference this time was that it was eight thirty at night, it was dark and the fact that they were both in their pyjamas. Hestia was in a set of bright pink button down pyjamas with a flying pig pattern. Lily was in a royal blue set of button down pyjamas with silver stars embroidered on them.

'I just can't bring myself to go in!' Lily whimpered, 'I'm just worried I'll act differently around him and he'll know something's up. I feel really bad though because when I left the hospital wing I promised I'd visit.'

'I'm sure he's forgotten that you did!' Hestia said reassuringly.

'Really?' Lily asked hopefully.

'No. But I had to say something.' Hestia said with a shrug.

'Thanks Hestia!' Lily said hitting her with the pillow she'd been hugging.

'Are you at least positive that you like him now?' Hestia asked her with raised eyebrows and an exasperated expression.

'Yes.' Lily said trying to keep a smile off of her face. Her voice then turned to a whisper, 'I've started having dreams about him.'

'Eww!' Hestia said leaning back with a disgusted look on her face, 'I don't want to hear this!'

'Gross!' Lily said, 'Not like that! Just general stuff. Holding his hand. Walking around with him as his girlfriend.'

'Aww!' Hestia cooed, her expression softening, 'That's…kinda sad Lily. Just tell him you like him!'

'You told me I wasn't allowed!' Lily said in disbelief, 'You said it was some weird unwritten rule!'

'Which I re-wrote!' Hestia said proudly.

'But you said you couldn't rewrite an unwritten rule because it was unwritten!' Lily spluttered at her best friend who was shaking her head sympathetically.

'Lily, Lily, Lily!' Hestia said with a tut, 'I said _you_ couldn't rewrite the rule. I never said _I _couldn't!'

Lily shook her head, started to laugh, infecting Hestia also, and was about to reply when Alice and Emmeline entered the room.

'What's so funny?' Alice asked as she went over to Hestia's bed and hugged one of the four posters with one arm.

'Lily likes James Potter!' Hestia said during her laughter. She then realised what she had said and stopped laughing. She looked at Lily who looked like murder.

'Why did you tell them?' she hissed at her best friend, trying to comprehend why she would tell Lily's newest but deepest secret.

'It just slipped out?' Hestia shrugged as if she was asking a question.

Lily shook her head and gave her friend a stony look.

'You like James? James _Potter?' _Alice asked Lily kindly sitting down on the bed next to her and smiling, 'I'd have never guessed!'

'Of course you wouldn't! You don't know when anyone likes anyone! You can't even tell that Frank Longbottom has a huge crush on you!' Lily snapped, still angry at Hestia for telling two of their room-mates her secret.

Alice looked shocked. Her eyes were so wide they looked as though they were about to pop out of her head. Her eyebrows had disappeared underneath her light brown fringe. Her jaw had dropped and her nostrils had flared. She had the epitome of a shocked face. 'He does?' she asked with a small smile creeping across her face.

'Yes.' Lily said exasperatedly with a gesture of her hand.

'How do you know?' Hestia asked her.

Lily turned her head to look at her best friend and gave her a truly evil look which, in turn, caused Hestia to drop her head in apology.

'Black told me on the train ride home for Christmas.' Lily said finally turning to Alice, who had been waiting patiently for this piece of information whilst Lily stared down Hestia.

'Oh.' Alice said almost shaking, 'Why doesn't Frank just ask me out then?' she asked Lily, hoping that maybe Sirius Black had told her some more inside information on this subject.

'Well,' Lily began, 'we never talked about that but, I would think it's because you seem to show no interest in him and you don't particularly notice when he is, erm,' she said considering her words carefully, 'making a move.'

Alice looked confused. 'What moves?' she asked tilting her head to the side with a questioning look.

'Well, the other day when we were walking to Herbology. You said you were cold and he offered you his jacket. At lunch yesterday, you complained that Hestia had taken the last slice of pumpkin pie so Frank offered you the piece from his plate. In transfiguration last week you transfigured your hat into a one-eyed ferret and, even though it was seriously freaky, he said it was cute. When you turned around, he said, 'like you', (which wasn't cheesy at all!). You just ignored him and started talking to Emmeline.' Lily finished with a defiant nod of her head.

Alice considered this information and realised that she had been brushing of all of Frank's so called 'moves'. Unintentionally of course. But she had. 'What should I do?' she asked Lily.

'Next time he makes a move,' Lily began, 'Just play along.' She smiled at Alice thankful that she could give a friend some advice.

'It is unusual,' Emmeline said in a wispy voice, 'how you can give advice on how to start a relationship, but are unable to start one you so desperately want.' Emmeline tipped her head to the side and smiled at an irked Lily. Emmeline shrugged her shoulders and climbed into her bed, fully clothed. She grabbed her witch weekly magazine and began to read the horoscope section, leaving Lily, Hestia and Alice in a conversation about boys.

* * *

The next evening, all of the Hogwarts students, (minus James, who was still in the hospital wing), were gathered in the great hall for dinner. They didn't usually all sit down and eat dinner together as a school unless it was a special occasion or a holiday. But today, they were all told that they were to dine as a school because Dumbledore had an announcement.

Only a few places were left empty. They were dotted around in various spots, but it was more likely that the first years would be the ones needed to fill them. It was like this on every table. Even though the first years had been at the school for four months now, they had still not learnt the quickest routes to their destinations. This was owing to the fact that Hogwarts castle was a huge place which often liked to change itself when it felt like it. This evening, twenty of the numerous stair cases had decided to move themselves. There had been many other changes in the castle too which would have probably also contributed to the first years being late. Four doors had decided they were bored and had taken on disguises as walls. Peeves was blocking one corridor by throwing in pellets at anyone who attempted to pass through. Finally, Moaning Myrtle, in a fit of rage at a second year using her cubicle, had flooded the corridor.

Soon, two of the four tables were completely full; Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. You could always count on them to be on time. There were hardly any students at the Slytherin table as they always tried to put off any whole school feasts or events as long as possible. They usually held up things by about twenty minutes. The only time they would arrive at the correct time, would be if they were the ones being celebrated. If they had a Quidditch game, they would be there. And if they had won the house cup, they would be there. Otherwise, the Slytherin's couldn't care less.

The Gryffindor table was filling up steadily. Nearly all the girls were there, most of the boys and even the first years had found their way in time. Three seats were still empty at this point, but they were about to be filled by the marauders, Sirius, Remus and Peter.

Sirius sat opposite Remus and Peter sat next to Sirius. Sirius had requested Peter to do this and Peter was more than delighted to do as had Sirius wanted. Unfortunately for Peter, he didn't realise that the only reason Sirius wanted him sat to the side of him, was because, as Sirius had told Remus, was so that he didn't have to stare at Peters face whilst he was eating. Sirius regularly complained that Peter's rat face put him off of his food.

They were getting bored. Remus had whipped out a book which he carried around in the pocket in the inside of his robes, along with his wand, which he was using to turn the pages. Peter was sat staring at the girls on the Hufflepuff table, all of which he had no chance with. And Sirius was dropping his head every five seconds so his chin touched his chest.

Remus noticed this and looked up at Sirius with raised eyebrows. 'What are you doing?' he asked his peculiar friend.

Sirius didn't actually answer Remus' question. Instead, he came out with the statement, 'I wonder how heavy my head is?'

To this, Remus didn't justify an answer. Instead he just shook his head and went back to reading his book.

Five minutes later, stragglers were still making their way into the great hall. They were holding everything up and everyone was becoming restless. They had been gathered in the great hall, waiting for Dumbledore to make his announcement for fifteen minutes. He wouldn't begin the feast until every available staff member and student was seated and ready to listen.

It took another ten minutes for the great hall to completely fill. McGonagall tapped her goblet and called for attention allowing Dumbledore to stand up in the lull.

'Thank you for being so patient.' Dumbledore said smiling around at the great hall. 'I just have a few announcements. These are important so I must ask you to listen carefully and to not take them lightly.' he continued, his eyes twinkling over in the marauders direction. 'First of all, due to the chaotic outcome of the last Hogsmeade visit, I have been forced to cancel all further Hogsmeade visit's this year.'

There was a cry of outrage through the hall. Students were shouting their disgust at this action at each other and at Dumbledore. People had begun to stand up in protest. Nobody noticed the three students who hadn't particularly battered an eyelid at this. Sirius, Remus and Peter knew this was not the end of _their _Hogsmeade visits. Instead of blending in and protesting the banning of the trips to the village, Remus still read his book, (turning the pages with his wand), Peter still stared at the Hufflepuff girls (who were way out of his league), and Sirius was still trying to figure out the weight of his head.

To stop this commotion, Dumbledore simply raised a hand and the hall silenced. 'I am sorry but I have had no choice but to take this action. I would appreciate it if everyone, would please, abide by this new ruling.' Dumbledore said to a begrudged audience. Dumbledore looked around for a few seconds to ensure that the students weren't going to go into another uproar before continuing. 'Part of the reason I am regrettably cancelling these delightful trips to Hogsmeade, is due to the fact that Lord Voldemort's forces have become stronger and more open. The ministry refuses to state this but I believe you all have a right to know.'

There were now whispers through the great hall. People weren't surprised by this move by the Ministry. If the Prophet was anything to go by any kidnappings, tortures and murders had gone unreported every day. Things were getting worse and everyone knew it but the ministry refused to take action. This know-how was the reason for the now tangible silence which had suddenly filled the atmosphere. The only thing to break this silence was Dumbledore's voice.

'I warn everyone to take great care and caution in these dark times.' Dumbledore said finally with a penetrating stare. 'But enough of this depression. I do believe we are all hungry and would enjoy our delightful feast, so, dig in!'

And with that, a marvellous feast appeared before everyone's eyes. Unfortunately, Dumbledore's announcement had put a damper on people's appetites. It had been easy to ignore the fact that they were in a war when Dumbledore hadn't acknowledged it. But now he had warned them to be cautious, it seemed more real.

Remus had put down his book. Peter had stopped staring at the Hufflepuff girls. Sirius had stopped trying to measure how heavy his head was. They all looked at each other. They knew in their guts that this was inevitable, but they had never actually considered what they would do when the inevitability came to light. They knew that Voldemort would attempt to recruit them all, Remus especially, considering he was a werewolf. They also had to worry about their families. Peter's mum was on her own and susceptible to an attack. Remus' parents would be captured or killed in an attempt to sway Remus onto the other side. James' mum was what Voldemort considered a blood traitor so she would have a bounty placed on her head. Sirius didn't have to worry about his family as they were all estranged. He did, however, worry about the victims who would fall at his family's feet.

'We need to tell James.' Sirius said, 'He'll want to send his mum a letter to make sure she's ok.'

'But will she write back.' Remus said, 'She only ever writes to him if it's necessary.'

'Things are different now though. Ever since his dad died.' Sirius whispered, 'Christmas holiday just gone, she spent every moment she could with him. I got a bit jealous to be honest. Then she baked another pie and I forgave her.'

Remus chuckled. 'Trust you to turn a serious conversation into one about pie.'

'Ohh. Talking of pie!' Sirius said, looking around at the bountiful of food which was laid out in front of him. 'Let's have a pie themed dinner!' he said to Remus who looked a bit confused.

'What do you mean?' Remus asked with a sigh.

'Well, we'll start with a fish pie. Then some cottage pie, some Sheppard's pie, some chicken pie, some pork pie, some steak and kidney pie-'

'I get it!' Remus said in a futile attempt to shut Sirius up. It didn't work.

'Then for dessert we'll have apple pie, cherry pie, pumpkin pie, coconut pie…' Sirius continued going into, what James would have called, a pie coma.

He was only snapped out of it when Remus brought him into a deep conversation about the next full moon. He had a sneaking suspicion he would need his friends with him for all of his next few transformations. If Dumbledore's announcement had been any hint, Remus would need all the help he could get to resist the call.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Reviews are not necessary but always welcome!**

**Galindaba**


	18. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader! **

**Here's chapter Seventeen! **

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Seventeen**

After three weeks of being in the hospital wing, nearly the whole month of January, James Potter was fully healed and finally being released.

'Can I go? Can I go? Can I go? Can I go? Can I go? Can I go? Can I go?' he kept saying over and over again excitedly to a worn out Madam Pomfrey.

'Mr Potter. I've told you twice and I'll not tell you again.' Madam Pomfrey said with her hands on her hips, 'I cannot let you out of my Hospital wing until nine o'clock. It's procedure!'

'Ok.' James said looking down at his hands in his lap, 'I'll shut up.' He was sat on the edge of the bed he had been occupying for almost a month and still had ten more minutes until he could leave. He began kicking his legs in boredom and ran a hand through his tousled hair. He wanted to do something. But what?

'Can I go? Can I go? Can I go? Can I go? Can I go? Can I go? Can I go?' he began again, annoying Madam Pomfrey to the hilt.

'Oh fine you can go!' Madam Pomfrey said at her wit's end with James. He had annoyed her so much in his time in the hospital wing. It had become worse when Lily Evans left. When she left, his antics had become more infuriating as there was no-one around him with a sensible mind to talk him out of things. The last thing he had done was stick one of the hospital beds to the ceiling by levitating it and casting a sticking charm on it. All from the comfort of his own bed. Madam Pomfrey was tired of him to say the least. She would be grateful to be shot of him.

'But Madam Pomfrey,' James said with a fake shocked face, 'that's against procedure!'

'At this precise moment, I don't care.' Madam Pomfrey said to James as she turned around and headed to her office.

'But I thought you liked me Madam Pomfrey!' James said with a cocky smile.

'Yes Mr Potter.' Madam Pomfrey said, 'I do like you. The thing I like about you the most though, is the back of your head as you leave my hospital wing.'

'Ohh, harsh!' James said as he stood up, 'Thanks for everything!' he said to Madam Pomfrey as he began to leave the hospital wing.

'Just be quiet when you leave Mr Potter.' Madam Pomfrey said to his retreating figure.

James lifted his hand in the air to signify the he had heard her. He then opened the door and took one step out of the hospital wing before yelling down the hall, 'FREEDOM!'

'MR POTTER!' Madam Pomfrey said, charging towards James just outside of the room, 'I said be quiet!'

'Sorry.' James said before whispering down the hall, '_Freedom_!'

Madam Pomfrey tutted fondly at James before turning around and shutting the hospital wing doors behind her.

From the shadows, James heard a small laugh. He looked around to see who it was.

'Evans?' James asked as she stepped forward with an awkward smile on her face.

'Hi.' she said sheepishly.

'Hi?' James said a little confused as to why she was there.

'So you're all better?' Lily asked, trying to break the ice and start a conversation.

'Yes thanks.' James said with an appreciative smile.

Lily's heart began to beat fast. She was more aware of it now but had suspected things had been like this for a while. His smile was kind and genuine. A little bit crooked and pulled up to the left. His eyes were warm and sweet; a rich hazel colour. Lily found she rather liked looking into his eyes, but didn't realise she had been doing so for around a minute and a half.

'Are you alright?' James asked puzzled and worried.

'Yes.' Lily said quickly, snapping back to reality. This was what she was worried about, her behaviour changing around him. This is why she had decided to come and talk to him. She had made her mind up to tell him she liked him. Now she just needed to find a lead in, an opening, to bring the subject up. She started off by saying, 'I'm sorry I didn't visit you.'

'It's alright.' James said with a sweeping wave of his hand as he started to walk, Lily by his side, 'I didn't even notice.' he continued, trying to act fine with her desertion.

'Really?' Lily said, a little disappointed with his answer.

'No, I noticed.' James blurted out, changing his answer and, unbeknownst to him, lifting Lily's spirits immensely, 'So why didn't you visit me?' James said relaxing back into his and Lily's friendship.

Lily sensed that James had settled into how their friendship was before she had left the hospital wing. Before she had realised her feelings for him. She tried to do the same but was finding it hard. Maybe this was the opening she had been waiting for. All she had to say was, 'because I like you' and everything would be fine. She would tell him she liked him. He would reciprocate her feelings as he always had, and they would go from there.

'Lily?' James asked her. She had been lost in thought for a few minutes now. 'Are you sure you're all right?' he asked her again as they turned down the next corridor.

'Yes. Yes I'm fine.' she said before attempting to go in for the kill. 'The reason I didn't come and visit you was because…' she began, the rest of the words becoming caught in her throat. Four words were all she needed to finish her sentence. Four tiny words; because I like you. _Come on Lily, _she said sternly to herself, _Say it! Because I like you! Because I like you! Because I like you! _'Because I felt guilty.' she finished out loud, surprising herself and realising, this was still true.

'Guilty about what?' James asked her.

Lily needed to get this off of her chest. Although she was pretty sure she liked James anyway, there was a small seed if doubt in her mind that her feelings had been born out of guilt. The guilt that she felt when she thought about the injuries he had now overcome, because, she felt it was her fault he was hit.

'Because I feel like it's my fault you were injured.' Lily said to him, not looking at him directly anymore.

'How so?' James questioned, 'When we were in the hospital wing you said you couldn't remember anything. How can you feel guilty about something you didn't see?'

'You were right.' Lily began, 'In the hospital wing when you said that a stinging jinx doesn't knock you out and that I should have seen everything. Well, I wasn't knocked out. And I did see everything. And it was my fault.'

'I still don't get how.' James said kindly to her as they began to walk down a staircase, 'Walk me through what happened.'

'Ok.' Lily said, taking a deep breath and preparing herself to tell James her story, 'When we were all duelling the death eaters in Hogsmeade, I sent out a stunning curse towards my death eater. Unfortunately she dodged it and it flew across and hit Black.'

James laughed. 'That's awesome.'

'Excuse me?' Lily said, shocked at James reaction, 'How on earth is your best friend being hit by a stunning charm awesome?'

'Because,' James began with a smile still tugging at his lips, 'he's been telling me this story that he was duelling four death eaters at once and jumped in front of a stunning spell to save three first years whose disillusionment charms were removed by Voldemort's forces.'

'That is funny.' Lily said with a thoughtful head tilt, 'But why would he tell you that?' she asked.

'I expect he was embarrassed. He didn't get hit in his battle, he got hit by a wayward spell which he didn't see coming.' James said with a shrug of the shoulders.

'Oh' Lily said looking down as they stepped around another corner, 'Anyway. My curse hit him and I was so shocked that-'

'You got hit by the stinging jinx.' James finished for her.

'Yes.' Lily said with a nod. This was her moment of truth. If, when she said the next part of the story, her feeling went away, this would mean they were born out of guilt. If she still felt the same way, her feelings would be legitimate and she was resolute on telling him how she felt. 'So,' she began with a deep breath, 'after I got hit, I saw you trying to come and see if I was alright. That's when you got hit. You lost your concentration, just as I had lost mine, and you had got hit. But, by chain reaction, two more death eaters, plus the one you were duelling, meant that three curses could be cast at once and they all hit you.' she finished off trying to measure his reaction as well as her own.

'I don't get how it's your fault.' James said with a searching smile as he looked at Lily, stopping their journey through the school.

'It's a chain reaction. A domino effect.' Lily tried to explain, but upon seeing James confused face at her expressions, she decided to elaborate, 'If I hadn't gotten distracted by cursing Black, I wouldn't have gotten hit, there wouldn't be as many death eaters to hit you and you wouldn't have tried to come and see if I was alright.'

'Oh.' James said with a shrug.

'You'd have done it for anyone though right?' Lily asked James knowing the answer she wanted to hear, 'Gone to see if they were alright.

James thought about this question for a moment. He would have done it for anyone, but for Lily especially. She may not feel about him the way he felt about her, but if I had ben anyone else, he probably would have at least stunned his death eater before going to see if they were all right. She did something to him. Made him forget all his common sense and do stupid things. When it came to Lily Evans something inside of him snapped. But, he didn't want her to know this. The only reason they were friends right now is because he had stopped asking her out every day. He was sure this was the reason she had given him a chance; because she thought he was over it. He didn't want to mess this up. So he just said, 'Yeah. I'd have done it for anyone.'

Lily's heart sank. She did like him, that she realised. It wasn't born out of guilt, it was a genuine feeling. She also realised, he obviously didn't feel the same way about her. So all the times he had asked her out in the past, every day, of every week, of every month, of every year, was just for the thrill of the chase. Now she was stuck with a dilemma. Should she bottle up her feelings, keep them to herself? Or should she still tell him so he had all the facts. Then he could decide if there was a chance he liked her deep down. He could attempt to find some feeling for her. After thinking about it for five minutes and a lot of James asking if she was alright, she decided to tell him. It was the only thing she could do to settle her curiosity. If he didn't reciprocate her feelings, at least she would know.

'James.' she began, 'I need to tell you something. I-'

'PRONGS!' came a yell from behind them. Suddenly, Sirius had jumped onto James' back with great force, (James hardly moved), not noticing Lily but interrupting her mid-sentence. 'We went to find you at the hospital wing but Pomfrey said she let you out early.'

'Yeah she did.' James laughed shoving Sirius off of his back, 'I persuaded her.'

Sirius landed elegantly on his feet as if he'd just hopped of a broom. 'How did you do that?' he asked James, referring to his early release.

'Yeah. How did you do that?' Remus said as he approached James with Peter trailing behind him.

'Ah.' James said with a wave of his hand, 'Usual way.'

'You bugged the hell out of her?' Remus asked James, raising one eyebrow.

'Yep, pretty much.' James laughed with a nod of his head.

'Should have known.' Remus said laughing also.

Sirius, Remus and Peter still hadn't noticed Lily stood somewhat awkwardly behind James. She knew that now she wouldn't have a chance to talk to James on his own and now she was wondering if there was a reason fate had sent the other three marauders in at that precise moment. Maybe she wasn't meant to tell James how she felt. There had to be a reason. She just had to find it. Right now though, she decided it was best if she left the four boys to themselves.

'I'm gonna go.' Lily said, only looking at James.

'Evans!' Sirius said, wagging his eyebrows suggestively, 'What's going on here then? You been trying to steal our Jimmy-boy?'

'Give it a rest Sirius!' Remus said pushing him to the side.

Sirius laughed, a natural smile covering his handsome face. 'No but seriously. What are you doing with our Jimmy-boy?'

'She's just been telling me that you're a wimp.' James said with a shrug and a teasing smile.

'Well we all know that!' Remus said playing along with James.

Sirius' face dropped and he had a stony expression as he looked at both James and Remus' happy ones. He started to sulk and Lily took that as her cue to leave.

'I'll see you later.' she said to the four boys before taking one last look at James who was laughing at Sirius.

She walked away and was halfway down the hall when she heard James shout goodbye to her down the corridor. It took her all her strength not to turn around or stop. However, when she heard him shout, 'See ya later Evans', she couldn't stop the smile that spread across her face.

James saw her turn the corner before looking back to Sirius who still had a stony face.

'Ah lighten up mate!' James said clapping Sirius on the shoulder, 'Just think of what we've got to look forward to!' James said with a devious smile before allowing it to falter and say, 'We do have something to look forward to right?'

'Yes!' Remus said as all four boys began to walk down the corridor to the great hall for breakfast. 'We went up last night tried it out on Pete.'

'Did it work?' James asked.

'Yeah.' Remus said, 'How did you know it would? Especially without causing harm?'

'It was in that unusual charms book that I got Evans for Christmas.' James said with a shrug.

'You _mean_ the unusual charms book that _we _all got her for Christmas?' Sirius asked James with a smug expression.

In answer, James just pushed him to the side as the carried on walking down the corridor.

'So how did you find that charm in that book anyway?' Remus asked James, trying to sway the conversation back to his curiosities, 'Scratch that. First, how did you even get that book away from Evans? Every time we went to visit you she had her nose in it.'

'Ah Moony…' James began with a sigh and a shake of his head, 'It was a mixture of determination. Skill. And stealth.'

'You nicked it when she was sleeping didn't you?' Remus said as they came off of a stair case and into the entrance hall.

'So little faith dear Moony!' James said, feigning shock, 'But yeah.'

All four boys turned into the great hall and walked to take their seats at the Gryffindor table for breakfast. The hall was filled with a vast majority of all the students which attended Hogwarts. Up at the high table where the Professors ate, were the four heads of houses, Hagrid and four other Professors who were supervising the morning meal.

James was greeted by his fellow Gryffindor's, who had missed him whilst he was stuck in the hospital wing, as the four boys sat down. They all acted as normal and grabbed their breakfast. Sirius piled his plate high with a strange assortment of foods all fitting into a sandwich of sorts. At the bottom of his mound, surfacing the plate was a large slice of toast on which he had piled eggs, (fried, poached and scrambled), bacon, sausages, mushrooms, tomatoes and beans. Then things started to get weird. On top of his condensed full English, he also put on cornflakes, porridge, yogurt, a crumbled muffin and dried apricots, topping the breakfast sandwich of with another slice of toast.

'You're seriously gonna eat that?' Remus asked Sirius, disgusted.

'Yep.' Sirius replied, smacking his lips in anticipation of his breakfast. Before he took it to his lips however he remembered something. 'Remind me to break up with Jade today.'

James and Remus shared a look. This was typical Sirius. He wasn't mean exactly, but he never had a girlfriend for more than a week. It was his aim to date everyone he could and, as he would say, give them all a fair shot at him. He also really enjoyed the free swag he got, most of the free food.

'She not perfect?' James asked him, not liking the way he discarded girls like tissues and not understanding how girls still wanted to go out with him. Then again, his situation was somewhat similar in some ways. He was constantly asked out by girls who he always turned down, but there were always many girls that insisted on giving it a go.

'Too clingy.' he said as he took his first bit of his breakfast sandwich.

'What did she do?' James asked Remus, knowing he was the only one who would give him an honest answer.

'Asked him how he was.' Remus said as he poured himself a goblet of pumpkin juice.

'Well you can't expect him to keep a girlfriend just because she cares for him can you?' James said sarcastically, taking the jug of pumpkin juice from Remus and pouring himself a drink.

Peter, who had been with them the whole time but following quietly and loyally like a dutiful pet, decided to voice a question that he had always wanted answered and, unbeknownst to him, his other two friends had also recently wondered.

'Why do girls always ask you out when they know you'll dump them in a week?' he asked Sirius meekly looking up at him.

'Easy.' Sirius said with his mouthful, some porridge mixed with yogurt seeping out of his breakfast sandwich and running down his chin, 'I'm every girl's dream.'

'Yeah.' Remus said with a nod of his head, 'The nightmare.'

James chuckled earning himself a thump on the arm from an annoyed Sirius.

'It's was funny!' James said to him, still chuckling and receiving a dark look.

'When will the mail be here?' Peter asked James from across the table.

'Patience grasshopper!' James said to a confused Peter but upon seeing his face just said, 'Don't worry about it. Mail's here.'

Nearly a hundred owl's flocked into the great hall, all carrying at least one letter. One by one they landed in front of their owners, either laying the letter on the table ready to be opened, or sticking out their legs so the letters could be untied by the recipient.

Students began to open their mail. People had received the Daily Prophet newspaper, treats from home and letters from their family. Suddenly, from the Hufflepuff table there was a small bang and a puff of wispy white cloud which covered the recipients face. Several more of the explosions began to take place across the great hall covering anyone who opened their mail to be enclosed in this white cloud. It seemed that everyone had received the same small gold envelope with the same circular wax seal, (with a 'M' in the middle of it), on the back.

Professor McGonagall seemed to notice this white cloud masking a large majority of the students faces. It was almost like a dense fog on some of the house tables. On others it was a little more like patchwork but still rather thick. She scanned the hall with four suspects in mind, spotting them at the far end of the Gryffindor table. They were all eating quietly as if nothing was happening around them at all. That is, three of them were eating as if nothing was happening around them. Small Peter Pettigrew was trying to stifle laughter.

Before she took action against them, she decided to see what the result of their latest prank was. Firstly because she could then decide fairly what their punishment should be. And secondly, because she was mildly curious. Even though the four boys pranks could be disruptive, childish and sometimes just annoying, (she was thinking of the time they filled her office with crystal balls and cups of tea leaves, knowing exactly how she felt about the subject of divination.), their pranks were always such a grand and extraordinary display of magic. So she always punished them but was also always amazed at their skill for such large magical gestures.

Soon the mist began to fade away and McGonagall diverted her attention away from the four Gryffindor's to see what shenanigans they had come up with this time. She looked across the Hufflepuff table which seemed to be the clearest to find that she was looking at a mass of boys. Not just any boys though. If she hadn't known where they were actually sat, she would have sworn she was looking at James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. Twenty versions of each of these boys were sat along the Hufflepuff table all looking thoroughly confused at one another. She looked around the rest of the great hall to see that every student had taken a likeness resembling one of the four boys she knew to be responsible. On the Slytherin table were roughly twelve Peters, nineteen James', twenty-one Remus' and twenty-two Sirius. The numbers varied but this was pretty much the same story on every-table.

McGonagall looked over to where she knew the real marauders were sitting only to find them gone. The trouble was, she had no idea if they were still in the room without reversing the charm. This was something she didn't particularly want to do because it was an extraordinary display of magic. From what she could gather, (due the fact that this kafuffle had happened during the time when the post was delivered), they had used the rare mimic charm, placing several enchanted charmed photo likenesses inside the envelopes, (which she could see from a glance that every student had received via post), meaning when the letter was opened and the photo touched, the charm would be activated. This caused the person who touched the photo to mimic their look. It was an old charm which was rarely used due to the fact that the Polyjuice had taken over its function years ago, working out the charms main flaw; the fact it could be reversed by anyone unlike the polyjuice potion. It was however difficult to get right and she was rather impressed.

Professor Flitwick, who had been stood next to Professor McGonagall to watch the scene unfold, was also very impressed. In all his years as the Professor of Charms, he had never seen that particular spell completed on such a grand scale if at all. He never taught it, merely mentioned it once or twice in his N.E.W.T standard classes. He was astounded to say the least. However, as the Professor of charms, seeing as it was clear McGonagall was reluctant to remove it, it was down to him to undo the charm. He took out his wand and swished it gracefully in front of him, removing the charm easily and restoring everyone back to themselves.

McGonagall thanked Professor Flitwick who nodded at her with his small smile and walked back to the high table to finish his breakfast. McGonagall watched him before turning her attention back to the students to search for James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. They didn't seem to be there. This prank of theirs was rather clever. They were able to cause chaos and sneak out unsuspected due to their many look-a-likes. She had to hand it to them. They had skill.

* * *

Sitting in the almost empty Gryffindor common room, Lily Evans couldn't help but feel like she was a bit of a coward. Blaming fate for her backing out of telling a certain someone about her feelings towards him. She guessed she was just getting over the shock of her sudden change in emotion. But they always did say there's a thin line between love and hate.

Deep in thought, Lily didn't notice Alice run into the room in an excited fluster. She spotted Lily and hurried over to her, plopping herself down on the sofa where Lily was sitting.

'Why are you so happy?' Lily asked her curiously as her friend burst out in a euphoric smile.

'I took your advice.' Alice said barely containing her excitement and bouncing up and down in her seat.

'Well I am quite wisdomess.' Lily said un-modestly turning to face Alice and crossing her legs so she was sat completely on the sofa. 'What was my advice?'

'You told me, that next time Frank, as you put it, 'made a move', that I should do something about it.' Alice said so happily she should have been singing.

'So what happened?' Lily said curiously, hoping she could possibly apply Alice's story to her own situation. Probably not seeing as she had asked James to stop asking her out and, annoyingly, he had complied. _How irritating of him! _Lily thought as though he had planned this all along. As if he had planned for her to fall for him and have no-way of telling him because he decided to become a decent person and do as she asked. _Typical James! _she thought, before realising Alice had been talking the whole time she had been in her head. She snapped back and forced herself to listen to the rest of Alice's story.

'…so after I gave him the fish, I just turned to him and said, 'Do you want to go to Hogsmeade with me?' and he turned bright red, as did I, and said 'yes'. I said 'good' then ran up here to tell Emmeline. Only I couldn't find her so I told you instead.'

'Well it's nice to know I'm a good solid second.' Lily said. 'One problem with your story though.'

'What?' Alice asked, her face dropping instantly, 'Does he have a girlfriend? Am I too late?'

Lily laughed. 'No nothing like that. I'm sure you're the only one he's thinking of. It's just, all Hogsmeade visits were cancelled. Remember? Because of the death eater attack?'

Something clicked for Alice then. 'Oh.' she said disappointed, 'Well do you think that's why he agreed to go with me? Because he knew he would never have too?'

'No.' Lily said with a compassionate smile and a shake of her head, 'I think that maybe he was just really happy you asked him. He's probably realising this just like you are.'

'Well what do I do? What if he thinks I'm stupid now and doesn't want to go out with me anymore?' Alice said beginning to bite her nails anxiously.

'He won't think you're stupid.' Lily said.

'How do you know?' Alice said becoming more and more worried that thing wouldn't go as she wanted.

'Because he made the same error as you did. Did he remember that Hogsmeade trips were cancelled?' Lily asked Alice who shook her head, 'No. So he won't think you're stupid because he is just as stupid as you are.'

Alice's nervous expression and demeanour dropped. 'Thanks Lily.' she said sarcastically.

Lily laughed. 'I didn't mean you were stupid Alice.'

'I know.' Alice smiled, 'So what should I do?'

'Ask him to go somewhere else with you.' she said before her face lit up with an idea, 'Why don't you ask him to the Quidditch game next month?'

'Too long to wait.' Alice said dismissing this idea.

'Err ok.' Lily sighed trying to think of another idea, 'How about you…ask him to go to the valentine's dinner with you?'

'Still too far away.' Alice moaned.

'It's a week before the Quidditch game. And only two weeks away.' Lily pointed out.

'No.' Alice said in thought, 'I could just ask him to accompany me to your birthday party next week.' she remembered excitedly.

'Birthday party?'

'_Surprise _birthday party.' Alice said, clapping her hand to her forehead.

Lily moaned. She wasn't a great fan of huge parties. She would be alright for an hour or two depending on the occasion, but she would much rather spend her birthday hanging out with her closest friends. Go out for a meal or, if she was with muggles friends, go bowling or something similar. Just spend an important day with important people. But this year, apparently she wasn't allowed.

'How long has Hestia been planning this? How many people know about it?' Lily asked hoping that it was just decided recently.

'She told us first week back at school.' Alice said whilst Lily sighed with relief thinking there was still a chance to get out of this. Alice continued, 'Yep. She told us first week back at school…in September.'

Lily closed her eyes. There was no way of undoing this party. She had to plaster a smile on her face for one whole night and talk to people who she wouldn't usually spend a lot of time with and make nice with people who she couldn't stand. What a fun night. Now Lily wasn't a mean person. On the contrary, she was probably one if the nicest girls in Hogwarts and everyone liked her. But you can't like everyone and there are always a few people who you don't desire the company of. It's human nature. There were only a few people which Lily didn't particularly want to be around. A couple third years who always thought they were the bee's knees and were very rude. A group of three sixth year girls who were very fake and two-faced but seemed to like Lily. They were always asking her to take part in their makeover parties. And two seventh year lads who were slimy and inappropriate. And if this was a Hestia party, all these people would be invited.

Last year, the marauders would have made this list as well, but this year, they would have been on her list for an intimate birthday get together with her friends. Others on this list would have been Hestia, Alice and Emmeline. Last year Severus would have been on the list as well. In many ways, she was glad he wasn't now. For one, having him and the marauders in the same room for any length of time would be murderous. Then again, she probably wouldn't be friends with them if she and Severus were still friends. Also, he would have darkened the mood by talking about things polite company do not want to hear. No. She was glad that this year he wouldn't make the list. And she was also glad that James and his fellow marauders would have.

'There's _no way _to get out of this?' Lily asked Alice with raised eyebrows.

'I don't think Hestia would _let _you get out of this.' Alice said, 'It's a big deal, your seventeenth and it only happens once.'

'Fair point.' Lily said disgruntled.

'So do you think I should do that?' Alice said, trying to steer the conversation back to her problem.

'Do what?' Lily asked, snapping back to the present instead of thinking of her impending party.

'Ask him to the party _you don't know anything about_?' Alice said stressing the last part.

'Yeah I think that's a great idea.' Lily said with a forced small smile and a nod of her head.

'Thanks Lily!' Alice squealed leaning forward and hugging Lily before getting up, excitedly saying, 'I'm going to find Emmeline' and leaving the room.

Lily quickly reached into her bag and pulled out one of the books her mother gave her for Christmas. She'd wanted the book for ages but had never gotten it until recently. It was a book from the muggle world and even though Lily loved being a witch, the wizarding world's problems with Voldemort on the rise, was sometimes too much for her to deal with. With a muggle book, she could return to the world she grew up in. The simplicity of that life where the most she ever worried about was if her sister wouldn't play with her.

She opened the book, which she had already read twice since getting it. She took out the bookmark which had been keeping her place and began reading, her mind being enveloped into another world, blocking out the real one.

'What you reading?' a voice came from behind her, making her jump out of her skin and her book fall on the floor.

She looked around and saw the person who had scared her. Her stomach swooped. It was James. Alone. James alone.

'Err…it's a book.' she said as she fumbled around on the floor to get her book.

'I can see that!' James laughed as he walked around the sofa Lily was sat on, picked up her book and flopped himself down next to her, his arm along the back of the seat. 'The Go-Between.' James said as he read the title of the book. He placed the book in Lily's hands before saying, 'I've never heard of it.'

'It's a muggle book.' Lily said, extremely aware of James arm across the back of the sofa. If someone came into the common room at this moment and didn't look at the scene properly, it would seem as though he had his arm around her.

'What's it about?' James asked her looking into her vivid green eyes.

Lily stuttered and her mind went blank. She momentarily forgot what this book was about. She turned the book over and read the blurb, reminding herself of the story. She began to try and explain it to him, being careful not to actually look at him because she was worried of being distracted by him. 'It's about a boy who goes and stays with his friend for a while.'

'That's never good.' James said thinking of him and Sirius.

Lily laughed and continued, 'That's not all it's about. He has a crush on his friend's sister who is engaged to the local squire but is having an affair with a farm boy. So she uses the little boy to carry notes to the farm boy but he doesn't understand she's using him.'

'What a nice girl.' James said sarcastically, running a hand through his soft hair. 'I'm assuming that's not the whole story.'

'Nope.' Lily said, now daring to look at James.

'So what happens at the end?' James asked.

'You'll have to read it if you really want to find out.' Lily said, almost daring him to see if he would.

James thought about it for a moment before saying, 'alright', and taking the book off of her and opening it to the first page.

'I haven't finished reading that yet!' Lily said making a grab for her book but missing it as James lifted it up into the air and out of her reach.

'Haven't you already read it?' James said cheekily with a lopsided grin, still holding the book hostage and away from Lily.

'Yes but-'

'Well I haven't and I need to know how it ends!' James said bringing the book down to his lap and flicking through it to the end.

'You can't do that.' Lily said finally able to take the book back off of James, 'If you're gonna read this book you need to start at the beginning.'

She looked at James in the eyes and he the same with her. They looked into each other's eyes for one whole minute, both getting the same nervous feeling in their stomachs but not realising the other was feeling the same way.

James was the first one to break the eye-contact, worried about pushing his luck and overstepping boundaries. 'Fine.' he said softly with a crooked smile and taking the book back from her, 'I'll read it from the beginning.'

Lily smiled back at him. Seeing James opening the book, and wanting to carry on a conversation, Lily asked him a question which she couldn't say she hadn't been wondering about. 'Where's the rest of your little group then?'

'Well,' James said closing the book and turning back to look at Lily, 'After we slipped out of the great hall unnoticed this morning, after our prank, we decided that if we split up we'd be less likely to be punished.'

'How do you figure that?' Lily asked interested.

'Can't punish someone who you can't find.' James said with a wink.

Lily smiled at him and he smiled back, but all of a sudden his smile dropped.

Lily became worried that there was something in her teeth. She stopped smiling too and began to run her tongue over her teeth in her closed mouth. Simultaneously, she realised her teeth were clean and why James' smile dropped. McGonagall had entered the common room.

'Detention Mr Potter. Thursday evening. My office.' McGonagall said as she strode over to him.

James grimaced but turned it into a smile as he looked up to McGonagall. 'It's a date!' he said cheekily, 'You bring the fire whisky and I'll bring the food.'

Professor McGonagall had no reply. She just shook her head and left the room.

When she had gone James turned to Lily who was laughing. James smiled at her. He loved her laugh.

* * *

**Thanks for reading**

**Reviews are welcome but not necessary**

**Galindaba**


	19. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader! **

**Here's chapter Eighteen! **

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Eighteen**

James and Lily were still sat on the sofa in front of the fire in the Gryffindor common room. Both were secretly shooting furtive glances at the other but never at the same time. James had started to read the book Lily had reluctantly given him and Lily had gotten out another one of the books she always had concealed in her bag. James still had his arm across the back of the sofa and Lily couldn't help but be very aware of it.

'What is wrong with this picture?' Sirius said as he entered the common room and walked over to where James and Lily were sitting.

'Maybe the fact that you have flour in your hair.' James said, glancing up at him.

'WHAT!?' Sirius said throwing his head forward and shaking his hair out. White dust fell gently out of his silky black locks. 'Last time I try and bake my own cake!' he said as he threw his head back and allowed his hair to fall and frame his face. 'Back to my original statement. What is wrong with this picture?'

James looked around himself, his gaze hovering on Lily a fraction more than what would be acceptable for a friendship, and shrugged.

'I blame you.' Sirius said turning to Lily who wasn't actually paying attention.

She suddenly became aware of both boys staring at her. She looked up. 'Huh?' she said.

'I blame you for this.' he said motioning at James.

Lily looked at James and then back to Sirius. 'Don't blame me. Blame his parents.'

James chuckled.

'I knew you'd be a bad influence on him!' Sirius continued, still not giving many hints as to what he was actually talking about.

'Don't you think you've got that the wrong way round?' Lily asked him.

'Not at all.' Sirius replied defiantly, scowling at Lily. It wasn't an angry or serious scowl. It was more playful.

'Can you please tell us what you're actually on about?' Lily questioned Sirius with raised eyebrows.

'Him. Reading. Doing homework.' Sirius said in choppy tones.

'Well then I think you would call that a good influence,' Lily said, 'not a bad one.'

'Not in my book!' Sirius said before leaping over the back of the sofa and plonking himself down in the middle of where James and Lily were sitting.

'I didn't know you owned a book.' Lily said to Sirius, causing him to glare at her and James to burst into a wave of laughter.

'I do own a book actually.' Sirius said matter-of-factly.

'Really?' Lily asked sceptically. She highly expected this to just be a ploy to prove her wrong.

'Yes.' Sirius said defiantly before turning to James to back him up.

It took another minutes for James to actually stop laughing completely. He had never heard Lily say anything like that before and he just found it hilarious. Soon, Lily, who had been watching him laugh with a smile on her face and misty eyes, began to giggle along with him because he had an infectious laugh. Even Sirius found it hard to keep a straight face. But when James' laugh died out, he managed to say to Lily, 'He does actually own a book. One book, but still a book.'

'Really?' Lily said, shocked.

'Don't act so surprised!' Sirius said, leaning back on the sofa and folding his arms behind his head, relaxing, 'I'm a very intellectual human being and I read books which are important to life's philosophy.'

'Err, Padfoot?' James said with raising one eyebrow, 'Your book is a manual on how to build a motorbike.'

'And your point is…?' Sirius asked James, daring him to say that building a motorbike was not a main philosophy in life.

'You know what a motorbike is?' Lily asked the both of them, curious to know the answer seeing as the motorbike was a muggle invention and, as far as she knew, had no crossover with the wizarding world unlike cars, buses and trains.

'It's all he talks about.' James said with a sigh and a roll of his eyes, 'They fascinate him. He found out about them in muggle-studies when we were studying how they travel. So this Christmas, I suggested we buy him a manual on how to build a motorbike along with all the parts. Big mistake, he's been driving me crazy with it ever since.'

Lily smiled at James who smiled back, capturing her eyes and making her stomach turn. 'I should go, got some studying to do.'

'Ok.' James and Sirius said in unison. James went back to the book he had nicked from Lily, and Sirius was, for some strange unfounded reason, was looking at James' ear.

Lily was staring at James wishing she could find the Gryffindor courage and bravery inside her to tell him how she felt, but she couldn't seem to summon it. She began to walk but was stopped by pain hitting her shins and knees. She had banged into a chair.

'There's a chair there.' James said to her hardly looking up from the book he was pretending to read.

'I know.' Lily said indignantly.

'Why'd you walk into it then?' Sirius questioned looking away from James' ear.

'How'd you know it didn't walk into me?' Lily said as a long shot, not really thinking about what she was saying.

Sirius paused and looked at her. 'It's a chair.' he said slowly.

James chuckled under his breath and Lily suddenly became aware and worried that she had embarrassed herself in front of him. She didn't actually reply but just walked away from them and to the girls' staircase, staying long enough to hear Sirius say to James, 'You have small ears.'

* * *

The next day, James went back to classes for the first time since getting out of the hospital wing. His classmates were thrilled to have him back. His teachers didn't share their enthusiasm. Even though he had grown up a bit, he didn't torture the Slytherin's for entertainment any more, paid attention in class and did the work, (most of the time), the teachers found out that this did not always work in their favour. Because he paid attention in class, the instructions never had to be repeated to him meaning he would complete the task set for him very quickly and skilfully. As an effect of this, he had lots of spare time at the end of the lesson and got bored easily.

In Charms class, after he had accomplished the task, he would, if no-one else had finished within ten minutes, proceed to complete the charm for everyone else as well so they could move on quickly. In Transfiguration, when he finished changing his object into the requested animal or item, he would immediately carry on and transfigure anything he could into what he had been originally told too. In Defence Against the Dark Arts, usually paired with Sirius, they would finish their assignment and begin to duel, not with wands, but with quills which had been transfigured into swords. In Herbology, the normal result of his boredom after doing the task, he would try and create new plants. It was only in Potions when he didn't mess about or annoy people who were still working, because he was partnered with Lily. This meant that he would much rather hold a conversation with her, as it was an excuse to look at her, than attempt anything disruptive.

The professors at the school couldn't always begrudge his behaviour as he did always complete the lessons objective, usually within the first ten minutes. It would be the same with _any_ naturally bright student. They would get bored easily as they would finish projects quicker. The problem was nothing was challenging him. Until Professor Slughorn came up with an idea.

'Today you are all, separately, going to be brewing the draught of the living death.' Slughorn said to the class as he strode into the room. 'You will find the sopophorous beans and the Sloth brain in the potion supplies cupboard, the wormwood, asphodel and valerian roots, you should have in your own kits and seeing as we have been going over the theory and steps to creating this potion, you should be acquainted enough with it to make it. Of you go.'

Everyone got up unenthusiastically and made their way over to the potions supply cupboard. Lily and James were amongst this crowd. They were chatting away when Professor Slughorn called both of them over to his desk.

'Now I hear you are becoming bored in your lessons Mr Potter.' He said turning to James who sighed and rolled his eyes.

'Professor, I've already gotten detention from all those other classes for reasons I _don't_ understand-'

'I heard this morning you transfigured Professor McGonagall's glasses into a cricket and she was unable to retrieve them for half an hour because she couldn't see.' Professor Slughorn said to James with raised eyebrows.

'To be perfectly honest, as wizards, don't you think it's just a _little _bit embarrassing we can't cure impaired vision?' James began, pushing his own glasses up his nose and running a hand through his tousled hair.

'And when she finally caught the cricket you transfigured it into a mouse. A mouse which proceeded to bite her.'

'Well maybe that detention was justified.' James said thoughtfully, 'But the rest…I can't win. I don't do what they want and I get detention. I do what I'm told and I get detention. Now, I don't know about you, but I think you're sending me some mixed signals here.'

Lily giggled by his side and James felt rather proud that he had made her laugh. Professor Slughorn was also chuckling along.

'Well Mr Potter you can relax because I am not here to give you detention.' Professor Slughorn said deeply, his large belly rising with the deep breath he took.

'Are you sure because I had Wednesday free?' James said earning himself a strange look from Lily.

'Mr Potter. You and Miss Evans, as she is in all the same classes with you and is your potions partner, are going to be undertaking a special project.' Slughorn began, obviously very pleased with himself for thinking of a way to distract James and give him something to do, 'You two will be brewing the potion Felix Felicis.'

'But sir,' Lily began, 'If anything goes wrong with that potion, it could be disastrous.'

'I know Miss Evans.' Slughorn said with a nod of his head, 'It could be disastrous, however, I believe that you are both clever enough to make this potion. Miss Evans, you have the skill and patience to make this potion, I have no doubt about it, and Mr Potter, you have natural ability. You waste it mostly-'

James took that as a compliment and placed his hand on his heart with a fake sniff.

'-but I believe if you have a project to channel your skills on then you will succeed without a doubt. Now the instructions for this potion,' Slughorn said writing on a slip of parchment on his desk, 'Is in the restricted section of the library. You will need this,' he gave the slip of parchment to Lily, 'to retrieve it. Now go and get it and get started. Good luck.'

James and Lily looked at each other, both a little worried, before walking towards the door so that they could go and the book they needed to begin.

'Where are they going?' Sirius asked Remus as he sat down at their little desk, his arms laden with potion ingredients.

'Slughorn has given them a special assignment to do.' Remus said organising the ingredients on the table and opening his potions book to the correct page.

'And why haven't we been given a special project to do?' Sirius demanded.

'Because you'd probably blow up the school.' Remus said, reading the first ingredient for the draught of living death.

'That would be quite the achievement!' Sirius said nodding his head as he grabbed for a sopophorous bean and a knife to chop it with.

'You don't need that until later.' Remus said to Sirius who looked a little disappointed.

'But I want to do it now.' he whined, 'Besides, by the time you've chopped up all those roots you'll be ready for it. I'm not too great at cutting these things.'

'You can say that again.' Remus muttered under his breath as Sirius began to attempt cutting the bean which just kept sliding way under the pressure of the knife.

'Bet Prongs is happy.' Sirius said absent-mindedly.

'When is he not happy?' Remus asked, barely listening and concentrating on counting the stirs of his potion.

Sirius thought for a moment, 'When I read his mail before he does.'

'You do that to all of us.' Remus said resentfully.

'And do you like it?' Sirius asked, giving up on cutting the sopophorous bean for now.

'No.' Remus stated.

'Exactly.' Sirius replied joyfully at having proved his point.

'So why is James happy then?' Remus asked giving up on Sirius actually telling him and his curiosity levels rising.

'Because he gets to spend some alone time with dear Miss Lily Evans.' Sirius said waggling his eyebrows suggestively.

There was a clatter of metal and wood from behind them. Sirius and Remus turned around in time to see a light purple potion seeping towards them.

'Geez Snivellus! Watch what you're doing!' Sirius said as he and Remus tucked their feet up to avoid the potion. Sirius stared blackly at Severus who still hadn't realised what he had done. When he did, he quickly took out his wand, gave it a fluid flick and cleared up the mess he had made.

'Try to be more careful Mr Snape.' Slughorn said as he was grading some papers from a lower year.

'Sorry sir.' Severus said bitterly, as he walked over to the potions cupboard, trance-like, to get some fresh ingredients for his potion. He blamed Slughorn for this. Now, Lily would be working on a potion with James in private. He could see it in his head. Them getting closer than they already were, too close in his opinion. And then, as he now knew about her secret harboured feelings towards James Potter, she would soon tell him how she felt. This would only result in a relationship between them, killing Severus, not literately…maybe literally, in the process. Severus couldn't stand the thought of her with the person he despised and hated with all his soul. He couldn't imagine her with anyone, but he loathed the idea of James Potter getting what he had always wanted. What he had made blatantly obvious to the whole school for so long. For five whole years. What Severus didn't understand, is why this year, he had made no public displays to win her heart and hadn't asked her out at every available moment.

Severus sat down at the table he shared with Avery, sulking. He scattered the fresh ingredients he had just collected across the desk, placed his elbow onto the desk and sunk his head into his hand. He needed to do something. He knew Lily would never listen to him and that he would never talk her around and out of feeling the way she did. He just had to see how she was acting around James Potter though. That would be a key indicator of whether she had told her feelings to the one person they were for.

Severus looked to the side of him to see Avery struggling with his sopophorous bean. 'Crush that with the dull edge of the knife.' he said offhandedly as he walked to Slughorn's desk.

Avery watched him walk away before trying his method, finding out he was right.

'Sir?' Severus said and he reached the desk.

'Mr Snape.' Professor Slughorn said, not looking up from marking his papers, 'The potion takes longer to brew than this and you have to start again. What is it you're after?' Professor Slughorn finished, looking up at Severus.

'Can I go to the hospital wing?' Severus said abruptly.

'Are you ill?' Slughorn asked, unsure of whether to let Severus leave his classroom.

'Of course.' Severus snapped, impatient at not being able to leave straight away to…'observe' Lily's behaviour towards James, 'Why else would I ask to go to the hospital wing?' Severus finished, scowling at Slughorn.

'I don't care for your attitude Mr Snape,' Professor Slughorn said puffing out his large round belly, 'but you may go to the Hospital wing. Take your bags.'

Severus didn't thank Slughorn. Instead he just walked back to his table and began gathering up his stuff.

Avery watched him put all his stuff back in his bag, moody that Severus had known a trick to get more juice out of the sopophorous bean and he hadn't. 'How'd you know about that bean thing?' Avery asked him, his eyes narrowed evilly.

'Because I'm not an idiot.' Severus hissed as he picked up his bag and skulked out of the room.

Severus didn't know how far she would have gotten. He knew she was going to the library so he thought her would take the quickest route he could in the hope that she had done the same thing. He walked down the corridor and around the corner, the opposite direction to the hospital wing, where he had been approved to go. Severus ran his hand along the wall absentmindedly thinking about what he could possibly do if Lily had expressed her feelings. There was nothing. There was no real point in him actually going to find and spy on her as he had no input in her life anymore. He just had to know. For nothing but curiosity.

He found a door which loved pretending to be a wall. It was the shortest route to the Library. He walked through the door and up the spiral staircase which was hidden behind it. The staircase went up two floors, out of the dungeons until it finally came out at the grand entrance. Severus stepped out of a portrait, which was the exit, and looked outside. It was throwing it down with rain, causing the existing snow on the ground to turn to slush.

He was about to turn around to go up the stairs when he saw a flash of red from outside. He stepped into the shadows and watched as Lily and James, both talking animatedly, walked towards the entrance hall together. Lily stealing glances at James and James doing the same for Lily, each just missing eye contact by seconds.

'And inside we go!' James said looking at Lily with a wonky smile, 'See! Didn't I tell you the long way round was better.'

Lily laughed. 'I just don't get why we had to go outside.'

'It wouldn't have been the long way round otherwise.' James said innocently.

'You're right. It would have been the normal route.' Lily said, 'We just took a random detour in the rain.'

'Surprised you went out in the rain.' James said thoughtfully, 'Aren't you bothered about getting your hair wet?' he said looking at Lily's red hair, the colour deepened with moisture.

'I have a trick.' Lily said getting out her wand and tapping her head, her hair drying instantly before tapping her robes and doing the same to them.

From the corner, Severus smiled. She may not like him anymore, but he couldn't help but convince himself that the reason she was using that spell was because he was the one who had taught it to her and she subconsciously missed him. He knew it was wishful thinking. The real reason she used that spell, he was sure, was because it was a useful spell. It was, however, nice to believe the first suggestion.

He watched as Lily touched her wand down lightly onto James' head and then his arm. She avoided looking at him whilst he stared longingly at her. In his corner, it was hard for Severus not to rush forward and curse him for looking at her in that way. A way which he knew all too well. A way which he, himself reserved especially for Lily.

'Thank you.' James said warmly, smiling at Lily who looked up and blushed slightly at his intense gaze.

'We should go and get that book.' Lily said after a couple minutes.

'Or…we could go get some food?' James suggested.

'There only an hour left until dinner.' Lily said, 'Where would we get food?'

'I have my ways!' James said mysteriously.

Lily smiled and thought about this seriously. Maybe if they did go and get something to eat now, they wouldn't go to the whole school dinner and she would have more time to explain her feelings to him so they could come to a decision. She shook her head internally. She was treating this like a business arrangement instead of raw emotion. She just needed to tell him and find out if he felt the same way. That way, if he had moved on and didn't like her anymore, she could too. She was about to agree to go a get some food with James when a nagging voice at the back of her head reminded her about the book they were meant to be retrieving. It was her need to do well in school. She had already, against her better judgement, taken the detour outside in the rain. She couldn't prolong school work any longer. She couldn't help it. It was just her nature to care about her education and she truly believed the only way she could get any good out of it was trying her hardest and putting a lot of effort into it. Only on this occasion had she ever looked upon this instinct as a downfall.

In the shadows, Severus waited with bated breath for her decision, willing her to just go to the library and do what she had been told to in the first place.

James looked at Lily awaiting her decision. He believed he was pushing his luck. She had already taken the detour outside into the rain, something which he had been sure she wouldn't have wanted to do. He knew she would now want to get the book from the library with the recipe for the Felix Felicis potion in it. He didn't mind skipping the food at this point. Wanting to find the recipe for a school project was just something Lily would do. She loved school, he knew, and he wouldn't want to see her deter from what she would usually do because that was a reason why he had begun to like her in the first place. Everyone had believed he first became interested in Lily because she was the only girl in the school who wouldn't go out with him, but in truth, he found her different. And he liked that she hadn't conformed to how every other girl in the school was. She was the only girl he had ever asked out or taken an interest in. He wouldn't want her to change.

'Maybe we should just go and get that book.' James said looking at Lily who was about to say the same thing, 'It's what you want to do isn't it?' He looked straight at her and could see her answer written all over her face.

'Ok.' Lily said smiling at him, 'How'd you know I wanted to go get the book then?' Lily said as they started to walk.

'Because I know you. And you believe in school and trying your hardest.' James said with a smile.

Severus sneered from the shadows where he was still hidden. He wasn't sure what inspired him to follow them further through the school, but he did set off after them. After all, he still had no inclination of whether Lily had expressed her feelings yet.

'That theory is totally lost on me, I should tell you.' James laughed, 'I don't see the point in school a lot of the time. Most of the time they only teach you what you need to know to pass your exams and half the stuff we learn we'll probably never use in everyday life. But,' James sighed as they began to climb some steps, 'for you, on this project, I shall put some effort in.'

'Thank you for making that sacrifice.' Lily said sarcastically whilst James chuckled warmly.

Severus stopped listening to their conversation as he concentrated on not being seen. It became harder as they were going up the staircase as it was relatively well lit. There were no shadows to hide in and Severus' disillusionment charm left a lot to be desired. He decided it was his only option however. So he pulled out his wand and tapped his wand to his head, feeling the familiar sensation dawn his body which wasn't unlike an egg being smashed on his head and it dripping down slowly. Finally, the disillusionment charm was complete. He looked at his body. It hadn't worked properly. It never did. Instead of his body blending completely into his surroundings, as if he was invisible, he had become almost see through. Like a ghosts complexion. If only there was a potion which could do the same job, he would have no trouble and no one would be able to see the faintest trace of him right now.

He followed them up the stairs, ensuring that he was always five steps behind them. He crept silently, and once he had gotten his silent walk to a fine art, he began to listen out for their conversation, hoping for some nugget of information which would tell him if his world as about to suddenly collapse.

'So are you enjoying your return to school?' Lily asked James as they neared the library.

'Please tell me you're joking.' James said looking at her with one raised eyebrow. He ran is hand through his hair as they neared the library.

'I need to tell you something James.' Lily said suddenly, gathering up her courage turning to face James who had to backtrack a bit to stand opposite her.

Severus took a deep breath. This was it, he was sure. She was about to bring his world to a screeching halt with every word she was about to say. He didn't want it to happen. He had to stop it. Had to. But how?

'Have you forgotten which book we have to get?' James said, nodding his head sarcastically.

Lily was quickly distracted. 'Of course not. I wrote it down.' She patted her bag where a slip of yellow parchment was sticking out, almost falling out.

Severus then did something which he hadn't really thought through. Nevertheless, it did work. He whipped out his wand again, muttered, _Accio, _and summoned the piece of parchment towards him. He reached out and caught it, giving himself a paper cut in the process.

He wasn't great at catching, throwing. Any physical activity really. That's why, when he had tried out for Slytherin's Quidditch team in his second year, he was laughed off the pitch. It didn't help that the marauders had come to spy on the try-out, humiliating him even more. They didn't let his useless sporting skills drop for a year and tortured him with impressions of his failed attempts wherever he went. This was another reason why he hated them. Also, everyone believed that he was jealous of James Potter's awesome Quidditch skills, and as much as he tried to deny it, it was kind of true.

Severus snapped out of his self-pitying frame of mind and looked back to Lily. She was rummaging through her bag. He knew she was frustrated just by looking at her face as he could see the tiny little crease between her eyebrows whenever she did. He stared wistfully at her for a few minutes before his gazing was interrupted by a deep chuckle. He looked over to where he heard the chuckle from and saw James leant against the wall, arms folded, legs crossed and staring at Lily in her search for the piece of paper Severus had just stolen.

'You can't find it, can you?' James asked Lily with a laugh.

'Yes I can!' Lily snapped at James, becoming more and more agitated at the fact that she couldn't find the piece of parchment that she had written the book down on. She had checked through her bag once and was going over it again just to make sure she hadn't missed it in her panic. She hated losing things.

'You can't find it! You can't find it!' James chanted childishly, annoying Lily to the extreme. Her fiery temper suddenly flared up and what she had been in the process of telling him, about her feelings for him, just popped straight out of her head.

'You are such a child!' Lily yelled at him before turning around and starting to stride away.

James suddenly realised what he had done. His fifth year self had just suddenly burst out of the cage he had been tied up in, the cage which had been allowing him to talk and be friends with Lily, and had destroyed the progress made in seconds.

'Lily wait!' James said starting after her.

She turned around to look at him, hands on hips and her face had an expression which said don't push me.

At this point, Severus took his leave. He had found what he was looking for; Lily hadn't told the boy he despised the feelings she had for him. By the look on her face, she wasn't going to tell him today anyway. That was all Severus needed to know for now. He turned around and walked away, dropping the piece of parchment he had stolen from Lily's bag on the floor in the process. As he left, he heard James Potter attempting to apologise to Lily for being a child.

'I'm sorry.' James said, 'It's just sometimes… I dunno, I can't control my inner child.'

'That's because you _are_ a child.' Lily snapped.

James chuckled, 'That's probably true.'

'Probably?' Lily laughed sarcastically shaking her head.

'Alright.' James said, levelling with Lily, 'I am a child. But I have tried to grow up because _you_ told me too, and, _I_ think I've done a good job. But, I can't completely mature overnight… or over the summer. I'm not gonna change the whole of my personality. I wouldn't be me if I did and if you don't like me for who I am then that's your problem. So… you're probably never going to go out with me, but I had hoped that we were true friends. And if we are true friends I just have to tell you, that you can't change who I am. Work with me yes, but change me…' he shook his head.

Lily stood there stunned. He was right. They were just friends. She had to accept him for who he was. Completely with no changes. And she had to deal with that.

'Alright.' she said with a sad smile, 'True friends and I won't try to change you.' There was an awkward pause. 'Let's go and find that piece of parchment.'

'All right.' James said as the both began to walk back the way they came. He began to regret the speech he had just given to Lily. He wondered if it would put her off the friendship.

There was now a horrible silence which hovered in the air. Neither one of them dared to speak and break the quiet. They kept walking until James spotted the piece of parchment which, unbeknownst to him, Severus had dropped. He pointed to it and, silently, Lily went forward to get it and returned to James' side. She looked at it, studied it, but said nothing.

James, unable to take the silence, said, 'What book do we need.'

'Book ex of Interesting Potions.' she replied in a mono-tone. She was now wishing she hadn't gotten cross at James just for being himself, because, in truth, his childish nature was something she liked about him. The way he could switch from serious to silly in an instant. It was fascinating. But now she had, once again, stopped herself from telling him how she felt. It was getting ridiculous, not to mention monotonous. The sheer repetition of similar situations was annoying. She made a resolve then that she would only try one more time. She now just needed to find the right time.

Whilst Lily was in her own world, thinking things which, if James knew, he would jump for joy, James was looking over her shoulder and peering at the piece of parchment she had just picked up.

'That's actually book ten of Interesting Potions.' he said thoughtfully, nodding his head slowly.

'What?' Lily said, snapping back into reality and squinting at the piece of parchment in her hands.

'That's ten. Not an ex.' James repeated.

Lily looked at the parchment again, long and hard, but only came to the same conclusion. 'No that's an ex. The letter X.'

'Noooo-'

'Yeees!'

'No it's not because it's a Roman.' James said with a shrug.

'Yes because it's wearing a toga.' Lily said sarcastically.

'What's a toga?' James asked, confused.

'Never mind.' Lily replied.

James shrugged again, 'Well, it's still ten.'

'Look.' Lily said, shoving the parchment right in James' face. 'That is the letter X. What else do you know that looks like that? That has that same exact shape?'

James paused before saying, 'The Roman numeral X. Ten.'

Realisation hit Lily's face. She had known that. She _had _known that. Why then, did she not think of it? All she could think of was that she was distracted by her thoughts. And now she had made a fool of herself in front of the boy she liked.

* * *

Later that evening, Lily was sat alone in her room. She had just finished writing a letter to her parents. She hadn't actually written to them since she'd come back from the Christmas holidays. They had no idea what had happened in Hogsmeade and that she had been injured and Lily wasn't going to tell them. Her theory was that it was in the past now, she was better and there was nothing they could do.

She was sealing the letter, in which she'd just written about how school was going and how she missed them, when Hestia came into the room. Now, earlier that day, Lily had told Hestia that she was going to talk to James. Hestia being who she was, was convinced that by the end of the day, James and Lily would be together. She believed it so whole heartedly that Lily almost didn't want to tell her she'd not told him, _again, _because she didn't want to disappoint her.

'LILY!' Hestia squealed when she saw Lily in the dormitory. She ran over to her and pulled her onto her bed to sit and have one of Hestia's special 'girl talks'. 'So?' she asked, hitting Lily's knee continuously and talking very fast, 'Did you tell him? What did he say? Are you together? Did you kiss? Are you going together to your birthday party?'

'Birthday party?' Lily asked, knowing that her party was meant to be a surprise and she wasn't meant to know.

'Forget I said that!' She said, still talking fast, 'What did he say?'

'Well…I…' Lily said looking at her hands and pausing.

Hestia slouched visibly with a sigh. 'You didn't tell him did you?'

'Well, I wouldn't say that-'

'Lily!' Hestia said, 'You told me you were going to tell him! He's not going to wait forever! Actually, this is James Potter and he's been after you since we first came to this school he probably would.'

'Do you really think so?' Lily asked, a shy smile spreading over her face.

'Definitely. You just need to let him know how you feel. After that, he'll be yours forever!' Hestia said decisively.

'All right.' Lily nodded, 'I'll stop putting it off and creating excuses. I'll tell him. But if you're wrong and I'm left feeling stupid…'

'You won't be!' Hestia said reassuringly.

'I just need to find the right time to tell him.' Lily said almost to herself.

'Ohh!' Hestia said putting her hand in the air as if she was answering a question in a lesson, 'I know, I know!'

'Yes Hestia?' Lily asked.

Hestia put her hand down as she answered Lily, 'At your Birthday party!'

Lily smiled a little and waited for Hestia to realise. It took a few seconds as she was so proud of the idea she had come up with.

'The birthday party which I'm not throwing you and…which isn't a surprise anymore.'

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**Thanks for reading**

**Reviews are not necessary but always welcome**

**Galindaba**


	20. Chapter 19

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader! **

**Here's chapter Nineteen! **

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Nineteen**

Defence Against the Dark Arts wasn't Remus' favourite subject although he was excellent at it. He didn't mind performing the spells and duelling with his friends; triumphing over Peter continuously, having a sixty forty chance at winning against Sirius, (they were almost evenly matched, Remus just a little better), but never winning against James. Then again, James never won against Remus. Neither of them did. It was always a draw, no matter what.

However much Remus loved these parts of the lessons however, he could never enjoy the subject as he was always worried that somehow, someway, people would figure out his secret. What made it worse was the way that werewolves were demonised in all the Defence Against the Dark Arts text books. He tried to be detached but it actually hurt Remus to hear about the way werewolves were illustrated to the general public and the fact that everyone believed the stereotype, all the rumours that were always circulating, hurt him even more. This week though, it was particularly hard to be detached. The full moon was coming around and his anger was starting to flare. Plus, on the day which they were meant to be studying werewolves, Wednesday, he would be recovering from the last day of the full moon. Paranoia would consume him on that day that people would figure him out and start to treat him differently.

Thankfully, the full moon started tomorrow, on Monday night meaning that he would be able to leave the hospital wing Thursday evening and go to dinner. This meant that he would be able to go to the surprise party Hestia Jones had insisted on throwing for Lily Evans. He wouldn't have usually gone because of the full moons proximity to the day of the party, (Today, Sunday), but James wanted to go and so did Sirius but not for the same reason. James wanted to go for the reason the party was being thrown in the first place; Lily. Sirius wanted to go for the girls who would be there to wish Lily a happy birthday. Another reason which Remus agreed to go was because the party was to take place in the Gryffindor common room and he wouldn't be able to sleep or even study with the noise which was bound to boom out.

Another good thing about the fall of the full moon this month was that he wouldn't miss the second apparation lesson which was set to take place on the Sunday week after next, and because the full moon would be over two weeks before, he would be fully recovered for the lesson.

But that was all in the near future and because he had been thinking of that and not what he was meant to be doing, Peter had managed to disarm him.

'Moony mate! What are you doing?' Sirius laughed as he and James sat in the corner of the room with their socks on their hands, playing sock puppets.

As quickly as he was snapped out of his thoughts, Remus' anger struck like a match, 'Don't call me by that name in this room!' he hissed at them.

James and Sirius looked at each other and then back at Remus warily. They put down their sock puppets.

'Sorry mate.' James said.

'Yeah.' Sirius said, 'I didn't think-'

'You never think!' Remus snapped.

The pair stared at each other for a few minutes. Sirius with a reproachful puppy-dog face and Remus with a dark foreboding look. Eventually, Remus' face did soften as he had realised that he had just become aggressive towards one of his best friends over a nickname which he had approved over a year ago. He had become aggressive to two of the few people who knew of his infliction, his lycanthropy and accepted him for it. Not only did they accept him for it by they didn't pretend it wasn't there. They wanted to help him, put up with his mood swings and even became Animagi just to keep him company during those lonely nights when he transformed. They were the best friends he could have hoped for. And he just snapped at them.

'Sorry guys.' he said with an almighty sigh and he bent down to pick us his wand which was rolling near his feet.

'It's all right.' Sirius said waving his sock puppet at Remus.

'Yeah.' James said, agreeing with Sirius, 'We know you can't control your furry little problem.' he whispered.

Remus laughed. James always called his lycanthropy that. He had started when James, Sirius and Peter had initially found out about Remus' condition. They had been trying to make friends with him ever since they found out he was their roommate. Usually that would have happened straight away, the night of the welcome feast in first year. But Remus was very illusive and wasn't seen in the dormitory for two weeks. He was the first one up in the morning and was gone before the other three got up. He was the last one to bed and the other three were always asleep when he crept into the dormitory.

In the end, they managed to catch a glimpse of Remus two weeks after they had started Hogwarts. He had been counting his calendar and didn't notice James, Sirius and Peter enter the room…

'_I'm telling you,' Sirius was saying to James as they climbed up the __boys' staircase to their dormitory, 'The other dude in our room is a ghost. What other explanation is there for never seeing him.'_

'_Hey dimwit, we can actually see ghosts.' James said as they neared their dormitory door._

'_Oh yeah…' Sirius said, 'Oh man! I'd been working on that theory all week and with one sentence - _one sentence! - _you ruin all my hard work and you just-'_

'_Shhhh!' James said as he peered around the dormitory door. Sirius also put his head around the door and then Peter followed suit because he didn't at to be left out._

_The three stared at Remus who was sat on his bed hunched over a calendar. He was flipping through it, counting on his fingers and occasionally putting a cross in the odd square._

_James smirked to himself and ran a hand through his hair. He had also been working on a theory about their curious roommate, and this just gave him further evidence. Without conferring with Sirius or Peter, James strolled into the room and began to talk to Sirius, motioning him to follow and play along._

'_So I was thinking that we should pull a prank in two weeks.' he said as he strode arrogantly into the room._

'_Sure.' Sirius said playing along with James as he too strode arrogantly into the room, 'What did you have in mind?'_

'_I dunno.' James said, turning to Peter, 'What do you think Pete?'_

_Peter stared at James in awe and shock. He couldn't believe that James was talking to him, so much so, all he could say was, 'Ulmnhabaa…'_

'_Exactly what I thought!' James said, cutting Peter off halfway through his mumblings, 'We shall draw a moustache on the Fat Lady!'_

_There was a scoff from Remus. He thought it was stupid, childish and impossible. The Fat Lady would never allow it._

'_You think you've got something better?' James said raising his eyebrows._

'_I said nothing.' Remus said going back to his calendar._

_James silently cursed to himself. He was sure that would get Remus involved. He just had to think bigger. Entice him a bit more. Since the welcome feast, James was sure that Remus had a mischievous glint in his eyes, a prankster gene. Something along those lines. And James was determined to get it to show. He knew though, he had known for a week that there would be something holding Remus back from even becoming their friend. He just had to get him talking and then to admit it._

'_How about drawing moustaches on all the suits of armour in the school?' Sirius said, contributing to James' plan of which he was not fully aware off. He didn't really care. He just wanted to pull a prank._

'_Good. We're thinking bigger.' James said before glimpsing at Remus, who was rolling his eyes, and then to Peter, 'Do you have a permanent quill-marker Pete?'_

'_Geez!__'__ Remus said exasperatedly._

'_Yes?' James asked, pushing Remus to cracking point._

'_Are you seriously asking for a permanent quill-marker?' Remus said, pulling his focus away from his calendar, 'Firstly, a permanent quill-marker is just a rip off of a muggle invention; the permanent marker. Secondly…no. It doesn't matter.'_

'_Come on!' James said, excited that he had just gotten Remus talking and that he was going to put some input into a prank idea. James was sure that was the secondly._

'_No.' Remus said, folding his calendar up and putting it in the draw next to his bed._

'_Dude...' Sirius said holding his hand out ready to talk with huge dramatic gestures, '…I've lost my train of thought.' he finished eventually after pausing for a few seconds and waving his hand non-committedly._

'_What he is trying to say is you can't leave us hanging.' James said for Sirius, whilst he pointed his finger at James enthusiastically and nodded his head, saying 'yes' loudly in agreement._

_Remus looked at the two boys in front of him with their pleading but serious faces. He weighed all the pros and cons out in his head. Just giving them an idea for a prank wouldn't necessarily mean that they would figure out his secret. He gave in eventually, telling them, 'You are wizards. And although we've only been at school for just over a week and a half doesn't mean we haven't learnt something that could help make your prank better and larger in scale.'_

'_What were you thinking?' James asked mischievously._

_Remus sighed and shook his head, reluctant to answer at first but eventually succumbing to the voice in his mind which wanted him to help make mischief. 'Slughorn's first potion lesson. He told us of all the books we could find on potions in the Library, including one called '_Useful but Annoying Potions'.'

'_What's your point?' Sirius asked, intrigued but thinking that James might have been wrong about Remus at the same time. He had told Sirius that he was certain Remus had potential to be a troublemak__er too, but all Sirius saw when he looked at Remus was a nerdy swot who loved school._

'_My point is,' Remus began, 'I went to have a look in that particular book and found a section on disguises.' _

_He was still not getting the response he had hoped. These were smart boys, he knew that from watching them in the first Transfiguration lesson. James had changed his match into a needle within ten minutes and Sirius had taken only double the amount of time it took James. Only Peter didn't succeed in changing his match; he wasn't as smart as the other two and Remus wondered why they had made friends with him in the first place. The only others in the class to successfully change their matches were Remus and a red headed girl. They had both completed the task only a few seconds before Sirius._

_Remus looked back to the boys in front of him, snapping out of his memory and realising they were actually waiting for him to continue. 'There is a potion for facial hair. If you find the kitchens-'_

'_Found them after the welcome feast' Sirius said matter of factly._

_Remus looked at him in admiration, but with a clear questioning look too._

'_Sirius gets really hungry.' James said with a nod of his head_

'_Yeah.' Peter said, feeling left out._

_Remus nodded, understanding, and continued once more, 'If you find the kitchens and distract the house elves by pretending you've hurt yourself or something similar, they'll all rush to your aid because nothing is more important to a house elf than a masters health and wellbeing. When they are distracted, one of you slips the potion into the food and when it is consumed, the person eating it will grow facial hair.'_

'_That's excellent!' James said enthusiastically, clapping Remus on the back._

'_Yeah it is.' Sirius said, shocked that smartness could help create mischief. That was something he hadn't counted on._

'_Mmm' Peter murmured._

'_You gonna help us with it then?' James asked, hoping to entice Remus so as to uncover the information he desired and to prove his theory right._

_Remus hesitated. He really did want to join in with this prank. For one thing, it would put all he'd learnt into practice. He wouldn't be just another nerd who cared about school and nothing else. A boy who had no friends and no life. Also, he was lonely. He knew that he couldn't tell anyone about his condition because of all the pre-conceptions and stereotypical nonsense that was attached to the word werewolf. No-one would want to get to know _him_. They would all just assume he was a vicious beast and never talk to him again. It was a cruel reality, but it was just the way things were._

_He sighed a deep sigh. Then going against what his mind told him, against what he would call his better judgement, he agreed to help them orchestrate their prank._

_The four boys sat down and mapped out their plan. It was soon decided that Sirius, being the most dramatic, would cause the distraction. James would call the attention of the house elves and then give Remus the signal to start putting the potion into the food on the Slytherin's table. When James thought the house elves were sufficiently distracted, he would help Remus finish dosing the food. Peter would keep watch outside the entrance. It was all finished and planned. All they needed to do now was make the potion. But before they got started on the practical element of their plan, Remus had one question._

'_When are we gonna pull this prank then?' he asked, nervously awaiting the atmosphere._

_James smiled a crooked, all knowing smile before saying, 'In a week and a half's time. On the 29__th__ of this month.' he then waited to see if Remus would react the way he expected him too. If he did, his theory would be correct and he would push him until he confessed. If not, he needed to start working on a new theory._

'_Oh…' Remus paused, a little unsure of how to proceed. The 29__th__ would be the full moon. The last day of the full moon. He wouldn't be able to do it._

_James raised his eyebrows at Remus who suddenly realised that he hadn't spoken in two minutes and they were waiting for him to explain his 'Oh…'_

_Remus thought quickly. 'I can't do that day. My Aunt is in St Mungo's and she's coming out on the 27__th__ so I'm going to go visit her for a few days.' he nodded in defiance before he strode out of the room, confident he had fooled them._

_He thought this for the rest of the month. His view was quickly altered however when, on the 30__th__ of September, the day after the full moon and the night after their planned prank, he exited the hospital wing to find James leaning against the wall with his legs crossed and his arms folded. Sirius was next to him, (eating a cupcake), and Peter was on his other side, attempting to copy James' stance._

_Remus stopped suddenly at the sight of them. 'What are you guy's doing here?' he asked, trying to sound casual._

_James pushed himself off of the wall with his shoulders and ran a hand through his tousled hair. 'Well, we need you to help us with our prank.' he smiled a cheeky grin._

'_I thought that was yesterday.' Remus said._

'_It was going to be but…' James sighed dramatically, 'We wouldn't do it without you.'_

'_You should have just gone ahead with it.' Remus said sadly before regaining composure and beginning, 'I mean… I was visiting my Aunt and it looks as if I'm going to be doing so for a while and-'_

'_Oh give it a rest!' James said exasperatedly._

'_Excuse me?' Remus said, a little shocked at James' turn in mood._

'_Look mate, we know' James said._

'_And we even brought you a cupcake to let you know were fine with it!' Sirius said happily before looking down at the empty cake case in his hand and allowing his face to drop, 'I think I ate it though…'_

_James shook his head._

'_What exactly do you think you know?' Remus said nervously hoping that they had gotten the wrong end of the stick but secretly wishing they hadn't._

'_You know…' Sirius said, screwing up the cake case and putting it into Peters hand to hold. He couldn't finish his sentence so James did it for him._

'…_about your furry little problem.'__ James said with a smirk at what he obviously viewed as a brilliant way of describing Remus' lycanthropy._

_Sirius, who had been nodding supportably when James had started to talk__,__ suddenly looked at him like he was mental. __'What?' he said with a shocked laugh, 'That makes it sou__nd as if he's got some sort of deranged rabbit or something!'_

'_Is that not what he has?' Peter said stupidly._

'_No you idiot!' Sirius snapped._

'_Excuse me but…what is it you think you know?' Remus asked, becoming impatient with the delayed response._

'_You're a werewolf.' James said, a little bluntly in Remus' opinion._

_Remus' eyes widened and he took a step towards them to make sure only they could hear him. 'How do you know?'_

'_Worked it out.' James said arrogantly, demonstrating his intelligence. 'First of all, the night of the welcome feast was the start of the full moon and you were AWOL for three days. You had a temper in the days leading up to this month's full moon as Peter here found out when he accidentally spilt ink over your charms essay a few days ago. You were all up for the prank until you found out what day it was on and made up some lame excuse to get out of it. But, the big giveaway was you marking X's on the days of the full moon.'_

_Remus looked down with a sigh. 'I didn't know if I was being too obvious or not. Don't worry though. I'll move out of the room tonight. Find somewhere else to sleep.'_

'_Why?' Sirius asked._

'_Well,' Remus continued, 'you're not going to want a werewolf in your room are you.'_

'_Course we do!' James said, clapping him on the back, 'We're all mates. Even though you have tried desperately hard not to be. But when I see someone who I want to be friends with, they always become my friend. And you are my friend. Who cares if you're a werewolf! I certainly don't! Sirius doesn't! Peter might be a bit scared of you at first but I wouldn't worry about that. He's scared of his pillow. What a wimp, hey?'_

_Remus and Sirius chuckled whilst Peter protested with little shouts of 'Hey!'_

'_Anyway. We're not going to tell anyone if you don't want us to and we'll be there to help you through and whatever. We don't mind getting shouted at sometimes if you get angry. All you have to do is let us help__…and pull the occasional prank.'_

'_Speaking of pranks!' Sirius began, 'We made the potion and tried it out on Peter.'_

'_We needed a dummy.' James said with an arrogant smirk before continuing, 'We tried to find Snivellus to try it out on him. Got as far as knocking the poor git out before that annoying red head rounded on us.'_

'_She scares the pants off Pete here!' Sirius laughed, pushing Peter roughly to the side as he made fun of him._

'_Anyway,' James went on, 'we couldn't test it out on the slime ball when she arrived so we decided to go for the second biggest dummy in this place.'_

'_Not to mention the second biggest wimp.' Sirius continued. Neither he nor James seemed to care that they were making fun of one of their friends, never mind the fact that he was in front of him whilst they were doing it. 'It works.' Sirius carried on, 'All we've got to do is put it in the food!'_

'_Well what are we waiting for?__' __Remus said to his new friends as they went through a secret passage way down to the kitchens. From then on they were all friends._

Remus was brutally snapped out of his daydream of the past. Their Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher was looming over him, an irritated expression on his face.

'Mr Lupin. For the past ten minutes you have been as lifeless as a flobberworm. Do not feel the need to pay attention in my class? Are you so smart that you don't need to learn anything and feel comfortable to just daydream my class away?' the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher asked rhetorically.

'Well actually Professor-' Remus began before being cut off rudely by the professor.

'Do not talk back to me Mr Lupin.' the professor snapped. 'Detention. Class dismissed.'

Remus stood up and went to receive the details for his detention whilst James, Sirius and Peter waited for him in the corner of the room. James and Sirius had taken it upon themselves to amuse each other. James began by transfiguring Peter's bag into a chicken which started clucking loudly and nipping at Peter's hand. Sirius then decided that one of the text books he was holding would make a nice hat for the chicken James had created and went ahead in transfiguring it. It didn't work completely as the words Defence Against the Dark Arts around the rim. James quickly fixed it and then he and Sirius began to attempt in putting the hat on the chicken.

'Mr Potter. Mr Black.' The Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher sighed as they started to run amuck in his room, 'You will join Mr Lupin in detention. He will give you the details. Now will you kindly leave my classroom and take your chicken with you.'

The four boys exited the classroom, laughing wholeheartedly and warmly as they went. (Peter was carrying the chicken.)

'What do we have next then?' Remus asked, going down the stairs to the third floor.

Sirius stopped halfway down the staircase, staring at Remus, aghast at what he had just said. 'How can you not know?' he began dramatically, 'What's next is our greatest lesson of the day-'

'Lunch isn't a lesson.' James said, cutting across Sirius who had now begun to ramble on about lunch.

'It's the only skill we need in life; to eat. I mean, imagine a life without food? Where would we be? Not here, that's for sure.'

'You're right.' James said, 'We wouldn't be here listening to a lecture on food because it wouldn't exist.'

'You do realise this conversation can't be won, don't you?' Remus asked as they turned into the great hall which was teeming with students.

From the Gryffindor table, Lily saw James and his friends walk in. Her stomach filled with butterflies. It was her birthday today and her party tonight. The party which she wasn't supposed to know about for a start, and the party where Hestia had convinced Lily to express her feelings to James. The party which Lily was now dreading. She wondered how she could be a true Gryffindor when she couldn't tell someone who she used to hate that she was wrong and now wanted to be more than friends.

Hestia saw Lily staring at the doorway and soon realised that James was heading towards the table. She had been coping with a nervous Lily all day. She could always tell when Lily was nervous. She became a bit of a hazard to herself and others, becoming clumsy.

Lily reached for her drink so she could calm herself down. She wasn't however looking at what she was doing and ended up spilling her pumpkin juice all over the table.

Quickly, to save Lily from embarrassment, Hestia whipped out her wand and dried the liquid up in an instant.

Lily turned to Hestia, a panicked look on her face. 'I can't do this Hestia. I can't tell him. What if he doesn't feel the same? Maybe if I leave it my feelings will fade away. I just can't tell him at my party.' Lily rambled quickly.

'You'll be fine.' Hestia said reassuringly, 'Everyone'll be distracted by the music, food, drink etcetera and you will be free to talk to him on your own. Plus, it's your birthday so he can't turn you down!'

Lily smiled disbelievingly, 'You sure about that?'

'Positive.' Hestia grinned, 'Food will distract the marauders. Without a doubt.'

Lily nodded her head and sighed. 'Yeah. I can't tell him at the party.'

'Then tell him now.' Hestia said quickly, 'Hey guys.'

The marauders had made it to the table. Lily's eyes went wide. She hadn't turned to face them yet and she couldn't bring herself to do it.

'Hey Jones. Hey Evans. Happy birthday by the way.' James said as he sat in the empty seat next to Lily.

Hestia smiled at James but Lily didn't turn to face him. She just sat facing Hestia mouthing again and again that Hestia was dead meat, that she couldn't tell James how she felt and could Hestia tell him for her.

Hestia just shook her head and mouthed back to Lily to just get it over with.

Lily shook her head in return causing Hestia to sigh, turn to James and give Lily an opening to talk to him.

'Lily has something to tell you.' she said quickly before turning back to her food and beginning to eat.

'Ok' James said, turning to Lily, 'What's up?'

'Err…' Lily started, completely stuck on what to say. She looked into his hazel eyes and saw gentle, kind curiosity. It struck her still. She didn't want to tell him again. It was becoming ridiculous in her own mind, let alone in Hestia's and what she must think of her. But she couldn't bear having those eyes turn from warm kindness to cold rejection. It would be brutal for her to see and too much for her to handle. 'I was wondering how collecting the potion ingredients was going?' she asked, hearing Hestia sighing behind her.

'Yeah it's good.' James said nodding, 'Just gotta go and get a couple of things from Herbology and we should be ready to start soon.'

'Great.' Lily said with a smile to James. When he turned away she turned to Hestia with a sad shrug of her shoulders.

Hestia shook her head a motion which gave Lily another push to attempt to talk to James. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes tight before blurting out, 'That's not what I wanted to say James.'

James turned back to look at her, raising his eyebrows and running a hand through his hair. 'Ok.' he said, 'What _did _you want to say?'

'I wanted to say,' she took another deep breath, steeling her confidence, 'that I li-'

'Prongs.' Sirius cut across Lily dramatically, 'We have an emergency.' he was looking around the table anxiously.

Lily rolled her eyes and turned to Hestia with a look of 'what should I do now' on her face.

Hestia just made a motion for her to continue.

Lily sighed and once more turned back to James only to find that he had stood up. 'Where are you going?' Lily asked realising at once that she sounded a little needy to a guy who she wasn't actually going out with.

'The kitchens.' James said, not noticing the tone in Lily's voice, 'We have an emergency.'

'Well, wh-what is it?' Lily asked trying to sound nonchalant.

'There's no jelly.' James said seriously whilst Sirius nodded his head gravely.

'What?' Lily asked, not believing what she had just heard.

'There's no jelly.' James repeated.

Lily just stared at James. This was their big emergency? There was no jelly?

'And what are you gonna do about it.' Lily asked, realising that she was keeping James back from his friends who had already wondered off god-knows where. Part of her liked the fact that he had stayed back to talk to her. It almost convinced her that he liked her back. There was however, as always, that small seed of doubt in the back of her mind saying that he was only still stood there talking to her because he didn't want to be rude and just leave.

'Were going to go get some.' he said as if it were obvious.

'Where from?' Lily asked curiously.

'The kitchens.' James replied, 'Do you wanna come too?'

Lily's heart leapt. He was inviting her to come with him to the kitchens. A marauders hang out. He wouldn't invite just anyone. Would he? She couldn't be sure. 'Ok. Can Hestia come too?' Lily said suddenly, shocking Hestia so much that she dropped her spoon.

'Sure.' James said, 'Come on then.' And with that he turned and began to walk out of the great hall.

When he was out of earshot Hestia hit Lily on the arm. 'What'd you invite me for you idiot?' she said, 'You have some time to get him alone and tell him you like him. Why'd you want me tagging along with you?'

'I just panicked. I need you with me to…I dunno…give me a sign to say he's gonna be…receptive to what I have to say. You've known him longer than I have.' she said, a quiver of anxiety in her voice.

'We've known him the same amount of time.' Hestia said, knowing that her best friend was now just coming up with reasons to avoid telling James her feelings.

'Well you know him better because you both play Quidditch.' Lily said.

'He likes Quidditch a lot.' Hestia said in a monotone, 'There, now you know as much about him as I do. Now go and tell him you like him, you wuss.'

'But…I need you with me!' Lily whined, 'You know how I got just when he walked into the hall. I spilt my drink. I don't want to look like a complete idiot and start…walking into walls do I?'

Hestia sighed. She was right. One look from James whilst she was bearing her feelings and Lily was going to get distracted and most likely fall down a hole or something ridiculous like that. She shook her head. 'Fine. I'll come with you. But only to stop you falling over.' she said standing up and beginning to walk out of the hall with Lily.

'Thank you, thank you, and thank you!' Lily said quickly, 'I owe you one!'

'Too right you do.' Hestia mumbled under her breath.

'Look he waited for us.' Lily said her heart racing at the prospect of what she was about to do.

'You mean he waited for you.' Hestia said, nervous for Lily. If by any small minute chance James _had _moved on, (and that was unlikely as he had been obsessed with Lily for nearly five or six years), it would make it slightly awkward or her to be on the Quidditch team with James.

'You think so?' Lily asked in a whisper as they approached James.

'Well let's find out.' Hestia whispered back before speaking at a normal volume to James. 'You waited for Lily.' she said as a statement.

'Yeah.' James said smiling at Lily who was attempting not to blush. Realising what Hestia had said however, he hastily added, 'And you, of course.'

Hestia nodded knowingly, 'Of course.' she replied with a wink at James who just looked at her confused as he had not been clued in on Hestia and Lily's previous conversation.

'And why did you wait for Lily?' Hestia continued, purposely stopping before obviously adding, 'I mean us.'

'Because you don't know where the kitchens are.' James said plainly, running a hand through his hair.

Hestia's face dropped, as did Lily's. James however didn't notice as he was trying to look away from this awkward conversation.

'Oh.' 'Hestia said trying to regain composure as she and Lily began to follow James on the path to the kitchens.

Behind James, Hestia and Lily had a silent debate about who would tell James how Lily felt. Hestia believed that, as they were her feelings, Lily should talk to James. Lily however, thought it would be best for Hestia to talk to James so that, if James didn't feel the same way, she could save face and they could still be friends. Lily eventually won but only on the condition that if things didn't go to plan now, Lily would tell James at her surprise birthday party as originally agreed.

'So,' Hestia began, trying to be smooth and cool, 'You and Lily.'

'Well done. I'm James, this is Lily,' he began indicating to himself and Lily, who was walking next to him, 'and your name is Hestia. Say it with me. Hes-ti-a.'

'All right smart arse!' Hestia said shoving James to the side and allowing Lily to curb her giggles, 'Anyway,' she continued, 'What are you two going to do?'

James looked at her confused as he led the girls through a portrait and down a narrow flight of spiral stairs. 'About what?' he said eventually after the portrait door had closed and he had lit his wand to illuminate the darkness.

'You know.' Hestia said, 'The tension-'

'Of making our potion.' Lily butted in quickly.

Hestia paused. She saw the look on Lily's face. She saw that she had changed her mind and either, didn't want Hestia to continue talking to James about this delicate subject, or just didn't want to be present when she did. She saw this but, Hestia being Hestia, ignored it and decided to try this topic again.

'So what _are _you going to do about the tension,' Hestia said, pausing obviously before adding, 'of making your potion.'

'I don't get what you mean.' James said as they reached the bottom of the spiral staircase and he led them into a well-lit corridor.

'I thought you were meant to be smart?' Hestia said with a raised eyebrow.

'That's just a vicious rumour.' James replied with a cheeky grin and a wink at Lily who smiled shyly back.

'Alright, scrap that question. What will you and Lily be doing during your project sessions?' Hestia asked.

'Hopefully brewing a potion.' James said as the approached a painting of a fruit bowl.

'Again. Being a smart arse.' Hestia said as James reached out and tickled the pear on the painting.

'What are you doing?' Lily asked James as the pear giggled.

'Opening the kitchens.' James said flashing her a crooked smile which made her heart speed up.

The portrait of the fruit bowl opened and the kitchens were revealed to Lily and Hestia for the first time. They were greeted by a storm of house elves offering them an assortment of food.

'Jelly Master James.' one of the house elves said as they planted a great big bowl of jelly into James arms.

'Thanks Jinxy.' James said as he grabbed a spoon from the table.

'They know you by name?' Lily asked with a disbelieving laugh, 'You come down here that often?'

'They know everyone by name.' James said, 'But yeah. Were down here as often as possible. It's awesome.' and with that he walked over to where Sirius, Remus and Peter were each devouring their very own giant bowls of jelly.

Lily smiled as she watched James walk away. She carried on smiling until she turned to see Hestia looking at her with a mixed expression which said, I'm sorry I was unsuccessful and I told you so all at the same time.

'You know what this means don't you.' Hestia said.

'Do I have to?' Lily replied.

'Yes. It'll be fine though.' Hestia said giving her a one armed hug, 'Do it quick. Like ripping off one of those plisse-'

'Plaster.'

'-thingy's that muggles wear when you cut your finger.' Hestia finished.

'You're right.' Lily sighed. 'I'll tell him tonight. At my _surprise _party.'

* * *

**Thanks for reading**

**Reviews are always welcome but never necessary**

**Galindaba**


	21. Chapter 20

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader! Sorry about the long gap between updates but it was Christmas! :) Thank you for your patience!**

**Here's chapter Twenty! **

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty**

'Are you ready?'

'No.'

'Yes you are Lily. You look beautiful!' Hestia said with a smile.

'No, I'm ready for the party.' Lily said with a sigh, 'It's seeing James I'm not ready for. I don't want to tell him that I like him but I do want too and you must just be so bored with me swapping and changing my mind about this. Especially as I keep going on about it.'

'You worry way too much.' Hestia laughed putting a comforting arm around her best friend, 'I don't mind you swapping and changing your mind. I've always said you and Potter were perfect for each other. I'm just glad you finally realise it. And that you, you know…won't become a crazy cat lady who talks to her teapot.'

'Who in the world do you know like that?' Lily asked.

'My mother.' Hestia said sadly, 'But anyway. You won't turn out like that because you'll have Potter.'

'Maybe.' Lily said unsure.

'No you will.' Hestia said, nodding her head so enthusiastically she went a little dizzy. 'Anyway. Oh! I know! Let's practice what you're going to say to him!'

Lily rolled her eyes and looked at Hestia impatiently. 'Do we have to?'

'Yeah!' Hestia said enthusiastically, 'Come on! It'll boost your confidence.

Lily sighed and, in seeing Hestia wouldn't give up on this crusade to help her find what she would say to James, consented to practice the conversation with her. 'Hi James.' she said reluctantly still.

'Hey Evans!' Hestia replied in a deep voice and running a hand through her hair.

Lily burst into hysterics. 'What are you doing?' she laughed.

'My James Potter impression.' Hestia said with a pout at the way Lily was laughing. 'I thought it was pretty accurate. I even ran my hand through my hair.'

'Well he does do that a lot.' Lily managed to squeeze out between peals of laughter.

'I once counted him do it thirty seven times during a Quidditch practice.' Hestia said thoughtfully, 'But I still think my James Potter impression is good!' she whined, getting back onto topic.

'It needs a _lot_ of work.' Lily said, her laughter fading away, 'And he doesn't call me Evans anymore.'

'Technicality.' Hestia said waving Lily's comment away. 'Let's try again.' she continued pleadingly.

'Fine.' Lily said exasperatedly, 'But no stupid impressions.'

'Oh alright.' Hestia smiled goofily, 'Hi _Lily_.'

'Hey _James._' Lily said pointedly.

'I haven't seen you around lately.' Hestia said, being James.

'I've been busy.' Lily replied unsure of what else to say. In her mind, this was all a bit silly. There was no way on earth, aside from an extremely lucky coincidence, that this conversation would ever go the way she practiced with Hestia. Unless they gave James a script to follow. That would probably look suspicious though…she would just have to go with it.

'Some things never change!' Hestia said, still being James.

'But something's do.' Lily said, just going for it now and not particularly bothering to be too subtle. After all, it was only Hestia really. 'I mean last year you asked me out every day. And the year before that. And the year before that. And the year before that.'

'Well you asked me not to ask you out.' Hestia said, trying to work out if what she had said made sense.

'Yeah I did…It's strange the things you miss.' Lily said.

Hestia was nodding her head in approval. 'That's a good move there Lily!' she said, becoming herself once again.

'Can we just get this over with?' Lily said, not having the patience to talk normally with her. 'What would you say next if you were James.'

'Probably something like…oh yeah I know!' Hestia said excitedly clapping her hands together like a toddler.

'Well tell me then please.' Lily replied.

'Alright, alright. Keep your hair on.' Hestia said. She cleared her throat in preparation before saying, 'You miss me asking you out?'

'I dunno.' Lily said, 'Maybe you should ask me and find out.'

'Ok just stop there.' Hestia said, 'That was so smooth you could be a milkshake!'

Lily laughed, 'Alright. God your cheesy!' she kept laughing, but when she was able to control herself, she managed to say, 'Let's get this practice done with so that we can get down to the party which you have spent so long planning.'

'Ok' Hestia said as herself before reverting to being James again and asking, 'Will you go out with me Evans…Lily?'

'Yes.' Lily said, 'Great. Now that's done with, can we please go down to this party and get it over and done with?'

'Sure.' Hestia said, 'We will go down to the fabulous _surprise_ party I have thrown for you and you will tell James you like him. He will ask you out and you will live happily ever after.' She finished matter of factly. She was a romantic and always thought the best of these situations. If she ever got a boyfriend they would have to deal with that side of her and live up to her expectations. If they didn't…she didn't know what would happen. She didn't know what would happen if the romantic in her was destroyed. She'd probably take down everything else around her until that was destroyed too.

'Only if he still likes me that way.' Lily mumbled.

'Of course he does.' Hestia stated matter of factly guiding Lily towards the dormitory door, 'And anyway, it's your birthday. He can't refuse you. Especially looking like that.'

'I'm only wearing a nice top and some jeans.' Lily said rolling her eyes as they opened the door and began their decent down the girls spiral staircase to the common room.

'But it's a gorgeous top. The emerald greenness really brings out your eyes.' Hestia said happily. She'd picked out the top herself and was now feeling immensely proud of herself.

They were nearing the bottom of the staircase when suddenly, a yell of 'SURPRISE!' echoed across the common room. The whole of Gryffindor house must have gathered to wish Lily a happy birthday, (she got along with pretty much everyone).

'Oh my god!' Lily said, feigning shock. She wasn't meant to know about this party after all. 'Thanks guys!' she said with a smile, 'This is so nice of you!' She looked around the common room smiling in thanks and to also see if a certain person was there yet. He was. But as soon as he looked up to smile at her she looked away to Hestia who just wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. Lily gave her a nervous smile and took a step down the stair. Unfortunately for her, she missed her footing and fell down a couple of steps. Luckily, Hestia caught her before she made too much of a spectacle of herself and she assured Lily that no one, especially James, didn't see her mishap.

'Are you ready, then?' Hestia whispered as they reached the bottom of the stairs successfully.

'No but I don't think there's much we can do about that now.' Lily replied with a nervous deep breath.

The two girls stepped into the thick of the common room automatically becoming part of the crowd which had formed for the shout of 'surprise'. This didn't bother Lily too much as it meant she had a bit of time before facing James. She took a deep breath and dispersed through the common room with the rest of the crowd to the opposite side of were James was.

'What are you doing?' Hestia hissed, 'He's over there.'

'I know.' Lily said.

'Then why are you over here?' Hestia asked confused.

'Because he's over there.' Lily replied. Upon seeing Hestia's face however, Lily expanded on her explanation, 'I'm just giving myself some time before I go and tell him I like him. So I can think of what to say to him.'

'What do you mean?' Hestia said, a little outraged, 'We practiced what you would say upstairs.'

Lily rolled her eyes and said in an exasperated voice, 'Do you really think everything will go like that?'

'Well if you say exactly what you did upstairs…' Hestia started.

'It'll only work if he says the exact same things as you did in response to what I said.' Lily replied with a sigh, 'And it's not like we can give him a script or anything is it?'

'Well we could.' Hestia murmured pedantically.

Lily shook her head. 'Don't worry. I will tell him tonight. I just need a bit more time to…get my confidence together.'

'Alright.' Hestia replied with a slight smile.

Lily then began to circulate around the room, being careful to avoid James and the marauders until last. She spoke to everyone in the room holding, sometimes lengthy conversations with various people, just to make her time last a little longer. It wasn't hard to find things to talk about. Usually she just repeated the same conversation with different students every time. It was the bog standard coming-of-age questions; What are you gonna do first now that you can use magic outside of school? What's the first drink you'll have now you can legally buy one at the three broomsticks? Do you feel any older? Lily couldn't help but think that she would have to endure another round of similar questions in the muggle world next year when she turned eighteen. Not all of the students understood about the muggle eighteen being the wizarding seventeen, but those who did, the other muggleborns, shared her views and sometimes made the conversation twice as long. This gave her more time to think of what to say to James. Whilst people were talking to her, she was inside her own head thinking of different scenarios between her and James. Nobody really noticed that she wasn't all there though because she always seemed to manage to nod her head in agreement in all the right places.

She had been circulating for an hour and a half when James finally came up to her. Though, he didn't come up for the reasons Lily would like or even expected.

'This is yours.' he said friendlily, placing a book in her hands.

She turned the book over to read the title written on the cover. 'The Go-Between.'. She had lent him the book a few weeks ago and had completely forgotten about it until now.

'You read it?' she asked him, flipping through the pages of the book absentmindedly.

'Err…not really.' he said, running a hand through his hair.

'Why not?' Lily asked, interested in what the excuse would be. When she had previously talked about this particular book, people had though her a little bit mad for wanting to read such a dull story. It was part of the reason, or so she thought, that she had never received it for her birthday or Christmas before in past years. She wondered what James' excuse would be.

'I thought it was a bit silly.' he started before going into a little bit of a rant, 'How that kid could ever think that by writing a few words in a book he could create magic is beyond me. I mean, where's his wand for a start, and, also, just because you write something in blood doesn't mean it'll come true. It means you're a bit crazy and you'll probably faint, but it does not mean you're a wizard!'

'You realise this is a muggle book right?' Lily laughed. He had taken the prologue too seriously.

'Still. There's common sense.' James said as if it were obvious.

'But to a muggle who doesn't know about magic and the wizarding world…it's exciting and unusual and the only way they can explain it is by saying it's something supernatural.' Lily said telling James how many muggles attempted to explain away unusual or difficult things even though they didn't usually believe in these things.

'Well it's still a bit farfetched.' James muttered under his breath before saying at full volume, 'Happy birthday anyway. Are you having a good time?'

'Yeah, yeah. Hestia really knows how to throw a dignified party.' She said looking around at everyone in the common room gathering around the table which was covered in food. There were small sandwiches, sausage rolls, pumpkin pasties, pumpkin juice and a chocolate birthday cake. It was a delicious spread.

'Mmm…' James said with a shrug of his shoulders, 'Doesn't even begin to compare with a dignified marauders party.'

Lily raised her eyebrows, 'Your parties are never dignified.' she said shaking her head, 'All you ever serve is butterbeer and jelly, an obsession which I do not get-'

'Obsession?' James asked curiously.

'Yes.' Lily replied matter of factly, 'an obsession with jelly. You left dinner earlier today because there was no jelly and you called it an emergency. Your always eating it and judging by the way the house elves greeted you with four bowls of it earlier, I assume that's all you eat when you're down there.'

'Point taken.' James said.

'Plus it's all you serve for food at your so called 'dignified' parties and at these parties someone always ends up getting blown up.' Lily said.

'Nah that's just Pete.' James said, 'You can't leave him in a room alone without him managing to blow himself up somehow. Sometimes he doesn't even have a wand on him. He just spontaneously combusts. It's quite a talent really.' he finished thoughtfully.

'You and me obviously have very different definitions of the word talent.' Lily said with a laugh.

They talked for a while Lily all the time building up the courage to tell James how she felt about him. She was just about to tell him when Alice and Frank turned up next to him.

'Hey Lily!' she said excitedly as she went in to give Lily a hug, 'Thought we'd come and wish you a happy birthday seen as Potter here seems to want to hog you all night! You two have been talking for almost twenty minutes!'

'Yeah.' Frank said chiming in, 'Didn't know if there was something going on here…'

'No there isn't.' James said quickly, 'She's all yours now anyway. I've got to go to the Owlery.' he said to Frank and Alice in a light-hearted manner before turning to Lily and saying, 'Happy birthday Lily. I'll see you later. You look great by the way.' and walking away.

Lily tried to control a blush from the smile James had flashed her before he left her. Luckily, nothing was noticed by Frank or Alice who seemed to be too involved in talking about how their first date was going. Little did they know, but Lily was a tiny bit jealous and couldn't help but wonder how a first date between her and James would go.

_No Lily. You're getting ahead of yourself! _she told herself fiercely, _the first step is to tell him you like him and let him know you are open for a relationship with him._

She looked around for Hestia and quickly met her gaze. She signalled for her to come over and Hestia, being a good friend, came running.

'Did you tell him?' Hestia whispered to Lily quietly. After all, Alice and Frank were still in front of them talking about who was more nervous before their date had begun.

'Not yet.' Lily whispered back, 'He said he had to go to the Owlery and that he'd see me later. I'll tell him then.'

'Anyway, we'll let you carry on!' Alice said as she and Frank departed from Lily and Hestia's company. It was just lucky she was so wrapped up in her date with Frank or she would have noticed that Hestia had joined them for a start, and that Lily wasn't listening to her.

'Go tell him now!' Hestia said hardly containing the excitement that was bubbling within her, 'Can you not see that what he said was code for, 'come and meet me in the Owlery now'?'

'You think?' Lily said not being able to restrain herself form thinking that Hestia was more excited about all of this than she was.

'Yes! Now go! I'll cover for you!' Hestia said.

Lily nodded and began to make a discreet exit from the common room. She couldn't help but think that James' invisibility cloak would be of great use at this moment in time. After exchanging pleasantries with Mary McDonald and other Gryffindor students however, she did manage to make a swift exit out of the room.

She quickly and quietly hurried down the corridors, (for all students were meant to be in their common rooms at this moment in time), making her way up to the seventh floor where the entrance to the west tower, and by extension, the Owlery, was located. As she went up some steps she past a couple of prefects who were on patrol and made up a story that she had to go and talk to the head boy and girl about her prefect duties and that they were patrolling the seventh floor. If she hadn't been a prefect she doubted that they would have believed her story, but they did and she was able to continue up the stairs. As she climbed the staircase, which lead onto the seventh floor and would also lead her to the Owlery, she past a Ravenclaw girl sneaking the opposite way. It was unusual for a student of that house. The girl looked shocked at the sight of Lily and gave her a slightly dirty look. If Lily was on prefect duty she would have taken some points away from her for being out of her common room so late, but as she was also breaking the rules, she decided to let it slide.

Lily approached the door to the west tower. She didn't worry about the door being locked though because the marauders would have used _alohamora_ to open it as the Owlery was usually locked through the night from seven till seven.

Her assumption was correct. As she pushed the door she found it had been unlocked so that, she assumed, she could get through and meet James, (if what Hestia had told her about a secret message in James' words was true). And also, so that she and James could get back down into the school. She slipped round the door and made her up the spiral staircase. There was a sudden change in temperature which could only be narrowed down to the fact that the Owlery had no windows to trap the heat inside. The cold nipped at any part of her skin that she had left bare; her arms, hands and cheeks. She was shivering as she began to climb the spiral staircase up to the Owlery. It was getting colder. She only hoped that her drastic change in body temperature would be worth it.

She reached the top of the spiral staircase, the icy coldness now at its peak. She was getting ready to enter the room, straightening her top and running a hand through her hair causing herself to smile as it reminded her very much of James. She placed her hand on the door handle and just as she was about to open it she heard voices inside.

'She gone?' said one voice.

'Yeah she left a few minutes ago. Why did you hide?' said another.

'She doesn't like me!' said the first voice in a whining way. Although annoying, it did help Lily figure out who it was; Sirius Black.

'She's a beauty though Prongs!' the second voice came in again. If the first voice was Sirius, and the second voice was talking to James, (identified by Lily through the use of the nickname his friends gave him), that meant that the second voice had to be Remus.

Lily sighed downheartedly. Obviously Hestia was wrong and James telling her he'd see her later was not an invitation for her to come and meet him. It didn't matter though. Lily was resolute in telling James how she felt now. She wasn't going to stand in a freezing cold tower just for the fun of it. So she leaned a little closer to the door, waiting for an opening in the conversation at which point she would interrupt.

'So how longs it been?' Remus asked.

'Since Christmas.' James replied, his voice happy.

'I was there.' Sirius cut in, boasting, 'I was introduced to her first. It obviously means he loves me the most.'

Lily was about to enter and interrupt the conversation when she heard another voice, who could only be Peter, squeak out, 'You mean he loves Sophie.'

'It's true.' James stated before continuing, 'Sorry Sirius but…I love Sophie way more then you.'

Lily's stomach dropped. Who was Sophie? It was obvious it wasn't his mother by the tone of the conversation they were having. Lily was sure James didn't have any sisters or siblings at all. He was an only child she knew because she always used to blame that for his level of arrogance. _Who was Sophie? _She wondered to herself. Unfortunately, she didn't think she was going to like the answer. She listened closer, not being able to move or take her ear from the door.

'Of course you met her first!' Remus was saying, 'You were at his house for Christmas. You were there when she flew in!'

'I wish I could fly like her!' Sirius said dreamily.

_Great! _Lily thought, _this Sophie could fly meaning she would play Quidditch. Not only would James definitely like her, he would love her. _And obviously, from the conversation she had overheard, he already did.

'Are you happy with her then?' Remus asked.

'Definitely!' James said positively.

'Not wanting another?' Sirius asked.

'Not at all.' James replied, 'She the one I wanted. She's perfect. Couldn't be happier with her.'

Lily heard footsteps coming towards the door. She absentmindedly stepped behind the door and out of sight as it opened and the four marauders came out. All of them smiling and laughing without a care in the world or a heavy weight on their hearts.

She waited behind the door at the top of the west tower until she heard the door at the bottom of the tower click shut. When it did, she closed the door she was still hidden behind and walked forward to sit on the top step of the spiral staircase to wallow in her newly found misery.

She was too late. He had moved on and had gotten himself a girlfriend. She couldn't believe it. If only she had given him a chance sooner. She was kicking herself. James Potter had liked her for years but as soon as she had started to return his feelings he had gotten over her. How dare he do that! He had led her on through the start of this school year. He had grown up so that she would fall for him, and as soon as she did, he had decided to move on. And she had come up here for nothing. Nearly got caught by some prefects and…_Oh my god!_ she thought to herself. _That must have been her. Sophie_! The girl she had passed on her way to the west tower. The girl that had given her a dirty look. That must have been her. Everybody knew how James had felt for her and now this Sophie was actually with James, she hated Lily, hence, the dirty look.

Lily became madder and madder the more she thought about the situation. James had had all the time in the world to tell her that he had a girlfriend and he had neglected to mention in. The selfish, obnoxious pig! How could he betray her like this?

* * *

The door to the common room swung open. This was it. Hestia was about to see her best friend bounce into the room happily and tell her that she and James were going out. She couldn't wait. Most people would have thought this weird. The fact that she was so excited for her best friend to tell her Quidditch captain that she liked him. But Hestia couldn't help it. She had seen Lily study so hard for five and a half years, not noticing anyone in that way before. Always being tied down by that leech Severus Snape who would have literally killed any boy who went near her. Apart from James Potter. Only a fool would take him on in a duel and Severus Snape, although many things, was no fool. But unfortunately, because of the close friendship of Lily and Snape and Snape's hatred for James, Lily was never able to see what a great guy James really was. But now, now Lily was free from those chains, she could see James in his true light and be with the person who she was meant to be with. It was so exciting for Hestia.

The door was open and walking through it was James Potter. Unable to wait for Lily, Hestia rushed over to James to see what had happened.

James saw Hestia running over towards him and motioned to Sirius, Remus and Peter, who had entered the common room seconds before him, to carry on up to the dorm.

'What's up Jones?' James asked as she stopped in front of him, assuming it had something to do with Quidditch.

'Where have you been?' she asked, bouncing on the spot.

'The Owlery.' James replied, his head following her jumps and bobbing up and down, 'Are you ok?'

'Yeah I'm fine.' Hestia replied, brushing his concern for her away, 'So what happened? What did you say?'

'About what?' James asked, thoroughly confused.

'You know!' Hestia said suggestively.

'Oh…No.' James said nodding his head at first before shaking it, completely oblivious to what Hestia was talking about.

'Well fine.' Hestia said, her mood changing suddenly. 'You two would have been perfect together but fine! Do what you want! You horrible person! I hate that you've done this!' said before storming off and leaving a very confused and a little hurt James in her wake.

She quickly however turned around and marched back to him to say roughly, 'And what time is Quidditch practice tomorrow?'

'Ten.' James said, 'Don't be late.'

'I won't!' she huffed before marching away.

James shook his head, still very confused as to what had just happened. He decided to put it down to the hype of the party and went off to the dorm room where Remus, Sirius and Peter were all waiting for him.

'What took you so long?' Sirius said. He was laid down on James bed throwing James' Quaffle up in the air and catching it again.

'Jones had a go at me.' James said nonchalantly, catching his Quaffle mid-air, pushing Sirius off of his bed and onto the floor and flopping down in place of him.

'What have you done now?' Remus said walking over to James bed and leaning against one of the posts at the bottom of his four poster bed. Peter copied and leant on the post next to James head

'Maybe he pushed her off of her bed!' Sirius grumbled as he got up from the floor, brushed himself off, and sprawled out at the bottom of James' bed.

'You do realise that this is my bed right?' James said with one raised eyebrow.

'Is that any excuse to push me off of it?' Sirius said sniffing dramatically.

'Yes.' Remus said bluntly.

'Thanks Moony.' Sirius said, grabbing a pillow and throwing it at him pathetically.

'You missed.' Remus said as he watched the pillow flop aimlessly to the floor.

'I meant to miss!' Sirius stuttered out before changing the subject, 'You already for tomorrow night?'

'I hope so.' Remus replied

* * *

'Lily? Lily?' Hestia was whispering as she made her way down the seventh corridor. 'Lily? Are you still up here? Lily?'

It was dark along the corridor, lit only slightly by Hestia wand. She had waited for Lily to come back to the common room for nearly two hours. It had gotten to five past one, Hestia had changed into her pyjamas and a dressing gown, and she still had no idea where she had gone. So she decided to go up to the west tower where James had said they had been. It had taken her quite a while to get up to the seventh floor as the school looked foreign to her this late at night. She was sure that the marauders could probably have found their way in five minutes flat. However, Hestia had never really snuck out of the dormitory at night before. Firstly Lily would have killed her for waking her up as she never liked being woken up before it was necessary. And also, Hestia never really had any motives to sneak into the school at night. She'd much rather be in her warm safe dormitory than the cold dark castle at this time of night.

'Lily?' she called again, still very quiet as she didn't want to wake anyone up or disturb anyone at this hour. Especially Peeves.

She reached the door to the west tower where the Owlery was just hoping that Lily was in there still. Hestia knoxed her wand, quickly cast the _alohamora_ charm to open the door, which had locked as soon as it had been shut, and relit her wand again. The door opened swiftly to reveal Lily sat on the bottom step of the spiral staircase, cuddling herself in an attempt to get warm.

Seeing her best friend so cold, Hestia immediately took off her woolly dressing gown and draped it over Lily's shoulders.

Lily was shocked, not expecting the contact, and looked up.

Hestia gave Lily a sympathetic smile. She could see she'd been crying and so sat down next to her, putting an arm around her shoulders.

'Why've you been crying?' Hestia asked her.

'Oh a mix of things really.' Lily said wiping her eyes and wrapping Hestia's dressing gown around her tighter, 'Being locked in a freezing tower for god knows how long. Forgetting to bring my wand with me. Thinking I'll get a detention if I'm stuck in here all night and am found in the morning by one of the teachers. My sister not talking to me. Missing my parents. I've forgotten to do some homework for transfiguration and McGonagall is going to murder me.'

'And Potter?' Hestia asked tentatively.

'And Potter.' Lily said sadly, nodding her head, 'He has a girlfriend. Sophie.'

'No.' Hestia said in shock.

'Oh yes.' Lily said, sniffing and resting her head on Hestia's shoulder, 'And he's in love with her.'

'Are you sure?' Hestia said. Love was a strong word.

'That's what he said.' Lily sighed, 'I waited too long. It's my fault. I waited too long and now he's moved on. We were wrong. He doesn't like me that way anymore.'

'Oh Lily.' Hestia said, hugging her friend in comfort, 'You know, he'll probably break up with this girl when he realises that he still likes you. It's only a matter of time and then you two will be together and-'

'No Hestia.' Lily said, sitting up for the first time.

'What do you mean no?' Hestia asked, confused as to what she was protesting to.

'I don't want to be with him.' Lily said.

'But that's all you've been able to talk about ever since you got out of the hospital wing.' Hestia said, 'Why all of a sudden do you now not want to be with him?'

'Because,' Lily started, 'it is all I've been able to talk about, it's all I've been able to think about too. It's engulfed my life for the past few weeks. I've already forgotten to do some homework. I don't want this to interfere with my N.E.W.T's. And who's to say that he will break up with his girlfriend? I can't sit around and wait for that to happen. I don't want to be one of those girls who just sits and waits around for a guy. That's not who I am and it's not who I want to be. I think things would just be easier if I just moved on. It's not like I love him. It's just a crush. I'll get over it.'

Hestia saw that Lily was trying to be serious about this decision. However, Hestia had seen the way Lily had talked about and to James these past weeks and she could tell that it wasn't just some insignificant crush. Lily genuinely liked him and if she tried to move on from this when she wasn't ready too, it was going to come back at moments when she least expected it. But there was no talking Lily out of this decision at this precise moment so Hestia decided to wait.

It's true, James had told Hestia himself 'no' to him and Lily getting together earlier that night. But Hestia couldn't help but feel that these two were meant for each other. Girlfriend or not, James really liked Lily and Lily felt the same way about James. It was just going to be a lot more complicated getting the two together that telling each other how they felt.

'Let's go.' Lily announced getting up, 'I'm tired and I'm cold and to be honest, a little bit mad at the whole situation so I think I just need to get some sleep.'

'Ok.' Hestia said as she got up as well, 'We're gonna have to be very quiet when we leave though. I think I heard Mrs Norris on my way up here.'

'Fine.' Lily said as she pushed the door, which had been left slightly ajar, open.

The two girls made their way down to the Gryffindor common room on the third floor and then up to their dormitory. Lily got ready for bed and gave Hestia her dressing gown back.

As soon as Hestia's head hit the pillow she fell asleep.

Lily however, had her head full of James and couldn't get to sleep. She was looking around the dormitory, at her four sleeping dorm mates, when she spotted a present on the window sill. She got out of her bed and walked over to it. The tag had her name on it so she assumed that it was for her. She took it back to her bed and opened it.

Inside the wrapping paper she found a photo of her and Severus in a frame. They were smiling and laughing in the playground where they first met. With the photo came a note with one word written on it. _Always._

Lily stared at the photo and at the note. Her blood began to boil. Why wouldn't Severus give up. Upon thinking this, Lily realised that she had well and truly moved on from her failed friendship with Severus and without flinching, Lily threw the photo and the note into the bin next to her bed. With that single move she was able to settle down into a deep sleep filled with dreams of James which she wouldn't remember in the morning.

* * *

**Thank you for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	22. Chapter 21

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader! **

**Here's chapter Twenty-One! **

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-One**

The next morning, Hestia got up quietly, trying not to wake Lily, and left to go to Quidditch practice. She headed down to the common room, expecting to meet James down there ready to head across to the Quidditch pitch, throwing a Quaffle around or trying to catch a snitch. But when she got down stairs, he wasn't there. It was only nine thirty though so maybe he wasn't even up. She decided to go down to the great hall for a bit to eat before going down to the two or more hour long Quidditch practice. She didn't really understand why they had to have a practice this morning. It was only the 31st of January and their match wasn't until the 19th of March. Plus they had been given a rare day off today because Dumbledore needed to talk to all the teachers about the dangers of Voldemort and his death eaters and what they could do to abstain from joining him and protecting themselves.

This was something not all the professors were keen to do. Professor McGonagall for example had taken it as an insult to her common sense. She had mumbled 'only a fool would join Voldemort' and 'of course I know how to protect myself and anyone else for that matter', when she had told the Gryffindor common room about the day off a few evenings ago.

When James had heard this news he immediately set up a Quidditch practice much to the dismay of the team who had hoped for an extra lie in. As a compromise, he had allowed the practice to be pushed back an hour to ten instead of the usual nine o'clock. Still, Hestia didn't mind too much. Until she had gotten the impression that things had gone badly between Lily and James. Now she wasn't too thrilled with the idea of an early morning Quidditch practice.

Still she headed down there anyway, stopping of only to grab some breakfast in the great hall. She grabbed herself some jam and toast quickly, munching it hungrily, and left to head down to the pitch.

When she got outside, she saw that there was some frost on the ground. She shook her head. That meant it was going to snow. Now she didn't mind the snow, but James wouldn't stop Quidditch practices for a bit of bad weather. Then again, by March, when the game actually was, it would be spring and snow wouldn't be a factor.

She arrived at the pitch at exactly ten o'clock but the rest of the team were already doing laps. She sighed. She had no idea how she was meant to act around James. It was a very odd situation she was in. It wasn't her who liked James but had decided to just move on. It was Lily. And Hestia had no idea if Lily was sad about this or angry at James for moving on before she had had a chance to be with him. It was more likely that Lily would be angry just because of her fiery temper, stubbornness and the fact that Lily hated to be sad. But the way Lily was the previous night Hestia just wasn't sure. So when James landed on the ground a few metres in front of her, she had to quickly decide how she would act towards him.

'You're late.' James laughed as he approached her, 'I thought you might be. Don't worry about it. We'll just say that I asked you to fetch my broom wax for me.'

'Fine.' Hestia said stiffly, going with the cold shoulder. This way, which ever mood Lily decided she was in, Hestia would be treating James in the right manner. She was sticking to the lifelong unwritten rule between friends; 'If I don't like someone, you don't either. If I'm mad at someone, so are you and if someone's upset me, they've upset you too.' Hestia liked that saying and constantly used it.

'Are you ok?' James asked, looking at her warily.

'Fine. Why?' she replied in a monotone.

James looked a little confused and looked over his shoulder as Hestia wasn't looking at him directly. 'Because of yesterday?' James said in more of a question then a statement.

Hestia made a point of looking James in the eye before saying, 'What about it?'

'Well,' James started, 'You kind of had a go at me, which, you know, I don't mind…I probably deserve it most of the time to be honest….anyway, I don't mind you having a go at me but I'd like to know what for.'

Hestia just stayed silent.

'Come on. What's up?' James asked.

Now James was one of those people with whom everyone instantly felt comfortable and if you'd known him for longer than a day you would spill your life story to him because of the trusting image he portrayed.

So when he asked Hestia what was wrong, she couldn't help but reply with, 'I don't know how to act around you now. I mean, should I act normally around you?'

'Well I'm not gonna object if you want to start clucking like a chicken or anything.' James said with a chuckle.

'You know what I mean you idiot.' Hestia said whacking him with her broom several times before calming down enough to say, 'Would it be weird if I acted as I usually do around you?'

'I think it would be weirder if you didn't act as you usually do around me.' James said, still thoroughly confused as to why Hestia would act differently around him.

'Ok then.' Hestia said, 'I wasn't sure. I mean, it's not really between _me_ and you is it? None of my business really but she is my best friend and rejection upsets her, you know? What are we doing anyway?'

'Twenty laps.' James said quickly, brushing it to the side before quickly continuing, 'But Jones what's-' (Hestia hopped on her broom and sped off into the sky, starting the laps.) '-going on…' he finished disappointedly.

What was Hestia talking about. Did something happen at Lily's party? He didn't think so. He didn't speak to Hestia till she started to have a go at him and even then he didn't say much. When he and Lily had talked, it had been a nice light conversation about a book. He thought that he and Lily were getting on better than ever. He looked at it as making progress. Nothing had happened at that party to trigger this behaviour, or so he thought. Now he was totally confused.

Sirius landed next to him with an excited smile on his face. He hadn't flown in ages as Dumbledore had banned him from the team after his stunt with Severus Snape and he was just so exhilarated at flying again. James had allowed him to join in with the teams practice under the reasoning that Dirk Creswell needed help wielding his beaters bat. He wasn't that great and who better to tutor him than James' best beater? So Sirius was ecstatic at flying with his team again. Still, this didn't stop him being a good friend and noticing James' odd expression.

'You're either very confused or you need the toilet.' He said as he placed a friendly arm around his best friend.

'And how do you know that?' James asked.

'You always make this really odd face.' Sirius said thinking and looking into the distance, 'It like a cross between eating something really sour. Eating something really hot. Eating something really cold. And smelling Remus' really smelly feet.'

'You mean _your _smelly feet.' James said with a laugh.

'Technicality.' Sirius shrugged, 'And that's beside the point.'

'And what was your point?' James asked with a raised eyebrow.

'That your confused face is really odd!' Sirius said taking his arm from round James and patting his shoulder, 'Speaking of, what's confusing you?'

'Jones.' James said.

'Girl trouble hey? I know all about that!' Sirius said with a deep exhale of breath.

'That's cause your usually the cause of it.' James said with a chuckle.

'I only pick up after you.' Sirius said, 'And that's only cause you say you 'have a girl in your heart already'.' he finished, imitating what James had been saying for ages in an over the top romantic way.

James shook his head and just let Sirius' comment go before continuing with, 'Jones had a go at me yesterday after Lily's party.'

'I know.' Sirius said, 'You told us yesterday before we planned for…you know…our furry little problem.'

'Well I've been trying to work out what I'd done but I just can't figure it out.' James said, frustration coming out in his voice, 'It's just so annoying.'

'Well that just sums girls up in one word really!' Sirius laughed, 'But I wouldn't really worry about what you did. You're always doing something to upset someone but it's usually Evans. Who knows? Maybe you upset her. Jones is really into that 'if my friend is mad at you so am I' thing. So you probably upset Evans. It's not like it's the first time though right!' Sirius finished with a nod of his head.

'You're so reassuring.' James said in a monotone, 'Thanks for that.'

'You're welcome.' Sirius smiled, not noticing the sarcasm in James voice, getting on his broom and flying off to join the rest of the team doing laps, excited to fly again.

James shook his head, decided to put the frustrating situation out of his mind and focus on the Quidditch practice he was running. So he followed suit, got on his broom and flew off to join the rest of his team and Sirius

* * *

Severus was waiting in his room. It had been Lily's birthday the day before and, even though he now understood that she didn't want to speak to him, see him, be his friend or even have anything to do with him whatsoever, he had still sent her a present. Now Lily was nothing if not polite, so even if she didn't want to talk to Severus, she would at least send a thank you note. It wasn't ideal for Severus, but it was contact with the person he most admired and loved in the world. It would be better than nothing.

Unfortunately, he had had no mail yet. He had even gone down to breakfast earlier that morning, something he never did in the past because he never received mail, just in case something was delivered to him there. He had stayed until the last plate of croissants and toast was cleared magically off of the table. During the whole of breakfast, owls fluttered in and out of breakfast, delivering mail to everyone but him. So at the end of the meal, he had sauntered out of his room and headed back down to his dormitory in the Slytherin dungeons to wait some more.

It was almost lunch time and Severus had decided to get down there early, just like he had at breakfast in case the owl delivering his anticipated thank you note came then. When he went to lunch, he found no letter at his table and, when he looked across, no Lily at hers. He sat down and grabbed some lunch constantly checking the enchanted ceiling for post and the Gryffindor table for Lily. Maybe she'd even come over and politely thank him herself.

Mulciber and Avery sat down next to Severus. They brought with them three other Slytherin students whom Severus knew vaguely but had hardly talked to because they were in different dorm rooms.

'Snape,' Avery yelled, as he swaggered over to the table and sat down, 'You know Rosier, Wilkes and Bellatrix Black.' he said pointing to each individual in person.

Snape scowled at his five fellow Slytherin's. He wasn't fond of any of them. 'Yes.' he sneered.

'They've just been invited into the ranks.' Mulciber whispered to Snape.

'Joy.' Severus muttered, totally unimpressed.

'It is joy!' Bellatrix hissed, 'How dare you define the Dark Lords Ranks so sarcastically! It is an honour beyond belief to be recruited by him personally!'

'I know.' Severus said through gritted teeth.

'Then you might want to show some respect and reverence for the cause.' Bellatrix continued before getting up and leaving.

'She's really dedicated to the Dark Lord and his cause.' Wilkes said.

'Aren't we all.' Rosier asked the group as a whole.

The five remaining Slytherin's, Severus, Mulciber, Avery, Wilkes and Rosier, looked evilly at each other, all united under Voldemort's banner.

They all ate lunch together, discussing the upcoming meeting which they had been invited to in hushed whispers. (They weren't invited to all of them as they were still in school and it would look suspicious if they just got up and left) After they had discussed the topic tirelessly, Severus excused himself and went back down to his dormitory.

When he got there, an owl was waiting for him. He got excited and rushed over to the owl, which was sleek and black, and grabbed the letter it was holding in its beak. He looked at his name written on the front of the envelope and was disappointed to see that it wasn't Lily's handwriting which was on the front.

He sighed and opened the letter, reading it to himself.

_Severus Snape,_

_I require your assistance. Tonight, when the moon is full, you must write and inform where the charge of your last assignment is hidden. This is all you must do. If you attempt to interfere in any way, consequences will be severe._

_Lord Voldemort._

Severus took a deep breath and smiled an evil smile. This is just what he needed. He loved the dark arts a great deal, and as Lily Evans wasn't returning his everlasting friendship, the dark arts would. Lord Voldemort's cause was just what he needed to throw himself into to try and forget about Lily. And, if nothing else, perhaps he could get rid of a certain group of Gryffindor's which he despised as well as a few mudbloods and blood traitors.

Severus' eyes turned blacker. _This is going to be fun! _he thought, lying down on his bed, with his arms folded behind his head. _Fun!_

* * *

Hestia walked up the stairs to her dormitory, cold and wet for it had started to rain during practice. It had been an interesting Quidditch practice to say the least. Hestia had been unable to make up her mind about how Lily would feel about how she, Hestia, should act towards James. So she had spent the entire two and a half hour Quidditch practice swapping and changing the way she was treating James. She started off mad, then went back to treating him as a friend, then just to ignoring him completely. Things kept moving from one extreme to the other, to the point when James had to tell her that she was slowing the practice down and if she wasn't going to cooperate, she had to leave. James never did this unless he was forced to, and as Hestia's treatment of him kept changing drastically making her difficult to work with, it had seemed that he had had no choice.

So for the rest of the practice, Hestia had simmered down, making a resolution to herself to ask Lily exactly what James had said when the two of them had spoken at her party. How he responded to her feelings for him and how Hestia was to act towards him.

Hestia entered her dormitory and saw that Lily was still in bed. She looked at the clock next to her bed. It was half past twelve. This was a late lie in, even for Lily who never wanted to get up.

Hestia slung her broom onto her bed and walked over to sit down on the side edge of Lily's bed. She shook her awake.

'Lily?' Hestia said as Lily woke up, 'Are you all right?'

Lily sat up in bed. Her nose was red and her eyes were puffy, as if she'd been crying. She sneezed.

'Hestia?' she asked sleepily, 'What time is it?'

'Half twelve. Are you all right?' Hestia repeated, 'Even you would be up by now!'

'I don't feel well.' Lily said, wiping her eyes which were watering slightly, 'I think I have a cold from sitting in that tower for more than two hours.'

'Well it was freezing in there.' Hestia said.

'How was Quidditch practice?' Lily questioned, trying to make herself comfy.

'Odd.' Hestia said, but upon seeing Lily's curious face elaborated, 'I have no idea how to treat Potter now.' she sighed.

'Oh.' Lily said, not expecting to hear his name straight away, 'Treat him as you usually do.'

'Are you sure. I mean, I'm so confused as to what happened between you two. All I got was snippets last night. And this morning, Potter didn't seem to know what I was on about-'

'What did you tell him?' Lily asked anxiously, sitting up straighter that before.

Hestia hesitated, 'Nothing. What about you?'

'What do you mean?' Lily asked.

'You're gonna have to walk me through exactly what you told him and what you two talked about because I am utterly confused.' Hestia demanded

Lily stayed silent and just looked at her hands.

'What did he say when you told him you liked him?' Hestia said pressingly.

'Well,' Lily began, 'I didn't actually get a chance to tell him that-'

'What?!' Hestia said, 'You told me that you told him!'

'Actually,' Lily gulped, 'all I said was that he said that he had a girlfriend.'

'How do you know that if you didn't even talk to him!' Hestia said in disbelief to her friend.

'Because I heard him talk about her!' Lily said, 'Her name is Sophie and he said he loved her!'

'But did he ever refer to her as his girlfriend?' Hestia asked.

'Yes…' Lily replied, unsure.

'He said those exact words?' Hestia asked, now not believing a word she was saying. She now believed that Lily was making this up in her mind as an excuse.

'Well maybe just-'

'Did he say 'my girlfriend Sophie' or 'Sophie my girlfriend' or anything similar?' Hestia asked.

Lily looked down at her hands again, realising that he had never said those exact words. But what else could he have meant. Nothing else made sense.

'I think you should try again-' Hestia began before being cut off abruptly by Lily.

'No.' she said, 'I don't want to. Everyone in the school will talk about it if it ever does happen and we'll be under enormous pressure to try and make it work. And if it doesn't work people will come and tell me that I should have just stuck to my first answer. If we do start going out people are just gonna be telling me that they told me so and that I was wrong. Plus, N.E.W.T's are coming up and I don't want to be distracted by James, or a relationship with him, or everyone watching me. It's just a crush. It'll go away and that's what I want. So just drop it Hestia!' Lily finished, lying back down in her bed and pulling the covers over her head.

'Fine.' Hestia sighed, 'If that's what you want-'

'It is!' Lily said, her voice muffled a little by her quilt, 'And I don't want you to say anything to him or anyone else either. Just let it go. I have.'

'Fine.' Hestia repeated as she shook her head, 'I'll see you later.' she said walking out of the room and leaving Lily on her own in the dormitory where she would stay for the rest of the day.

* * *

Three shadows were moving softly and swiftly across the Hogwarts grounds. It was near one in the morning, the moon was high and full, the ground was lightly spattered with snow from a small fall earlier that evening. The shadows, two tall, one small, moved towards a huge tree which was moving in the wind. As they went, the past a section of small grates in the side wall of the castles. They were in the dungeons and you couldn't see in them due to the darkness. But you could see out if needs be.

They moved closer to the tree which became more alert as the shadows made themselves more present.

'Go ahead Wormy.' James said as he looked around to make sure the coast was clear.

Peter nodded his head preparing to do what was expected of him in this group. Open the passage to the shrieking shack in the whomping willow. He closed his eyes, immense concentration etched all over his face. Suddenly he sighed in relief and opened his eyes happily, but when he saw James and Sirius in front of him with raised eyebrows, his happiness vanished.

'I'm not a rat. Am I?' he asked disappointedly.

'Well-'

'Don't worry about it Wormy.' James said, cutting of Sirius in what was sure to be a sarcastic comment, 'Just try again.'

Peter sighed and closed his eyes again, concentrating even harder than he had before. His nose began to twitch and his teeth protruded from his mouth. The rest of the transformation moved swiftly. Peter shrank in size, becoming his Animagus form a rat. He then quickly scampered under the sweeping branches of the whomping willow and pressed the knot at the base of its trunk with his little foot. Immediately, the whomping willow froze.

Sirius looked and James who nodded. Sirius then closed his eyes and transformed quickly into a scruffy black dog. He shook out his fur, scratched himself behind his ear and bounced forwards into the tunnel, which was now open, at the base of the whomping willow.

James shook his head at Sirius' very dog-like behaviour. He had always said Sirius suited being a dog. Plus, Sirius had always said it was easier in dog form, to itch those hard to reach places. James had always replied with the answer, 'I don't want to know!'.

Still, James couldn't be thinking of past conversation at this precise moment. He needed to concentrate fully. So he followed Padfoot and Wormtail into the whomping willow, still in his usual form. He was unable to transform until the wider part of the tunnel because, as a stag, he was unable to fit through most of the passage.

The three boys, in their various states, travelled through the small and muddy passage, James crouched over so that he didn't hit his head on the roots and branches which were growing out of the top of the tunnel. They travelled for about five minutes through the passage before they were stopped suddenly by the howl in the distance.

James looked into the puppy dog eyes Padfoot was giving him but shook his head.

'I can't yet Padfoot!' James said touching the ceiling above him. 'The tunnels too small. I know what I'm doing.'

Padfoot lowered his head and pawed at the ground in front of James in one last dismal attempt to get his to transform in to his Animagus form at that moment. James shook his head again and gently pushed Padfoot in the direction of the shrieking shack.

They travelled a little further through the tunnel, up an incline an into a wider passage. At this point, Padfoot stopped dead in front of James and turned around to face him. His stare this time was not the puppy dog face as before, but an intense, demanding one.

James rolled his eyes. 'All right! All right!' he said with a laugh, 'I'm changing now!' he finished before instantly transforming into a brilliant stag. He had no need to prepare himself by closing his eyes, taking a deep breath or even concentrating that hard before this change. It was almost like second nature to him. An easy transition.

Padfoot began to wag his tail, showing that he was happy that James had now changed into Prongs. The three animals, stag, dog and rat then climbed the rest of the incline to the end of the tunnel, then up the muddy come wooden stairs and into the shrieking shack.

They swapped around in order at the top of the stairs. Prongs went first. As the largest of the three animals, and the strongest, he would be able to take the brute force of Moonys' first attack, (before he would realise that they were of no harm to him and settle down into their usual full moon antics.), and still survive it. Padfoot came next as an insurance in case Moony managed to get past Prongs. And Wormtail hid until the coast was clear.

Prongs walked up to the door which opened out onto the room where Moony usually was, and pushed it open with his head.

Immediately he was knocked by the sheer force of Moony running towards him. Prongs quickly regained balance and ran back at Moony, who was fully transformed into his werewolf state, and pinned him against the wall between his antlers. Padfoot, barked at Moony who had begun to howl and scratch at Prongs' head in an attempt to get free.

Prongs held him in this lock for five minutes whilst Padfoot began to settle down from barking and Wormtail came out of hiding. When Moony gave up, Prongs dropped him to the floor and Padfoot approached him cautiously. He gently moved Moony's paw come claw with his head. He quickly backed off however when Moony began to get up steadily.

Prongs quickly staged himself in front of his two friends, the dog and the rat, facing Moony off. Moony stared at Prongs, sizing him up. He eventually, much like a hippogriff would to a wizard, allowed the three animals to approach without concern for attack.

Padfoot bounded towards the skinny werewolf, enthusiasm seeping out of every pore of his fur covered skin, his tail wagging, and licked the wolf around his snout. Wormtail scurried over to where Padfoot and Moony were holding back a little because he was scared of being hurt. Prongs stayed where he was.

He clapped his hooves on the wooden floor boards, calling the attention of the other three animals, and jerked his head towards the exit of the room. Moony, Padfoot and Wormtail understood and quickly followed Prongs out of the room, away from the tunnel which would lead them out to the Hogwarts grounds and down a wonky corridor towards the back of the shrieking shack. When they reached a wall at the end of the corridor, Prongs carefully manoeuvred a wooden panel with his antlers out of the way, creating an opening to the outside world, the grounds of the shrieking shack, and in turn, Hogsmeade.

The four creatures exited the shrieking shack and, after replacing the wooden panel, got into formation ready to lead Moony up through the caves beyond Hogsmeade and to the woods beyond. Wormtail ran ahead to make sure the coast was clear and, upon finding so, rushed back to Prongs, Padfoot and Moony to lead them onwards. Prongs would be one side of Moony and Padfoot the other to ensure that if, at any point, Moony was to smell a human and attempt to dash off, they would have the best possible chance of stopping him.

They managed to make their way up the mountain of caves beyond Hogsmeade, which was painted white by the winter weather, and over the back to the woods beyond. They walked along the rocky face and down until they reached a thin group of trees which was the entrance to the forest. The ground here was muddy and covered with trees, twigs and rocks, 'the perfect place for a forest entrance. The marauders had discovered this small wood one afternoon when they were trying to sneak out of the school and around Hogsmeade.

The four animals entered the forest, and led Moony deep into its bowels where the ground was dry and there was no sign of snow. They found a small clearing with a creek where they decided to spend the rest of the full moon. Prongs immediately ran through it, soaking Padfoot entirely. Padfoot shook off the water which had covered him and began to chase Prongs around the trees surrounding the area. Moony, who was glad to be out of a tight space, stretched and howled towards the moon. His howl echoed around the forest. He scratched at the ground, squashing spiders and rustling leaves before joining in with the chase with Padfoot and Prongs. Wormtail tried to keep up with the three athletic animals but found it beyond his capabilities so returned to the creek and settled on some leaves.

Prongs galloped in and out of trees through the woods, playing a kind of game with Padfoot and Moony who were still following him. Prongs came to a halt behind a group of bushes and, when he came near, galloped out in front of Padfoot, causing him to halt so suddenly that Moony crashed into the back of him. On impact they rolled down a small slope and began to play fight. Moony pawed at Padfoot's body, almost giving it and extra roll as they carried on down the slope. Padfoot, pawed gently at Moony's face, trying to ensure that Moony's wolf breath didn't go in his eyes. When they came to a stop, Padfoot finished with the higher vantage point and so leapt gently onto Moony's back and playfully tugged at his ear. Moony's turned round in circles attempting to get Padfoot off of his back and in the end, decided to deposit him gently at the base of a tree.

Unable to get up in time and not being able to predict what was going to happen next, Padfoot was startled to find himself suddenly flying through the forest. Prongs had scooped him up with his antlers and ran off with him, leaving Moony to now chase them both down. Prongs trotted off quickly, heading back to the clearing.

Prongs ran back into the clearing and through the creek again, still being followed by Moony. As he passed through the creek he dropped Padfoot, who had just begun to get used to being carried, into the water.

Padfoot barked in protest and Prongs continued to gallop in and out of the trees, again being chased by a very wet Padfoot. At this point, Moony had stopped following his two friends and had settled down for a lie down in the creek. Prongs saw what Moony was doing and had decided it would be a nice refreshing idea to do the same. Then he noticed Moony suddenly sit up in the water. Prongs watched as everything slowed down in his eyes. Moony lifted his snout and sniffed the air as a distant howl echoed all around the forest. Moony breathed deep and let out an almighty howl before streaking off into the forest. Prongs and Padfoot looked at each other, alert and shocked before chasing after Remus in an attempt to retrieve him.

Everything then doubled in speed. Prongs and Padfoot were rushing through the forest trying to catch up to Moony who was following the howl of another werewolf. They followed the sound of his feet thudding along the dirt track and the roots of trees, occasionally catching glimpses of between the tree trunks, his fur reflecting the moonlight.

Padfoot took a detour and disappeared from Prongs' view. Not having time to question this, Prongs carried on in pursuit of Moony. He looked at the path they were taking and straight away noticed that they were heading in the direction where the forest ended. Beyond the boundaries of Hogsmeade and the protection Dumbledore had placed around the village after the January attacks. Prongs was getting desperate now. They were nearing the exit and Prongs was still over ten feet away from Moony. They were getting closer. Closer. Closer. Until Prongs could see what awaited them outside the boundaries of the forest. A werewolf was in a cage, a protective bubble surrounding it, and five death eaters. He momentarily lost his momentum, his eyes widening at the situation. He saw Moony getting closer and closer to the other werewolf, and Prongs' heart beat fast at the thought that he might lose one of his best friends. Thinking this, Prongs sprang back into action, determined to return Moony to the shrieking shack where he couldn't be touched.

Suddenly, Padfoot sprang from the shadows and tackled Moony, who was only feet away from crossing the border, to the ground. The two animals struggled as Moony tried to cross the edge of the forbidden forest and Padfoot tried to edge him further in to the forest. This was no longer the play fighting from before. Moony clawed away at Padfoot's face and body, leaving open gashes and wounds pouring with blood. Padfoot whimpered in pain but still did not give up. He took Moony's ear in his mouth and pulled with all his might to try and deter the werewolf from leaving with the death eaters. Moony, feeling the tug, swiped Padfoot across the face, scratching his nose and sending him flying into a nearby tree where he collapsed at the base with a cry of pain. He still did not give up though. He got up from where he was, hardly able to see which way he was going from the blood in his eyes, and, limping, ran and jumped on Moony's back. The werewolf howled in pain as the dogs claws sank into his back. He stood on his hind legs and staggered backwards, falling over on his back and squashing Padfoot under his weight.

Prongs, after getting over the daze of Padfoot's, what could only be called, heroics, dashed forwards and rolled Moony off of Padfoot with his antlers to make sure he was all right.

The werewolf in the cage howled again to the moon which was now bright and clear in the sky. Moony stumbled up onto his feet in an attempt to reach the other werewolf again. In his path however, lay Padfoot. So to save a friend from a set of broken ribs by being stood on by a fully-grown werewolf, Prongs, with all his might, rammed his antlers into Moony's chest and, running, pinned him against the tree which Padfoot had been flung at before. The werewolf struggled in its prison and scratched at Prongs' antlers before taking both of his hind legs and forcefully kicking them into the chest of the brilliant stag, creating scratch marks down his fur and drawing blood. The stag, winded slightly, couldn't take the sudden pressure, stumbled back and let Moony free.

He was edging closer to the boarder of the forest when, simultaneously, Prongs and Padfoot found the strength to take Moony's hind legs into their mouths and pull him out of the sight of the death eaters. They were almost safe when, yet again in a desperate bid to reach a creature of the same species, Moony broke free of their grip and headed towards the other werewolf, who was still howling, and the death eaters. He was halfway across the edge of the forest, his head and shoulders out of the safety of the forests protection, when a death eater shot a stunning curse at him. His whole body collapsed and three of the death eaters rushed forwards to drag him fully over the border.

Quick as lightning, both Prongs and Padfoot retaliated again in the same action as before and grabbed one of Remus back paws in each of their mouths, dug their hooves, paws and claws into the ground, and pulled with all their might. They knew they were fighting a losing battle. Even though they had the brute strength of their raw animalistic natures, even after their battles, it was no match for what they were up against. Five death eaters with magic on their side and the call of a werewolf which was irresistible to Moony, (even knocked out). It was certain they weren't going to win. Still, they combined all their last remaining efforts and pulled Moony's limp body in their direction.

Suddenly, Prongs lost his grip as he saw a beam of light shoot out of one of the death eaters wands. It shot straight in Padfoots direction, who hadn't noticed anything but a sudden gain of weight to pull, didn't flinch as the curse neared his head. Prongs' eyes got wider and wider as the curse got closer and closer to Padfoot, when, just as quickly as it had been fired, the curse ricocheted off of the invisible barrier which Dumbledore had posted to protect the residents of Hogsmeade from unwanted and uninvited guests. The curse flew back to its sender and sent him reeling backwards, clutching his arm.

After this, Padfoot and Prongs doubled their attempts to drag Moony, in their tug of war, back into their territory. They were against three death eaters dragging Moony's lifeless body and two death eaters firing curses at the protective barrier in an attempt to get through it.

The werewolf in the cage was howling loudly now, miserable at being kept in a bubble and away from a fellow life form. Moony stirred in his unconscious state and so Prongs, not wanting to repeat the damage his best friend and himself had sustained, banged his head forward, his antlers hitting Moony in the back with an affirmed crack, and knocked Moony out again instantly.

Their grip was loosening on Moony's feet, their strength diminishing from fighting for so long. They held on with all their might, determined not to let go when they noticed an arrow flying through the air and hit one of the death eaters in the arm. Moony's werewolf form dropped to the floor as Prongs, Padfoot and the five death eaters stopped and stared at the line of centaurs which had formed on the rising ground behind the stag and the dog.

'You are not welcome here!' the centre most centaur said boldly, stepping out of the curve, 'Leave at once!'

'Not without what we came for.' a death eater said also stepping forward to reassume dominance in the situation.

'You cannot take him.' another centaur said as the rest of the half horse, half man creatures raised their bows, arrows at the ready.

'He is a creature of our forest. He has a right to be here. You do not.' the first centaur said, 'Leave at once.'

'Or what?' said one cocky death eater, 'You can't do anything to us. You're just filthy mules and we are superior to you.'

The centaurs all rose onto their hind legs and kicked their hooves in the air in anger. Through the commotion of them thudding back to the ground, voicing their anger and preparing their weapons, a little brown rat scuttled through their hooves and ran up to where Moony, Prongs and Padfoot were. It was Wormtail. He had summoned the centaurs of the forest.

The centaurs began to fire their arrows at the death eaters and, seizing their opportunity Prongs and Padfoot pulled Moony back to the protection of Hogsmeade's boundaries.

The death eaters, unable to protect themselves from the centaur's arrows with magic due to the restricting magical protection, resorted to throwing whatever they could in their general direction only to find out that whatever they threw turned to dust upon impact.

Taking their leave, Padfoot helped to heave Moony onto Prongs' back, being watched by Wormtail, and made their way back to the shrieking shack for protection.

As they galloped away they heard one death eater say to another, 'The dark lord won't like the fact that you let him get away!' the voice said succinctly before the unmistakable pops of people disapparating were heard throughout the forest.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	23. Chapter 22

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter Twenty-Two! **

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Two**

'You failed!' he spat to his cowering subject, 'Can you not do anything right?!'

'M-m-my Lord,' the death eater stammered, 'There were things beyond our control. Other animals. Centaurs. A barrier, my Lord.'

'Excuses!' Voldemort said walking away from the death eater who had been cowering at his feet.

Voldemort swished his cloak and sat down in a chair on a platform which resembled a throne, not unlike the one Dumbledore sat on during school feasts, (though this one was steel grey with a green seat). Nagini wrapped herself through Voldemort's arms and Voldemort stroked her scaly skin as if she were a cat. He was deep in thought.

'We could try again, my Lord.' the death eater suggested meekly.

'It would be pointless now.' Voldemort hissed, 'You failed. Why would I send you out again when you were unsuccessful the first time.'

'But if the boy can tell us the location again-'

'No.' Voldemort bellowed, 'The location we were told was wrong.'

'Wh-what do you mean, my Lord.' the death eater stuttered.

'The boy informed us the werewolf was in the shrieking shack.' Voldemort said.

'Will he be punished, my Lord?' the death eater quivered.

'He will not.' Voldemort stated.

'My Lord?' the death eater questioned, a little confused as to why the informant would not be punished but it was likely he would be.

'In the boys mind, he was correct.' Voldemort said, 'I've seen it.'

'Is it possible the boy has, dare I say, tricked you, my Lord?' the death eater whispered quietly.

'Insolence!' Voldemort screeched as he glided forward and loomed over the once again, cowering death eater, 'You think I can be fooled Crabbe? You think I, Lord Voldemort, the greatest sorcerer the world has ever known, can be fooled by a sixteen year old boy!'

'Of course not my Lord.' Crabbe whimpered.

After five seconds of causing Crabbe to cower in fear, Voldemort released him from his stare.

'He heard the werewolf in the shrieking shack from Hogwarts. It was only by chance and Fenrir's lycanthropy that you were able to discover his new location. We were only unable to get into the Hogsmeade grounds.' Voldemort said, mostly to himself as he sat down on his throne again, Nagini intertwining herself around Voldemort again.

'Perhaps we could try again, my Lord.' Crabbe whispered.

'No. Dumbledore will have been alerted to our presence by now.' Voldemort said in thought, 'Even if we were to figure out the way past his defences, he will have strengthened them by now. Even I cannot penetrate his magic without studying it carefully. Besides it would draw too much attention.'

'But, my Lord,' Crabbe said, 'Don't we want the attention?'

'Yes,' Voldemort said, 'But on my terms…'

* * *

For the next two weeks, two Gryffindor students missed school.

The first was Lily Evans. People were quite shocked at this but it was publicly known that she was in bed with a really bad cold, sickness and a flaming temperature. She had been offered some pepper up potion by madam Pomfrey and all of her roommates to rid her of the cold so she could focus on waiting out the temperature, but she had declined every time. She kind of like an excuse not to see James, giving herself some more time to attempt to move on and rid herself of her feelings for him. She, however, did not tell anyone, even Hestia, for she knew what she would say, that this was the reason behind her refusing the pepper up potion. She simply said that coming from a muggle background, she was taught to just let the cold take its course. It was all nonsense of course. Her parents usually loaded her up on flu and cold remedies when she had a cold at home. But Hogwarts didn't know that so it worked as an excuse. Plus, the temperature and sickness made her illness longer.

The second student was Sirius Black. No one was particularly surprised that he had missed two weeks of school, he had done so before, but if they knew the real reason why he wasn't in lessons, they wouldn't believe it…

After getting Moony away from the death eaters, thanks to Wormtail riling the centaurs, Prongs and Padfoot, along with Wormtail, carried Moony to the shrieking shack. When they had gotten him in and Prongs had laid him down on the floor, the stag, dog and rat had decided it was best to return through the whomping willow's passage and back to Hogwarts as it was getting lighter and they were covered in painful injuries. They left Moony knocked out on the floor and began to quietly climb the dirty tunnel. Halfway through, as Prongs couldn't fit down all the way through the tunnel as a stag, he transformed back into James. But this didn't go without concequences.

Moony had woken up and from instantly smelling James' human blood, flew into a frenzy and began to chase them down the tunnel. James ran for his life, the safest bet he had. Wormtail was scurrying along the side of him whilst Padfoot, bravely and on his own, tried to fend Moony off of his best friend. As James was clambering out of the whomping willows passage way, Wormtail by his side, Padfoot pushed Moony back in the direction of the shrieking shack. Wormtail transformed back into Peter and, as the passage sealed itself, he and James were able to catch one last glimpse of Padfoot brawling with Moony in an effort to keep him from them.

James and Peter waited impatiently, sick with worry for their friends safety, at the entrance to the tunnel. Padfoot had never handled Moony on his own. Remus had always said to James and Sirius that neither of them in their animagus forms could handle a fully grown werewolf on their own. That was why they were always together when he transformed. James knew this and, in the back of his mind, he couldn't help but wondering what state his best friend would be in when he finally emerged from the whomping willow, if he ever emerged at all.

When Padfoot eventually clambered out of the whomping willow tunnel, twenty minutes after James and Peter and seen him push Moony back down, he was is a terrible state. He could barely move and so collapsed at the base of the tree. When the tunnel entrance closed again, Peter immediately transformed back into Wormtail and dashed forwards to freeze the tree which would start to move about again in no time. He was then joined by James who picked the limp dog up and rushed him out of the way of the whomping willow whose limbs would soon start to fly again. Wormtail followed. James laid him down in a patch of rising sun whilst he, himself, stayed in an adjacent shadow, and looked over his wounds.

Obviously, from what James could see of Padfoot's injuries, whilst getting him back to the shrieking shack, Moony had become more vicious in his attempts to try and exit the tunnel. Padfoot would have attempted to stop him, being battered, bruised and scratched on his back in the process. James could tell because a third of his wounds had embedded grit and dirt in them something that wouldn't have happened if he had just come out of the tunnel with open gashes. Another third of his wounds were the ones he had received during his fight with Moony in the forest. They were now all matted with fur and blood. The last third of Padfoot's wounds were scattered with splinters and large shards of wood, obviously from the shrieking shack. It didn't take James two guesses to figure out what had happened in there.

James looked around for Wormtail who was squatted at his feet, still a rat, in a position no person wanted to see.

James looked down at him disdainfully, 'You better trying to be turning back.' he said.

Wormtail looked up and twitched his nose and whiskers at James before returning to his squat. After a few minutes he had begun to transform into himself again. When he was there he looked at James pleased with himself. James didn't share his enthusiasm instead he just told Peter to go and get the invisibility cloak, the map and their wands from the dormitory.

When he was gone, James took another look over Padfoot's wounds, apologising to the unconscious dog profusely for he thought it was his fault. There was no sense in his apolgy though. It wasn't his fault. He couldn't help that his animagus form was so large and could barely fit down the tunnel. Still, he thought it was his fault and didn't know how on earth he was going to make this up to the mutt in front of him. A lot of jam most likely. Sirius always said jam cures everything. James just hoped that this was one of those things.

Peter was back in a flash and handed James what he had been and fetched.

'Err…why are you handing me your wand?' James asked, holding it back out to Peter.

'Sorry…' Peter mumbled as he took his wand back and gave James his own.

James shook his head and, using his own wand, squirted some water over Padfoot's face to wake him up.

Padfoot stirred and his eyes flickered open, but not with ease. He let out a pathetic whimper and looked up to James. There was blood in his eyes.

'Can you transform back?' James asked, 'Whimper or blink a few times if you can.' He waited for a response from Padfoot but got nothing.

'All right.' James said, 'Peter, you take the map. Stay ahead of me and tell me if the coast is clear.'

Peter nodded to show that he understood.

'I'm gonna carry Padfoot. Looks like he's not gonna be able to change back at the minute.' James said, looking down at his best friend, 'When I've got him, you throw the cloak over us. Got it?'

Peter nodded again.

James picked the dog up in his arms and, when the cloak was over them, covering them from top to toe, he started off toward the school.

When they arrived back in their dormitory, making it through the school uncaught, James carefully laid Padfoot down on his bed. He lit the lamp that was on the bedside table as well as the one on his own. It gave him just enough light to try and clean some of Padfoot's wounds.

For the remaining nights of the full moon, Padfoot stayed as a dog but didn't go to sit with Moony in the shrieking shack as Prongs and Wormtail did, (to ensure that no-one tried to get to him again).

When Remus came back, he helped James clean out some of Padfoot's more difficult wounds, all the while saying, 'this is all my fault' and 'I'm so, so sorry'. When they were confident that all his wounds were clear, they tried to get him to change back. But he had lost a lot of blood and was still a bit too weak.

It took him one week to gain enough strength to turn back. It was difficult trying to find a substantial excuse when people asked where he was and as they couldn't take him to madam Pomfrey because they would then alert the teachers and the ministry to their illegal adventures, it was even harder trying to heal him. In the end, they snuck into the hospital wing and stole some healing creams and potions which would help him get better.

After two weeks though, Sirius Black and Lily Evans, the two students who were out for two weeks, were both fit and well enough to go back to school and, perhaps more importantly, to the apparation lesson.

* * *

Every sixth year student was gathered in the main hall, Sunday morning, the thirteenth of February, ready for their next session on apparation with Wilkie Twycross. Dumbledore had arranged the enchantments so that the apparation lesson could take place in the great hall with no immediate danger of people apparating into or out of the hall, from within Hogwarts or out. The buzz in the hall was extraordinary. Apparation was a favourite to everyone especially James, Sirius, Remus and Peter. They had even made t-shirts.

When they walked into the hall, they had their jackets on so no-one had seen their t-shirts. As soon as Wilkie Twycross had called for everyone to stand behind a hoop to begin the day's lesson, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter situated themselves in the third row back, slap bang in the middle. They then took off their jackets, apart from Remus, revealing their t-shirts. Written on the back of them were the words, 'Wilkie Twycross - Legend'. On the front of James', Sirius' and Peter's t-shirts was a large letter D.

'Right then,' Wilkie Twycross began, 'continuing from our last session. I do hope that everyone is in front of a hoop.' he said, looking around the hall. As he did this he noticed James, Sirius and Peters t-shirts.

'Ah.' Wilkie Twycross said in surprise, 'The three D's. Destination, determination and deliberation. Am I correct?'

James, Sirius, Remus and Peter looked at each other for five seconds before turning back to look at Wilkie Twycross and simply saying, 'No.'

It was then Remus' turn to speak. 'These D's stand for, dum. Daft. And dopey.' he said, pointing to Sirius, James and Peter in turn respectively. He then took of his jacket to show these words, each with an arrow beside them, corresponding in length to the distance of each of his friends from him.

The hall tittered with laughter. (Or at least the Gryffindor's, Hufflepuff's and Ravenclaw's did. The Slytherin's weren't impressed.) Even Wilkie Twycross gave a little laugh.

'Quite funny hey?' Hestia said to Lily. They were in the back corner of the great hall, in front of their own hoops as far away from the marauders as they could possibly get.

Lily just looked at Hestia. Shrugged sadly and turned to face Wilkie Twycross awaiting instruction.

'We are going to attempt to apparate into hoops today.' he said, 'But not your own. We are going to apparate into a partners hoop. Everyone get a partner.'

There was a lot of unnecessary bustle in the hall, considering everyone was already stood next to their friends. When everyone had chosen a partner, the chatter died down and Wilkie Twycross was able to instruct them to begin.

Remus and Peter were partnered together and Sirius and James. They had played rock paper scissors, the way they made all their decisions, to see who would be with Remus as he was the only one of the four who was halfway decent at apparation at the moment. Peter won with rock whilst Sirius and James had settled on scissors. So when they were in their pairs, they actually got on and did what they were asked to do. After all, apparation was no laughing matter. You could be splinched, as no doubt Peter would be, and it was the fasted mode of transportation in the wizarding world and the marauders, if anything, often needed a quick getaway. Apparation was perfect for them.

Lily in the corner was being distracted from concentrating. Hestia was jabbering on at her.

'I'm just saying.' she said, 'You've had two weeks to think things over and you haven't gotten rid of your so called 'crush'. This goes deeper than you would like to think.'

'For goodness sakes Hestia will you just shut up about it now!' Lily snapped, reaching the end of her tether. 'Just drop this subject. Yes I'm not getting over this as quick as I thought I would but that doesn't mean that I won't.'

Hestia sighed and rolled her eyes.

'I don't see why this is so important to you anyway.' Lily said, 'It's not like it particularly involves you or that you'll benefit from it in any way is it?'

'But you'd make such a good couple.' Hestia whined.

'Yeah well…I thought so too but obviously he thinks differently.' Lily said, 'Now, can we just concentrate on apparating into each other's hoops?'

'I guess so.' Hestia said, pleased that she had gotten under Lily's skin.

Lily shook her head, irritated with Hestia's incessant yammering about James, tried to focus on apparating into Hestia's hoop. As Wilkie Twycross said, she wouldn't reach her desired destination if she didn't fully focus. She just wished Hestia would stop going on about James. Maybe the reason she hadn't been able to rid herself of those pesky feelings was because Hestia brought them up at every available opportunity.

Lily closed her eyes and turned, successfully apparating for the first time. She felt a tug behind her belly button and felt as if she was being compressed through a very tight tube. Her whole body tingled at the uncomfortable sensation but she was pleased with her first successful apparation. It was her landing which wasn't successful.

'Woah!' a voice laughed.

She opened her eyes, still a little dizzy and disorientated from her apparation, and found herself looking up into James Potters hazel eyes, being held by him round her waist as he tried to steady her dizzy body.

'You lost?' he asked with a cheeky smile.

Lily quickly got out of his arms as if he were fire, her heart beating fast and an indescribable terror in the pit of her stomach at being there.

'You all right?' James asked, his face a mix of confusion and cheek.

'Fine.' Lily said abruptly before hurriedly walking away to Hestia who was wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

'You were meant to apparate into my hoop, not James Potter's arms.' she laughed as Lily neared her.

'Shut up Hestia.' Lily said, quite embarrassed at what she had done.

'If you were thinking about apparating into my hoop you would have had no problem.' Hestia began, 'But, I mean, it does make sense if you were thinking about him instead.'

'Really Hestia?' Lily sighed, 'I thought we'd dropped this?'

Hestia just stayed silent and smiled knowingly at Lily before looking pointedly at James who was staring after Lily, extremely confused.

'What's up Jimmy-boy?' Sirius asked stepping into James' wooden hoop.

'You do realise that's cheating right?' James said pointing to the hoop on the ground absentmindedly but still glancing off in the direction Lily had just gone.

'Ah, no-one will know.' Sirius said waving James' comment away, 'What's up?'

'Now Lily's mad at me.' James said, confusion still written all over his face turning back to look at Sirius to see if he had any answers. He didn't.

'Wow.' Sirius said, 'Two girls mad at you…that's the dream!'

'You have odd dreams.' James stated simply.

'Thank you.' Sirius said proudly, 'Now why are they mad at you.'

'I. Don't. Know!' James said, rather frustrated.

'Well you've probably upset Evans.' Sirius said, 'It wouldn't be the first time let's face it. You're kind of an idiot when it comes to her.'

'Thank you.' James said, 'I really needed that.'

'You know what I mean mate!' Sirius said.

'I see you have completed the task.' Wilkie Twycross said to Sirius as he approached him and James, 'If only your partner could extend you the same courtesy so you could move on.'

'I keep thinking the same thing.' Sirius said, feigning upset as Wilkie Twycross patted him on the arm reassuringly and walked away.

When he had left Sirius looked at James, laughter written all over his face. 'And he calls himself an apparation instructor.'

'That's because he is.' James said,

'Pft!' Sirius replied waving his hand at the obvious facts, 'Hey. Can we go see Sophie tonight?'

'What is your obsession with her?' James said, 'You trying to steal her from me?' he laughed, playing with Sirius who momentarily looked like a dear caught in the headlights before catching on that James was joking.

'Nah.' Sirius said, waving a hand, 'She's yours. She made that clear when I first met her and she attacked me.'

'Ha. Yeah.' James laughed and then sighed, 'That was funny though. And no. We can't go and see her tonight.'

'Aw.' Sirius whined.

'We can, however,' James began pointedly, 'Go and see Sox tomorrow. When she's back.'

'Yay!' Sirius said.

'Who's seeing socks?' Peter asked timidly as he and Remus walked over to James and Sirius.

'Not socks you prat!' Sirius said, 'Sox. And I'm talking about Sophie!Not Sox!'

James shook his head with a slight smile and a roll of his eyes.

'We're going to go and see Sophie!' Sirius repeated, looking at James with the look children give each other when they say, 'Na, na, na, na, na!'

'Oh.' Peter mumbled, backing away from Sirius, who was looking at him as if he were dirt and hiding partly behind Remus.

'When?' Remus asked, pulling Peter out from behind him, unimpressed with his cowardice.

'Well I wanted to see her tonight-' Sirius began.

'Yes we should see her tonight.' Remus said adamantly cutting Sirius off, 'If that's what Padfoot wants.'

James looked at Remus understandingly. He walked closer to Remus and put his arm around him in a brotherly fashion. He whispered, 'You don't have to feel guilty for attacking him you know. It's not your fault. And, let's face it, he probably deserved it anyway.'

'I still feel bad though.' Remus said ashamed.

'Well, giving him his own way isn't really going to help.' James said patting Remus on the shoulder and removing his arm, 'In the long run, it's just gonna annoy us really.'

'Yeah.' Remus said, 'But he annoys us anyway…why are we friends with him?'

'Search me.' James said with a shrug, 'Ah. We should keep him around. He's good to laugh at!'

Remus chuckled. 'That's true.'

'Hey.' James said, 'Just think of you attacking him as ultimate payback for what happened before Christmas last year.'

'Yeah.' Remus sighed, 'Ok.'

'Hey. Hey. Hey. What you talking about? Is it about me? Is it about me?' Sirius said bouncing up and down excitedly like a kid on his birthday as he opened his presents.

'We're talking about you, not to you so shut your mouth and try to apparate.' James said, telling Sirius off.

'No.' Sirius said defiantly.

'Well,' James sighed, looking at Remus with a shrug, 'I tried.'

Remus shook his head and rolled his eyes. 'So when we going to see Sophie then?' he asked.

'Tomorrow.' James said, exhaling in annoyance at the name.

* * *

Later that evening, Lily and Hestia were sat in the corner of the common room, all their belongings spread out on a small table with two seats. Lily was forcing Hestia to do the Herbology essay Professor Sprout had set them on Friday about the uses and properties of the fanged geranium, which she had neglected to mention till now. This meant Lily, who was a stickler for doing her homework and getting it in on time, hadn't been informed about this homework because she was hiding in her bed with a cold along with other ailments. So now, she was stuck, on a Sunday night, doing homework instead of reading her book or hanging out with her friends, as she wanted to do.

'Do I have to do this?' Hestia moaned.

'Well considering it's in for Tuesday, I'd say yes.' Lily said in a monotone as she checked her Herbology book to ensure that her facts were correct.

'But it's Monday tomorrow!' Hestia whined, 'I still have one day.'

'But you won't do it tomorrow.' Lily said stopping writing and turning to face Hestia, 'And the way you're going, you're not gonna get this done tonight so you'll have to finish it tomorrow.'

'Well if I'm gonna be doing this tomorrow anyway then technically, I don't have to do it now!' Hestia said putting her quill down happily and resigning herself to relaxation.

Lily sighed, picked up Hestia's quill and placed it in her hand. 'If you make a start now, you'll be able to finish it tonight or tomorrow, _but, _if you _don't_ do anything now, you're not gonna get it finished at all. And you know I'm right. So can you do me a favour and just get on with it so I can finish my essay.' Lily finished, 'Please?'

'Fine.' Hestia huffed returning back to her Herbology essay reluctantly and unenthusiastically.

'Evans!' a voice yelled from across the common room.

Lily turned around to see who had called her and saw James, who had just entered the common room, walking towards her. She sighed and rolled eyes, turning back to Hestia who was trying to hide an evil smile.

'I'm going upstairs.' Lily said gathering her things together hurriedly and standing up.

'You can't leave now!' Hestia said with an incredulous laugh, 'He's seen you see him see you!'

'What?' Lily asked confused.

'Hey Evans. Jones.' James said as he reached the girls nodding his head in a hello to them respectively.

'I've got to go.' Lily said as she began to walk away.

James quickly grabbed her arm and gently turned her around to face him. 'Are you all right?' James asked her, 'Earlier you ran off when you bumped into me in apparation and I think maybe you've been avoiding me-'

'I was ill.' Lily said quickly and defensively very aware that he hadn't let go of her arm. She looked down at it pointedly.

'I meant after the apparation lesson.' James said slowly and cautiously slowly removing his hand and suspecting Lily wasn't telling him the whole story, 'Are you sure you're all right? I mean, you can tell me. We are friends. Aren't we?' he asked, a strange vulnerability in his eyes.

Lily had to steel herself not to let anything show. 'What did you want?' Lily sighed.

James exhaled unbelievingly. Was this real? Was Lily no longer his friend? Why? He couldn't think of anything he had done wrong. He decided to ask Remus when he next saw him. If anyone had paid any attention to any stupid things he had done to upset someone, it was usually Remus. He was the one who usually took notice of his surroundings and the personal relationships of his friends.

'When do you want to meet up and make a start on that potion?' he asked half-heartedly, 'Slughorn wants to see our progress in two weeks.'

'Well…I'm really busy at the moment…maybe you should just make a start on your own…' Lily said, slightly mumbling and twiddling her thumbs.

'Oh…' James said, nodding his head to fill the awkward silence that ensued, 'Ok then…Well…when you're not busy…you're welcome to join-'

'She can do tomorrow evening.' Hestia said as she continued to write her essay, sick of the uncomfortable back and forth between them.

'Really?' James said, visibly lighting up before saying quickly, in a less enthusiastic tone, 'I mean. Really?'

Lily slowly turned her head with an outraged expression on it, towards Hestia. 'Really?' she said through gritted teeth.

Hestia smiled evilly at Lily before leaning around her to talk to James. 'She's free tomorrow night after five.'

'Ah…' James said awkwardly, 'Actually, that's when the valentines feast is and I sort of have something planned-'

Lily looked up, becoming more and more upset and angry as James talked about his Valentines plans, no doubt with his girlfriend Sophie.

'-I can however do after the feast. Sound good?' James ended.

Lily didn't answer. She just looked down at her feet, breathing deeply, with a stubborn and moody face. She was preparing herself to tell James not to cut his plans with his girlfriend short for a stupid potions project. Unfortunately for her, Hestia beat her too it. Only she didn't say what Lily wanted.

'That's fine.' she smiled a little bit mischievously, 'You two can meet after the feast down in the dungeons in the fourth potions room. That room's always free.'

'Great!' James smiled at Hestia before looking down at Lily, 'See you tomorrow then!'

'Fine.' she mumbled before turning her back on James, flipping her hair and sitting back down at the table. She turned her head sharply to Hestia who was trying to smile innocently at her.

'Why did you have to do that?' Lily hissed quietly to Hestia once James had gone.

'Because it's school work and even though you're not admitting your feelings towards Potter anymore-'

'I don't _have _feelings for him-'

'_-_you've never wanted to miss out on doing any school work.' Hestia carried on.

'But he's having a valentines dinner before, no doubt with…her-' Lily said, not being able to bring herself to say James' girlfriend's name anymore.

'And after he's had a mediocre dinner with her, he'll go down to the dungeons, see you looking fantastic as always and forget all about her.' Hestia said, sucking up to Lily, (who had given a small chuckling smile), in an attempt to stop Lily being mad at her.

Lily smiled weakly at Hestia with a sigh and continued with her Herbology homework. Hestia sighed with relief at successfully evading an annoyed and angry Lily for the rest of the night.

'Hey Prongs!' Sirius yelled as he Remus and Peter entered the common room. The three boys walked over to where James was sitting, reading 'Quidditch Through the Ages' next to a group of third years, on the large settee in front of the fireplace.

'Move.' he said to the third years, (who did as he said), next to James before he jumped over the back of the settee and settled himself next to him.

'You have such a way with words.' Remus said sarcastically as he flopped down next to Sirius on the settee and Peter sat on the floor in front of them, looking up to them as if they were gods.

Sirius just smirked at Remus before giving James the Daily Prophet which was rolled up in his hand.

'Read that.' he said, as James unrolled the newspaper, 'Page three.'

'Alright, alright!' James said, 'I'm getting there!'

He flicked through the newspaper to page three and read the article on the page entitled, 'Attack at St Mungo's'.

_In the early hours of yesterday afternoon, St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries was attacked by many followers of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Although their reasons for attacking the long-term home to many witches and wizards, it is believed that they were there to recruit for You-Know-Who._

_ In an attempt to save their patients and their families from the Death Eaters, the Healers of St Mungo's Hospital rallied together for an epic showdown between themselves and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's followers. Although many of the witches and wizards who were there allied themselves with the Healers to protect the hospital, the stand-out hero of this battle was Jane Potter, (wife to the late auror, Daniel Potter), single-handedly capturing six of the estimated fifteen death eaters who had attacked. Witnesses at the scene had only high praise for the witch when the Daily Prophet interviewed them._

_ 'I was there when they attacked' said one onlooker who has requested to remain anonymous 'We all thought that we were going to be captured, cursed or something by those wizards in masks, but then, out of nowhere, Mrs Potter, who's treating my uncle as it happens, performed some extraordinary magic. I've not seen magic like that in years. Very refreshing to see good magic at its best. If it wasn't for her, I doubt half as many people who were there would be alive today.' _

_ Another witness described the protection Jane Potter had put in place as soon as new reached her about the attack. 'She performed many standard protection spells around the entrances and exits to the majority of the wards. Usually that's not particularly impressive. My son, who's studying at Hogwarts at the minute, can do most of those enchantments. It was the speed, effectiveness and efficiency that she completed them with. Sometimes even casting the spells over several floors at once. Now that's a wide aim.'_

_ It seems that lately, despite their recent and tragic loss, the Potter family can do no wrong. We are of course referring back to the Hogsmeade attack in January when James Potter, Jane Potter's only son and last of the wizarding families line, was able to return all Hogwarts students, who were visiting the village, back to safety. It was also said that he assisted in disarming many of the death eaters and duelling them with skill equally matched to his opponent even though they are bound to have had many years and experience over his. The sales assistant in Zonko's joke shop, a place where James Potter is reported to be a frequent customer, commented to us that, 'James Potter fought with the ease, efficiency and confidence of a more accomplished witch or wizard. It's hard to believe he's just a sixth year. I'd wager that in a few years' time, he could give Dumbledore or even You-Know-Who a good run for their money.'_

_ We're expecting big things from the Potter name. Who knows, the family might even be the ones to save the wizarding world from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named._

James finished reading and turned to Sirius who was now on his knees, bowing down to James.

'The saviour!' he was chanting.

James stood up purposefully and pushed Sirius over before sitting back down.

'Hey what was that for?' Sirius laughed as he stood up and jumped onto the settee next to James in a crouch, 'I was worshipping the future saviour of the wizarding world!' he said as he stuck his face ridiculously close to James, a creepy but joking smile on his face.

'And now you're annoying the future murderer of Sirius Black.' James said with a nod of his head.

Sirius gasped, feigning shock and hurt. 'You couldn't do that to me!' he said, 'You would want to be the person responsible for making the world lose true beauty?'

'You're right.' James said dropping his head momentarily before looking up with a cheeky smile, 'Good job I'm gonna murder you and not someone who's actually good-looking then hey?'

Sirius' face dropped. He grabbed the Daily Prophet from where James had placed it on the settee, rolled it up and preceded to hit him with it. 'Take that back! Take it back!' he was yelling as he beat James who was laughing infectiously.

'Remus help me!' James said through laughs.

'Don't get me involved in this.' he said as he grabbed the newspaper out of Sirius flying hand and settled down to read it.

'Thought you didn't want to be involved?' Sirius asked as he realised his weapon had been stolen. He flopped down from his crouch to sit down on the sofa.

'I don't.' Remus said, flicking through the Daily Prophet. 'Doesn't mean I don't want to read the paper!'

'You know…' Sirius began thoughtfully, '…you did say something about that earlier…'

'Yeah.' Remus said looking at Sirius, 'Then you saw that article about James and his Mum, stole it off me and ran up here.'

'Oh yeah…' Sirius said, 'So did you arrange a time for your potions thing?'

'Yeah.' James said, 'Tomorrow night.'

'What?' Sirius said, 'But the feast! It's Valen-'

'What's up?' Remus said, cutting Sirius off mid-sentence when he noticed James' confused tone and expression.

'You know Evans said she'd give me another chance?' James started, whispering so that she wouldn't hear him. She was just across the common room after all.

'Well yeah.' Remus said, remembering that he had been the one to convince her to try.

'Well do you think I've blown it?' James asked.

'What do you mean?' Remus replied.

'I think she's mad at me.' James sighed.

'But you've done nothing wrong. You were getting on really well.' Remus said, 'In fact I thought it was only a matter of time before you announced that you were together.'

'Well I can't do that now!' James said.

'Obviously not.' Remus said, 'I wonder why she's mad at you?'

'I don't know.' James shook his head, 'I was hoping you might have noticed something, or seen me do something wrong or…anything really.'

'I haven't I'm afraid.' Remus said, 'But I'll keep an eye out. We'll find out what's wrong.'

James smiled and sighed, 'Thanks.'

* * *

**Thanks for Reading**

**Galindaba**


	24. Chapter 23

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter Twenty-Three! **

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Three**

The next day was Valentine's day. Throughout the whole of breakfast, owls were fluttering here and there delivering secret love notes, cards and chocolates. Many people had to keep ducking to avoid the low swooping owls as they dropped off post and packages to various students. The beating of wings was almost as loud as the squeals and cheers of delight as girls and boys alike opened gifts from boyfriends, girlfriends, secret admirers and for some of the shyer first and second years, their parents.

James, Sirius, Remus and Peter were sat in the middle of the Gryffindor table where a flurry of multi-coloured birds surrounded them. James was ignoring them and reading the Daily Prophet which was the only piece of mail delivered to him which wasn't a valentine's note. Remus was making notes from a text book, doing some revision for a Care of Magical Creatures test which his class was being given on the coming Wednesday. Peter was peering over his shoulder, wondering what he was doing. And Sirius was staring at James reading the paper.

James glanced over to Sirius aware of his gaze on him. He slightly shook his head and returned to the Daily Prophet. He turned the page and started reading an article on the recent Quidditch game between Puddlemere United and the Wimbourne Wasps. He was half way through the article on the nail biting game, when Sirius' intense stare, burning into the side of his head, became too annoying to ignore anymore. James put down the paper and looked at Sirius who raised his eyebrows as an indication. Sighing, James sat up straight, shook his head with a small but wonky smile, and began counting out the mound of cards and notes in front of him into three separate piles.

Sirius was now bounding up and down in his seat, unable to contain himself. He had suddenly transformed into a hyper-active child, though the difference wasn't that great from his normal self. When James had finished counting the last card, Sirius couldn't wait to find the result and quickly blurted out, 'What's the total?'

'Forty-two for me. Forty-one for you.' James said with a smirk.

'Man!' Sirius said, his body visibly deflating, 'That's the closest it's ever been! Why do I always lose?'. He slumped even further down in his seat, grabbed a heart shaped crumpet and began to chew on it slowly.

'Because Prongs is much nicer than you.' Remus said, not looking up from his notes.

'But I'm more gorgeouser than him!' Sirius exclaimed, food spraying bits of crumpet across the table and onto Remus' text book.

'Gorgeouser isn't a word Padfoot.' Remus sighed exasperatedly, brushing the crumbs away from his work, 'And I don't know why you have to turn this into a competition every year!'

'Only cause you don't get as many as me!' Sirius said, boastfully, swinging his legs out from behind the Gryffindor table and picking up his pile of valentines.

'I highly doubt that's the reason, Padfoot.' James replied to Sirius with a laugh. He copied Sirius and swung his legs out from behind the table, gathered up his valentines and stood up before continuing, 'Not everyone takes pride in how many girls he's stringing along at once.'

'You can't talk!' Sirius said, 'You got more than me!'

'By one!' James retorted, as they, plus Peter and Remus who were walking down the other side of the Gryffindor table, strolled down to the end of the great hall and exited it. They all met at the entrance hall and turned right to climb a flight of stairs on their way to their charms lesson.

'And he didn't have to go through the trouble of personally charming them all individually.' Remus said, continuing their conversation.

'Hey!' Sirius said, stopping in the middle of the staircase, causing a small traffic jam, and pointing a finger at Remus' face, 'I do that out of the kindness of my heart!'

'Those poor girls.' Remus said sarcastically shaking his head. He pushed Sirius forward up the stairs and the crowd which had formed behind them was once again able to move.

'Hey!' Sirius repeated, this time pointing a finger over his shoulder, (he was unable to stop as Remus was guiding him up the stairs by pushing his back), 'It seems to have worked! I have forty-one valentines!'

'And James has forty-two without even trying.' Remus replied.

James laughed. Remus and Sirius' little debates were always humorous to watch and listen too. Sirius had the enthusiasm to take the argument further but in the end, Remus had the knowledge and tact to win the argument. It was always fun to see Sirius try and win. At this moment though, he had realised that he had lost.

Sirius stared at Remus with narrowed eyes. 'You got twenty-eight this year.' Sirius said changing the subject quickly to avoid his humiliating defeat in his argument.

'Joy.' Remus rolled his eyes. They reached the top of the long staircase and turned left down a corridor. They passed a group of girls walking in the opposite direction who giggled as they walked by. Remus rolled his eyes at them. Peter hid from them. James ignored them and Sirius winked at them.

'How many did I get?' Peter asked meekly as soon as they were out of earshot of the girls.

'Don't be stupid Wormy.' Sirius snapped as he opened a door pretending to be a painting and began to climb the staircase behind.

Peter hung his head in shame and spent the rest of the walk to charms in silence. They took the quickest way they knew to charms; through all the secret passage ways and hidden staircases. Hogwarts was a labyrinth which only a few could navigate their way around. James, Sirius, Remus and Peter, (when he was following the other three), were four the few. They had spent many nights and lessons sneaking around the school. They had come to know it so well they made the marauders map. They had come to know it so well that they could start anywhere in the castle and be at the direct opposite location in less than five minutes. They had come to know it so well, that Sirius had decided that the castle was now theirs and anyone else who wanted access to Hogwarts, needed to ask their permission. James and Remus thankfully, had managed to talk him out of that idea.

When they arrived in the room, they took their seats at the back of the class. Everyone was already there. James gave a friendly smile to Lily on his way past her. She saw the smile but turned her head away from him as soon as she could. James shook his head and frowned. Why was she mad at him?

'Let's see what I've got then.' Sirius said hungrily as he sat down and spread his valentine's takings across the table.

'There's no chocolate.' James said as he sat down next to Sirius and took out his charms book, a spare piece of parchment, some ink and his new quill which he had gotten for Christmas.

'Oh.' Sirius said disappointed, 'Shan't bother then.', he shoved all of his cards onto James' side of the desk and continued, 'Either give them to Wormy or shove them in the bin.'

James sighed and levitated all Sirius' valentine's notes and cards into the bin.

'You getting rid of all yours?' Sirius asked James.

'Yeah.' James said as he did the same with his own valentine's takings. Once they were in the bin, James, out of sheer habit looked down to the front of the classroom to where Lily was sitting. She was looking at him. As soon as she realised that he was looking back at her however, she turned back to face the front where Professor Flitwick had started the lesson.

The rest of the day went by in a flash. The rest of Lily's lessons, after double charms first, which had dragged a bit at the start, seemed to go by in a blur. She spent her third period in the Library finishing the Herbology essay she had begun the previous night. And for the last two periods, she had potions which, thankfully, in her opinion, Professor Slughorn had elected to give them a test which consumed the whole of the double period. So by the time the school day had done, Lily was exhausted and hungry and ready for the feast which was to take place in the great hall as per usual.

Everyone was seated and the feast was about to begin. Out of sheer habit from the past month, Lily glanced around the Gryffindor table for James. When she first began to like him she did it to catch his eyes or to see if he was looking at her the way she was looking at him. Now she tried to convince herself that she was only looking for him so that she could stay as far away from him as possible. He wasn't there anyway. Lily thought he was obviously at another table having a valentine's dinner with his girlfriend. Though she didn't know which that would be for she didn't know which house his girlfriends was in. She obviously wasn't in Gryffindor and she knew James well enough to know that he would never date a girl in Slytherin. He would rather die. She couldn't decide which of the other two houses he would choose a girlfriend from. He would like a Ravenclaw as he did like clever girls. (Without being big-headed, Lily assumed it was a reason James had liked her.) Then again, James honoured loyalty as he was fiercely loyal to his friends himself. That was apparent just by watching the four marauders. It was hard to know which house he would chose a girlfriend from when she remembered the Ravenclaw who was sneaking back from the Owlery the night she found out about Sophie. Obviously that was James' girlfriend.

'Looking for someone?' Hestia asked Lily knowingly.

'Not particularly.' Lily said indifferently, looking back to the table in preparation of the feast.

At the front of the hall, Dumbledore stood up, his arms open wide in greeting. 'Happy valentine's day everybody. The one day of the year which celebrates love. But shouldn't we celebrate love every day of the year. To love is an honourable trait-'

'I agree!' Sirius Black said from the back of the hall. He was stood in the middle of the large double doors. His chest was puffed out, a hand on one hip, his broom in the other. 'I have come to collect my one true love! The woman who has captured my heart.' He suddenly mounted his broom, did loop-de-loop in the air, flying over the heads of everyone in the hall to woops and cheers and finally stopped mid-air in front of the teachers table.

'Professor McGonagall,' Sirius announced holding his hand out to her.

'Really Mr Black!' Professor McGonagall said in a mix of embarrassment and annoyance, 'I do believe this is rather inappro-'

'Leave her be!' came a voice from the back of the hall. It was James stood in a similar pose to how Sirius had previously stood. He took the same action as Sirius and spectacularly flew over the heads of the Hogwarts students. He parked his broom mid-air next to Sirius'.

'How dare you put claim on my fair maiden!' James said looking at Sirius, 'Have you no shame Sir?'

'I am afraid I don't know what you're on about.' Sirius replied, looking dreamily back to Professor McGonagall, 'I only see the woman I love.'

'But she's mine!' James said valiantly, grabbing the handle of Sirius' broom and turning him back to face him, 'We're on a first name basis. I call her professor!'

The hall snickered in laughter as did many of the teachers, including Dumbledore. Professor McGonagall however, was less than impressed that she was the subject of their latest charade.

'Really boys! I do believe that is quite enough!' she said with a shrilly tone, placing both of her hands on the table and standing up

'Shhh fair maiden!' James said, holding out a finger to silence Professor McGonagall who looked as if she should have steam coming out of her ears, 'We shall decide who wins your heart, in a good old fashioned duel.'

'Really, there is no need to turn your wands on each other, especially at a meal!' Professor McGonagall said, once more attempting to quell the boys antics.

'Hush my love!' Sirius said, hopping off of his broom and landing on the table which the teachers were sat at.

James copied. 'There will be no need for wands.' he said, bending down and picking up the goblet full of pumpkin juice which was in front of Dumbledore. He raised the goblet, (in a similar way to how Dumbledore usually did at the beginning of a special feast.), to Sirius, McGonagall, Dumbledore, the teachers and the hall at large in turn before drinking it down. 'We fight like honourable men!' he announced, immediately whipping out his wand and transfiguring the goblet into a magnificent sword.

Sirius raised one eyebrow and bent down so that his face was level with Professor McGonagall. He put his hand around her pumpkin juice filled goblet and said, 'May I borrow this my love?' Without waiting for a reply, he picked up the goblet, looked at the contents inside it, shrugged and threw it over James to laughs, gasps and a few cheers from the great hall.

Whilst James wiped the pumpkin juice out of his eyes with his free hand, Sirius transfigured Professor McGonagall's drinking goblet into a sword which rivalled James. Suddenly they both jumped into an 'on-guard' position. Their swords clanged together in an impressive sword fight as James backed Sirius down the Professors long table. Sirius swung his sword over James' head to which James successfully ducked.

'You missed!' James said as Sirius took another swing at his head, 'Catch me if you can!' he said cheekily as he jumped off of the high table and leaped onto the Hufflepuff table.

Sirius followed suit and crossed swords all the way down the long table and then continued to do the same down the Ravenclaw table and Gryffindor table. They stayed away from the Slytherin table and no-one took more than one guess why. If they went sword fighting down their table than it was more than likely they would end up with a Slytherin kebab on the end of their swords.

They were making a lot of grand swings and loud noises to many gasps, woops and cheers until finally Professor McGonagall could take it no more.

'Really boys!' she said walking out from behind the table at the head of the great hall, 'Would you stop this nonsense at once!'

'No my love!' Sirius yelled as he jumped over the sword James swung at his feet, 'I must win your love during a noble fight!'

'Now Mr Black, no-one will be winning my love, especially this way, now will you stop this right now!' Professor McGonagall asked in a temper as the hall laughed and watched James and Sirius jump off of the Gryffindor table to the middle of the hall and begin circling each other, every so often pulling faces and jabbing a sword at the other.

'My dear Professor, there are only two ways we can stop this noble fight for your love.' James said as he lunged at Sirius who smartly ducked and ran screaming like a girl down the middle of the hall. He ended up hiding behind Filch, who was stood at the back of the hall, much to the amusement and laughter of the great hall. When he realised what he had done however and saw the look of disgust on Filches face at being near one the people who constantly made his job harder than it need be, Sirius quickly gave an arrogant smile and ran back to James.

'As I was saying Professor,' James continued, spinning his sword around impressively before leaning on it as the blade pointed and rested on the floor, 'there are only two ways you can stop us-'

'Technically we've already stopped-' Sirius interrupted and whispered into James' ear.

'-and here they are.' James continued, ignoring Sirius, (silencing him with a gesture of his hand), and captivating the hall into listening to the conversation, the quietest they'd ever been. 'Either declare your love for one of us right here, right now with everyone listening.'

The hall sniggered as Professor McGonagall looked around it. 'What's the other option?' she asked.

'You promise that no student in this hall will ever receive homework again!' Sirius yelled triumphantly jabbing his sword heroically into the air.

'And some jelly!' James added quickly.

The hall burst into a rapturous applause scattered with many cheers and a few laughs.

'One day with no homework.' Professor McGonagall said defiantly and a little miffed she was even doing this.

'Seven years!' Sirius said.

'And some jelly!' James added.

'One day.' Professor McGonagall repeated, 'And no jelly Mr Potter.'

Sirius nodded his head and momentarily, Professor McGonagall believed that she had won the deal.

'One year!' Sirius suddenly came out with, 'Until we leave!'

'And that day cannot come fast enough in my opinion.' Professor McGonagall said crisply, 'One day. That is my final offer.'

'This isn't the way these things work Professor McGonagall.' Sirius said shaking his head and placing a hand on her shoulder before quickly removing it at her dangerous look. He continued, 'We're lowering our offer. You have to work with us, not stick to the same answer all the time! One month!' Sirius ended.

'And how about this jelly, eh!' James added enthusiastically, raising his hands for the hall to cheer and, as it was James Potter, they did.

'One day. And a bowl full of jelly for Mr Potter.' Professor McGonagall said exasperatedly.

'One day, which we get to pick, and a bowl of jelly for everyone in the hall!' Sirius said aloud, his voice raising in volume by the end of his sentence.

'Yes!' James exclaimed happily.

'Oh alright!' Professor McGonagall said finally giving in, 'Now will you please take your seats?'

The hall clapped, cheered and laughed as James and Sirius walked down the hall, swords still in hand and took their seats next to Remus and Peter at the end of the Gryffindor table.

Professor Dumbledore stood up when James and Sirius had sat down. 'Thank you for that show boys. Very amusing.' he said with a small chuckle, 'Now without any further delay, enjoy.' Dumbledore said opening his arms wide.

No sooner had the words left his lips when a bowl of red, heart-shaped jelly appeared in front of every student and teacher in the hall. Everyone had to admit it, Dumbledore was good!

* * *

Whilst everyone was at the Valentines feast, a group of Slytherin's were hiding out down in the dungeons. They were discussing a matter of great importance to them all.

'The Dark Lord has called us for an urgent meeting!' Avery said to his fellow Slytherin's who were crammed into the secluded room in the dungeons which they had hijacked that evening during the feast.

'Do you know what for?' Bellatrix said, leaning forward, eyes sparkling at the prospect of seeing Lord Voldemort in person for the first time. She had only had contact with him through letters instructing her what to do, but she had heard a lot about him.

'I'm not sure.' Avery said, 'It could be anything. Things are moving swiftly.'

'It shouldn't be long now.' Mulciber said looking darkly at everyone in the room.

Everyone smiled evilly. Severus was leant in the shadows near a grate at the top of the wall which let in the evening air. He moved forward and sat down at the table which Bellatrix, Wilkes and Rosier were sat at. In the middle of the table was a small rounded jar which carried a green flame inside, illuminating their faces in a harsh glare. The silence extended whilst the group of aspiring death eaters thought of what would happen in this meeting. Many thoughts ran through Severus' head. Maybe the Dark Lord was planning to overthrow the Minister for Magic. Maybe it was a branding ceremony. Maybe it was a plan to invade or attack a muggle or wizarding village. They didn't know

'When is this meeting.' Severus asked looking at Avery who was leant against the door ensuring that no-one entered the room.

'In a couple of weeks.' Avery said.

'And how do you propose we get there?' Mulciber sneered as he snooped through the room they were in, pocketing anything he found that could be valuable.

'The meeting is during the day.' Avery began, 'We'll have to create a distraction whilst Filch is unlocking the gate so that he can go and get more cleaning supplies from Hogsmeade-'

'Why will he need cleaning supplies?' Wilkes asked.

'Use your brain Wilkes!' Severus hissed, 'Obviously we're going to destroy his giving him a reason to leave and us an opportunity!'

'Exactly.' Avery said.

'So what distraction are you thinking of?' Bellatrix asked, 'Can we perhaps curse some mudbloods? It's not like they don't deserve it. Stealing our heritage.'

'As much as we would all like to do that,' Severus said looking around the room at each person in turn who returned a sardonic smile, 'it would raise too much attention and I am sure the Dark Lord would not want that.'

'How do you know what the Dark Lord wants?' Bellatrix hissed viciously, as if it was an offence to know or even guess what Voldemort was thinking.

'Why do you think every attack is cautiously planned out?' Severus snapped, standing up, leaning on the table and looming over Bellatrix, 'Why do you think masks are worn during an attack? Why do you think spies are sent in beforehand either by imperious curse or otherwise?'

'Isn't the whole point of this to raise the attention of the wizarding world to the wrongs that are going on beneath their noses?' Rosier said gruffly, 'To let them know what those mudbloods are doing to our society?'

'Not on terms which the Dark Lord has not set himself!' Severus snapped, 'Everything is planned precisely so that attention is drawn at the right moment in the right place. I don't see why you are questioning the Dark Lord's tactics and wishes.'

'I wasn't questioning-'

'Shut up Rosier!' Severus said, 'Or I shall be forced to inform the Dark Lord of your queries and misconceptions! And worse, your doubt!'

* * *

James was carrying two bowls of jelly down a small and hidden spiral staircase which led to the dungeons. If you knew James, there were only two reasons why he would be doing this. The first was the reason he was doing it now; he was going to a study session and the jelly was a snack. The second was something he and Sirius had done in their third year; put jelly in all the Slytherin's pillow cases. James did say it was a waste of good jelly at first but Sirius had convinced him that it was a worthy cause.

So James was heading down to his first study session with Lily and he wasn't afraid to say that he was excited. It had been a good day so far. His valentine's plans, his and Sirius plans, had come off without a hitch and one day soon they would declare that no homework would be given out on that day. They now just had to think of when would be the best opportunity for it. But right now he was going to make a start on the potion project Slughorn had set him and Lily to keep him occupied.

He walked down the dimly lit corridor which gave a green and sickly glare. It was quite a long walk to get to the room where Lily was waiting. She had told him shortly at the end of the Valentines meal, which he had rather enjoyed, that she was going to head down and fetch the ingredients. She had seemed rather sharp but James just put it down to his childish behaviour before the feast. He wasn't going to let it bother him though. He knew she was a little bit mad at him anyway, for reasons he didn't understand, so he thought he'd just charm her with jelly and hope she'd forgive him. He'd thought of it when the Ravenclaw girl next to him, who had come over to their table especially for a lovely romantic valentines feast with her boyfriend, had said that jelly could cure pretty much any problem. It was a great dinner.

He passed several rooms down the corridor and even a wall which was pretending to be a door. He also passed the entrance to the Slytherin common room to which he stopped at and contemplated throwing the jelly at it. In the end he decided that the jelly had done nothing to deserve that terrible fate so he continued down the corridor until he eventually came to the potion room where Lily would be waiting for him.

* * *

Remus was just entering the common room, returning from the library where he had been to fetch a book for his care of magical creature class, when he saw something which he took no notice of. So, he continued over to the spiral staircase which led to his dormitory. Half way up the stairs something occurred to him. What he had seen in the common room, what he had seemingly ignored, wasn't right.

He headed back down the stairs to make sure what he had seen was true. He entered the bustling common room again, his library book still in his hand, and he looked over the heads of all the students until he finally found who was looking for. He pushed his way through the many students who were obviously only just coming back from the feast, until he was face to face with them.

'What are you doing here?' he asked.

* * *

'I brought jelly…Jones?' James said as he entered the room. He looked confusedly at Hestia who was stood defiantly near the desk which a professor would usually use. It had a few papers on it and James could see she had been looking through them.

'Bad habit of mine.' she said indicating to the pile of ruffled paper, 'My curiosity takes over sometimes. I'm like Lily that way.'

'Well you know what they say.' James said, walking further into the room and placing the bowls of jelly on the desk.

'Well luckily I don't have a cat so I don't think it matters much!' Hestia said with a quick but silent laugh.

'I don't think you have to own a cat.' James said resting on the desk, putting one of the bowls down but keeping one of the bowls of jelly in his hands and digging in.

'Great.' Hestia said, 'So know I'm gonna be responsible for killing a load of poor, unsuspecting cats? Thanks!'

James laughed, 'I'm pretty sure that's not how it works.'

'Oh…' Hestia said, pulling the other bowl of jelly closer towards her, 'Then how does it work?' she asked.

'I'm not sure.' James asked spooning some jelly into his mouth, 'It is just a saying after all.'

'Yeah right.' Hestia sighed, picking up the spoon that was in the jelly.

'You know Jones,' James started, pulling the jelly bowl away from Hestia as she went for a spoonful, 'as much as I enjoy our random conversations and the fact that you're obviously not mad at me anymore, (still don't know why that was by the way), but, what are you doing here?'

* * *

'You're meant to be doing that potion with James aren't you?' Remus said, trying to persuade her answer.

Lily said nothing.

'He's down there now I think.' Remus continued, 'Are you going down there now?'

She still said nothing.

'It's not long since he left.' Remus said, looking at his watch but becoming more and more certain that Lily wouldn't go down to the potion room to meet James no matter what. He did try again though. 'You might meet him on the way down if you go now.'

'I'm not going.' Lily said quietly, 'I…don't feel well.'

'Don't lie to me.' Remus said shaking his head.

'You don't know I'm lying-'

'Yes I do.' Remus said, cutting Lily off. 'Funny thing about Hogwarts is that we don't realise half the time that we are really living with each other. I've seen when you're ill and you're not ill now. So why aren't you going down to do that potion project with James?'

'Because I don't want to.' Lily said exasperatedly, rolling her eyes and averting her gaze away from Remus' intense stare.

'Yes you do!' Remus said shortly.

Lily suddenly looked at him, surprised and eyes wide. He couldn't know how much she actually did want to make that potion. Liquid luck. It could help her. But he couldn't know why she wanted the lucky potion. She herself couldn't decide between two reasons which were floating through her mind.

'What do you mean?' Lily asked, realising she hadn't said anything in thirty seconds.

'Potions fascinates you!' Remus said, 'You don't have to be your best friend to realise that, so if you had the opportunity to make a potion which we wouldn't usually be asked to make you would do it.'

'Well I don't want to!' Lily said, 'You obviously don't know me as well as you think you do.'

'That might be true but I know you enough.' Remus said, 'Anyone who's known you for over five minutes knows you enough.'

'Don't you make out that my life is an open book!' Lily stormed.

'I'm not saying that at all!' Remus said.

'Well good…because it's not!' Lily said, 'You have no idea what I like or not! And…just because it may be… 'apparent' to you,' Lily said in bits, using air quotes, 'Doesn't mean that you know everything about me!'

Remus sighed, 'I didn't mean that.' He paused. 'I just want to re-ask-'

'Oh for God's sakes Lupin, stop hounding me!' Lily interrupted, worn down and annoyed by his questions.

'I'm just trying to figure out-'

'Well stop!' Lily said, marching away and starting up the girls staircase, sure that Remus wouldn't be able to follow.

But he could and he did. Remus quickly followed her. She was only a couple of steps up the staircase so he jumped onto the same step as her, certain that the girls staircase, which was charmed to allow girls and only girls up to the dormitory, wouldn't change itself into a slide to decline him entry.

'You can't come up here!' Lily said as she continued up the stairs, Remus always being on the same step as she was.

'The steps seem to say otherwise!' Remus said as they reached a level landing with a dormitory door on it.

'Well I don't!' Lily said, 'I'm not surprised you've figured out how to trick the stairs, but I am surprised you're doing it! I'd expect it of Black or even…but not you!'

'First of all, the only reason we figured out the stairs was because we lost our Quaffle up here once.' Remus began, 'Sirius may have tried sneaking up here anyway but James, me and Peter never did or do, so you can just get that idea out of your head now.' Remus said, shocking Lily a little bit. 'Secondly, all I want to know is why you're not going down to do that potion with James. Really.'

'I really don't think this is any of your business Lupin.' Lily said, folding her arms.

'Actually it is.' Remus asked.

Lily stopped. She was stunned. She didn't expect this response. 'How?'

'Because,' Remus started, becoming very serious, 'James is my friend and he was actually looking forward to doing this project because it would give him something else to think about. He needs the distraction.'

'Why?' Lily asked curiously.

'Because he recently lost his dad.' Remus said solemnly.

Lily looked a little abashed. 'I know that.'

'He values your friendship you know.' Remus said, 'He spent ages asking you out and everything but I think he's happy with being your friend. For now.'

Lily looked up alert, 'For now?'

'But if you carry on ignoring him and quickly walking away from him when he tries to talk to you and acting mad at him and rolling your eyes at him-'

'What's your point?' Lily sighed, bored of the list.

'If you keep doing that I'm worried that he might spiral out of control.' Remus said. 'And I thought you were meant to be giving him a chance?'

'I'm sorry he's not coping well.' Lily said sincerely, 'but…', she continued, trying to think of something to say that would make Remus drop this subject because he was making her feel bad, '…I gave you all a chance and…it's done.'

'Why?' Remus said, 'What did we do?'

'Well…the childish stuff you do. The apparation lesson.' Lily said, plucking this event from mid-air for an excuse.

'That's why you don't want to be our friend?' Remus said, 'Because we do childish stuff?'

'Well…yes?' Lily said, regretting it the moment she said it. She believed she had just effectively ended her friendship with all the marauders in one word.

'Well the wizarding world is in a war at the minute. But we don't have to let it through these walls and ruin our last worry-free years at Hogwarts.' Remus started, his eyes flashing, 'It won't be long until we're forced out into that world to confront the problem and most likely fight for our lives and our rights every day! We'll be forced to grow up and we won't even have time to find a place in that world. So yeah, we still do childish stuff because we are technically still children and you can be pretty damn sure that we're gonna milk it as long as possible! Sorry if you feel like you can't be our friend because we're too childish, but we're not gonna stop having fun before we have to!' Remus finished angrily.

Lily said nothing as Remus turned around, walked away from her on the small landing and slid down the spiral slide which had replaced the staircase. She had nothing to say. He was right.

* * *

Hestia said nothing. She pulled the bowl of jelly which James had taken away from her and dug in the spoon that was still in her hand.

'Jones?' James said softly, 'Why are you here?'

'Lily's not coming.' Hestia said to her bowl of jelly.

James also looked down to his jelly. This news saddened him. 'Oh…' he said, 'Is she still mad at me?'

'What do you mean?' Hestia said, looking up at him, 'Lily's not mad at you.'

'She isn't?' James asked, confused, 'I thought she was.'

'Why?' Hestia questioned.

'Because she was…ignoring me. Being short with me.' James suggested, 'She's not here.'

'That's not why she's not here.' Hestia said shaking her head.

'Then why isn't she here?' James asked pressingly.

'I…' Hestia paused. She couldn't tell him. Lily would kill her now. Maybe if she'd have just told him herself sooner then Lily wouldn't be acting silly and avoiding James and James would have some idea of what to do. Now it was all different though. Lily couldn't have feelings for him because of Sophie. It would just make thing awkward if he knew. But didn't he have a right to know? Then again, didn't Hestia have a duty to Lily, her best friend, to indulge her wishes and let her get over it? 'I can't tell you.' Hestia said, eventually settling on indulging Lily's request.

'Well, as the person she's bailing out on for making this potion, I think I have a right to know.' James said before quickly adding, 'I think people ought to know why their school may possibly end up being blown up because I wasn't kept an eye during making this potion.'

Hestia sighed. 'Alright. The whole school has no business knowing, but…you're right. It does involve you and I think you do deserve to know.'

James smiled gleefully and settled himself onto the desk he had been leaning against and sitting crossed legged, eager to hear.

Hestia sighed again. 'Lily will kill me if she finds out I'm telling you this-'

'It's a noble cause.' James interrupted.

Hestia shook her head. 'You know, if I do tell you this you have _got _to promise that you won't tell _anyone!_' she said, looking very sternly at James who now looked a little less eager and a little more scared.

'O…kay…' he said a bit warily.

'I mean it!' Hestia continued, staring James straight in the eye, 'You can't tell a soul. Not Black or Lupin! Not one of the ghosts. Not any of the professors. None of the other kids at the school and definitely not Lily.'

'I won't.' James said seriously.

'Promise?' Hestia asked, pointing a finger at James.

'I promise.' James replied, 'And when I make a promise, I never break it.'

Hestia breathed in deeply and nodded. 'Okay.' she said, 'Here goes…Lily likes you.'

James' face froze. 'Oh.' he whispered eventually after a few second of pure silence. He wasn't expecting that. 'That's…oh…' he paused, '…wow…was not…err…really?'

'Yes.' Hestia said with a small smile at James reaction. It wasn't how she thought he'd react. In her mind he would have marched straight over to Lily and ask her out. Then again, maybe because of the current circumstances, the promise he had made her and obviously, his relationship with Sophie. Now that she thought about it, Hestia thought she had probably just scrambled his mind.

'Why can't I tell her you've told me?' James eventually asked.

'Because she doesn't like the fact that she likes you.' Hestia explained.

'Gee. What a compliment.' James said in a sarcastic monotone rolling his eyes.

'What you thinking?' Hestia asked.

'That this sucks.' James said.

'Well that's not what I was expecting, I've got to say.' Hestia said, 'By the way you'd pestered her for the past five years, even though you can't now for obvious reasons, I'd have thought you'd at least-'

'I didn't mean that it all sucks.' James said quickly, cutting Hestia off, 'Lily liking me that's…great…can't even describe how awesome that is…it's not being able to do anything about it that sucks. I made that promise to you and I promised her I wouldn't ask her out anymore. Typical!' he finished rolling his eyes in annoyance. His expression then became very natural but confused, 'What should I do?'

'Nothing.' Hestia said walking towards the door, opening it and turning around, 'You're not going to say anything to anybody because you promised me you wouldn't and I highly doubt you'll want to upset Lily or ruin mine and hers friendship by telling her that I told you. So you'll say nothing and keep this to yourself.' she ended, walking out of the door partly. 'Oh,' she said, coming halfway back into the room, 'don't tell your girlfriend either. That would just add insult to injury if she knew that Lily liked you. You wouldn't want to ruin that relationship would you?' she finished, leaving the room and shutting the door after her.

James stared at the now closed door. He looked confused. 'Girlfriend?'

* * *

**Thanks for Reading**

**Galindaba**


	25. Chapter 24

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter Twenty-Four! **

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Four**

James walked back to Gryffindor common room in a daze. He kept going over the last thing Hestia had said to him in is head; _Don't tell your girlfriend either. That would just add insult to injury if she knew that Lily liked you. You wouldn't want to ruin that relationship would you? _What girlfriend? Did they know something he did? Surely he should have been one of the first people to know that he had a girlfriend? He wondered what she looked like. Was she pretty? Of course she was! And she was smart too. And funny, sweet, caring…he shook his head. What was he on about? He didn't even have a girlfriend.

If truth be told, James had never had a girlfriend. Sirius used to make fun of him for this. He had a new girlfriend every week, but James just didn't have one. He'd had plenty of offers though. From their first year, James had been asked out by several girls. Looking back now, it seemed a bit odd that a group of eleven year olds would even be thinking about having relationships. But, nevertheless, James was asked out many times by several girls in their first year at Hogwarts. He had, of course, refused, (because he thought they all had germs at the time), but it didn't stop people asking him out in the years to come.

It wasn't until their third year that the number of girls trailing after him, asking him out or, beginning that year, if he wanted to go to Hogsmeade with them, dwindled slightly. In their third year, everyone in Hogwarts knew that James Potter was only interested in Lily Evans. It was in their third year that James realised that she was the reason he had turned down everybody else. And it was in their third year that James had asked her out for the first time…

_She was walking by the beech tree. Her long and wavy hair blew out behind her gently in the soft breeze that had passed through on that spring day. James stared at her as she walked past him. She was laughing. James smiled at the sound. He was just thinking about the warm tones in her laugh when he was hit around the back of his head._

'_OW!' he yelled, looking around to see his best friend Sirius smirking at him. 'What'd you do that for?' he continued, rubbing the back of his head._

'_You weren't listening to me!' Sirius said simply._

'_Ever think that was intentional?' James laughed._

_Sirius gasped dramatically and made a grab for the book Remus was reading so that he could throw it at James. He didn't get it though as Remus, who was now keyed into the strange workings of Sirius, moved it out of his way just in time._

'_What were you staring at?' Sirius asked, after he had stuck his tongue out at Remus for obstructing his plan._

'_Err…' James said, unsure of what to say._

'_He was staring at Lily Evans.' Remus said, not looking up from his book._

'_How'd you know that when you couldn't even see where he was looking?' Sirius asked, flopping down onto the ground next to Remus and poking his head._

_Remus slapped Sirius' hand away. 'He's been staring at her since we came back to Hogwarts after summer.' Remus said, 'Don't you pay attention?'_

'_Depends if there's food involved.' Sirius said dreamily, looking away into the distance and licking his lips._

'_Why don't you ask her out?' Remus said to James, finally closing his book and looking up at James who was now leant against the beech tree, arms folded, legs crossed and staring at Lily once more._

'_She doesn't like me.' James said, 'I don't know why. Everybody likes me!' he finished arrogantly._

'_Maybe because you hung her best friend, by his feet, up on the chandelier in the entrance hall and gave everyone sticks to poke him with.' Remus replied with raised eyebrows._

'_It's only Snivellus!' James scoffed, 'Don't know why she likes that slime-ball anyway! He's a Slytherin!'_

'_Again. _Best Friend_.__' Remus stressed._

'_Merlin knows why!' James spat in Severus' direction. He rolled his eyes, turned around to face Remus and flopped down on the ground in front of him, 'Anyway, I've done worse things than that to old Snivelly!' _

'_Why are you proud of that?' Remus asked with a raised eyebrow in question._

'_Cause we're pretty inventive when it comes to torturing that git!' James smirked._

'_That is true!' Sirius nodded eagerly._

'_Getting of topic!' Remus said through gritted teeth, (He never approved of James and Sirius' torture of Snape), 'Are you gonna ask her out?'_

'_Eh…' James said getting up, 'Sure. Why not?' Who'd refuse me right?!' he continued cockily, 'She be stupid to, let's face it! Let's go!'_

'_You're gonna ask her out now?' Remus asked, getting up as well and following James. Sirius did the same as did Peter who had been sat by James' feet, picking the grass absentmindedly and staring up at him in awe._

'_No time like the present!' James grinned, as he strutted down a decline of ground over to where Lily was sat. Unfortunately, she still wasn't alone. Severus was sat next to her. _

_They were talking and laughing together by the black lake. Lots of other students were crowded in clumps, dotted around them. A couple of sixth year boys were tossing a Quaffle around whilst a group of first year girls were sat in a circle doing each other's hair. Most people were outside today. It was a warm and everyone wanted a break from studying for upcoming exams or just school in general. Lily and Severus were no exception. Nevertheless, they didn't seem to notice the people around them. They were in their own world which was about to be shrewdly interrupted by James Potter._

'_Oi! Evans!' he shouted as he came towards the end of the decline towards the black lake._

_Lily looked up, a smile on her face to see who had called her. As soon as she saw James however, her smile dropped and she turned away to carry on her conversation with Severus who looked very smug at being chosen over James. They were once again enveloped in their own little world. Severus was telling her about whole wizarding villages and towns that he knew about as Lily was intrigued by the idea of Hogsmeade and always living in a place where magic didn't have to be hidden from muggles around them. They were just discussing the future and that it would be fun to live near each other when they were older, as a children and adolescents do, when their conversation was once again shrewdly interrupted by James calling Lily's last name._

'_Oi! Evans!' James voice shot through their little world and sent it crashing to earth with an almighty bang._

_Lily looked sharply at James, an annoyed glare on her face which had loathing etched all over it. She waited until he was within earshot before saying harshly through almost gritted teeth, 'What do you want Potter?'_

_James finally reached the end of the declining hill, Remus, Peter and Sirius just behind him, flanking him like wolves as if he was the leader of the pack. He stopped in front of Lily to whom he flashed a cheeky smile which was dripping with arrogance and an 'aren't I awesome' look. He then turned to Severus, sneered and sniffed in disgust, before turning back to Lily and giving her another smile._

'_I'm here to make all your dreams come true!' James said opening his arms wide in invitation._

'_You're gonna fall of the face of the earth?' Lily asked hopefully._

_Severus smiled at Lily before giving James a smug look which showed his glee at Lily's comment and his detest at James' presence._

'_E__arths round love.' James said, dismissing Lily's comment with a wave of his hand._

'_You're gonna renounce magic and leave the rest of us in peace?' Severus sneered at James, venom dripping in his voice._

'_Do us all a favour and shut up beaky!' James snapped at Severus, who stood up so that James had no higher advantage. The two boys stared at each other with hatred before Remus elbowed James in the ribs and reminded James why he had come over here in the first place._

_James turned his gaze back to Lily, (who was now stood up with her arms folded and her hip out in a slouched and relaxed stance), but all the while keeping an eye on Severus in his peripheral vision. 'So Evans,' he began, 'ready for your life to get better?'_

'_Oh I can't wait!' Lily said sarcastically, rolling her eyes and looking away from James. She gazed out across the black lake. It was still and nothing was happening. The glassy black waters didn't even have a trace of a ripple on them. But still, to her, anything was more interesting than James Potter__._

'_How is anything you say going to improve her life!' Severus spat looking James up and down, trying to make himself look taller than his opponent but fail__ing miserably. James was still, and would always be, an inch or so taller than Severus was._

_James didn't even pay him the courtesy of looking directly at him to say, 'Pipe down Snivellus. People who actually matter are trying hold a conversation here so why don't you go back to your miserable little existence and leave me to talk to the gorgeous Evans here!' he finished giving a smouldering look to Lily who just sighed impatiently and raised her eyebrows._

_Severus boiled with rage at many things in that sentence. The name 'Snivellus'. The implication that he didn't matter. Being referred to as having a 'miserable little existence', (which was sort of true in the aspect of his home life). But the thing that really ticked him off was James calling Lily 'gorgeous'. How dare he even look at her in that way? His face turned red and his hands, now clenched in fists, began to shake, his knuckles turning white. His eyes flashed dangerously, a black glint shining in them. His lips disappeared and the area where they were turned as white as his knuckles, contrasting greatly with his now flushed face. The tip of the iceberg on his outraged state was his nostrils flaring. His breathing was deep and just when Lily was about to retort back, Severus fumbled for his wand, finding it quickly, taking it out and pointing it straight at James' chest._

_James, who had still been watching Severus out of the corner of his eye, whipped his wand out fluently and, without hesitation, threw a stinging jinx at Severus with a gentle and easy flick of the wrist. Remus looked away when this incident occurred, as he always did, pretending he hadn't seen what his best friend had done. Sirius however had realised what was going on by this point. He had gotten his wand out and was pointing it at Severus who was now on the floor. Peter was watching his friends merciless attack on Severus Snape as if it was the greatest thing in the world._

_Severus' face began to swell. His eyes receded into his face slightly whilst the flesh around them puffed up and forced them to close. His lips, which had previously disappeared due to his anger, tripled in size until they looked like two large slugs. His nose became larger, (if that was possible), his cheeks looked as if they were being filled with cotton wool and his ears began to stick out of his head slightly._

_Lily quickly rushed to look at Severus who was now in the floor, his wand falling out of his swelling hand._

_James threw his wand into the air with an impressive twirl before catching it and slipping it neatly back into his pocket. 'So Evans,' he said as he straightened his robes, obviously unaffected by what he had just done, 'you wanna go out with me sometime? Maybe go to Hogsmeade? Anywhere you want to go I'll take you! All you have to say, what you're obviously going to say; Yes-'_

'_No!' Lily said as she helped Severus to her feet and began to walk up the inclining hill that James, Sirius and Remus had just descended down._

'_Good. I'll meet you at…wait…' James said, his cocky and confident attitude wavering, 'No?'_

'_Yes.' Lily said shortly, struggling to move a growing Severus up the hill._

'_Good.' James sighed with relief, 'That's what I thought you said! So I'll meet you at-'_

'_No…' Lily said, whispering to Severus to carry on to the hospital wing, letting him know that she'd be their shortly. When he reluctantly went on his way, she turned around and walked back to where James was stood, Sirius, Peter and Remus still flanking him._

'_Not 'yes I'll go out with you', 'yes' to my earlier 'no I will not go out with you'.' Lily finished, folding her arms and looking at James with a disapproving attitude._

_James' mouth was slightly open in bewilderment. He leaned slightly back to Sirius and whispered, 'Are you confused too?' Unfortunately, he didn't whisper as quietly as he had hoped judging on what Lily had to say next._

'_Are you as stupid as you are mean?' Lily said, emphasising her insults, 'I will never go out with you! Not in a million years!'_

_There was a pause. 'A million and one years?' James replied cheekily._

'_Never.' Lily stressed exasperatedly._

'_What? Why?' James asked, shocked that Lily was declining him. 'Come on Evans. I'm a catch!'_

'_Well this 'catch',' she said, using air quotes and getting angrier, 'just tripled my best friend in size with a stinging jinx!'_

'_Pretty impressive right!' James nodded happily._

'_Why are you so proud?' Lily said disgusted with James' attitude._

'_Why won't you go out with me?' James retorted._

'_You didn't answer my question.' Lily said through gritted teeth, tipping her head jerkily to the left._

'_You didn't answer mine!' James responded insolently, taking a step nearer to Lily. His eyes challenged her._

'_You want to know?' Lily demanded as she walked angrily towards him down the small decline of hill which she had just walked up. She came down to level with him looking him in the eyes. 'You really want to know?' she repeated. _

'_Yeah.' James said as if it were obvious. 'You're making a big mistake. Give me a reason why.' James folded his arms and stood in a relaxed pose which looked as if he couldn't care less what she had to say but would endure it anyhow._

'_A reason.' Lily muttered thoughtfully before continuing in a full blown rant. 'Well here's a whole list of them; You're arrogant. You think everybody worships you. You're always messing up your hair to make it look as if you've just gotten off of a broom. (It doesn't work by the way, you just look a mess.) You think rules don't apply to you. You're always looking at yourself in that stupid little mirror. Your so-called 'pranks' are menial, irresponsible and sometimes just demeaning! You're a clever person but you let it all go to waste. You never do the work in class and many times slow down the process of learning for everybody else. You're a bully. You bully everyone without provocation. You are a mean, obnoxious, arrogant, self-involved toe-rag and I'll _never _go out with you or even _like_ you in that way ever. Clear?'_

_James paused with a smirk. __'Now when you say self-involved-'_

'_Ugh!' Lily stressed before turning away with a whip of her hair and flouncing away up the inclining ill towards the castle, obviously in pursuit of Severus to see how he was doing._

_James watched her go. A small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, his eyes narrowing slightly in the acceptance of a challenge. He folded his arms and brought one hand to rest on his chin in thought. His smile was now full with arrogance._

'_Sorry mate.' Sirius said, clapping James on the shoulder__ from where he was stood._

'_Sorry.' Peter repeated meekly._

'_Yeah. Sorry James.' Remus said walking forwards a step and ending next to James. He had his hands in his pockets and was watching Lily, as was James, enter the castle._

'_Don't be sorry.' James said smiling at Remus, 'She'll go out with me one day. All the girls in this school want to go out with me.'_

'_But she doesn't.' Remus replied folding his arms._

'_She will.' James said nodding his head in certainty, 'You just wait. She'll like me one day.'_

That was a long time ago. Of course, as the years went on James began to lose faith in the idea that she'll like him the way he liked her one day. So much so that he had recently settled into just being her friend with no hope of things going any further. But could he do that now he knew that she like him? What was to stop him acting differently around her now?

He was still trying to figure out why she had been ignoring him. Why she'd been so short and angry with him. It couldn't only be because she liked him and she didn't want too. That would be strange. It's not as if it was his fault she'd begun to have feelings for him. Maybe it was something to do with his 'girlfriend'. Maybe it wasn't the fact that she liked him and she didn't want too. It was more likely that she had begun to like him, heard somewhere that he had a girlfriend and then became frustrated that she couldn't tell him how she felt or do anything about it. James chuckled to himself. If Lily had heard him thinking like this she would accuse him of being big-headed and self-involved. He shook his head.

By this time he had reached the entrance hall. He looked out onto the grounds. It was a bit misty and you could see some frost still lingering on the tips of grass. It would disappear soon. Spring was on the way. _If only it was raining, _James thought. Too many people that would be a strange thing to request but it was normal for him. If James ever needed to clear his head or think seriously about something, he would go for a walk in the rain. He couldn't explain why, but it would usually help him figure things out and he could sure use all the help he could get to figure out what to do about this.

He had told Hestia that he wouldn't tell Lily anything and he had promised Lily that he wouldn't ask her out. But Lily liked him now. And he was sure that the only reason Hestia didn't want James to tell Lily anything about what they had discussed in the dungeons was because they both thought he had a girlfriend. But as that wasn't true, surely it would change the situation if they knew. He'd have to check with Hestia.

James sighed and moved away from the entrance hall which he had been stood in for five minutes just staring outside and wishing it would rain. He climbed up the staircase to his left and carried on up to the Gryffindor common room entrance which was guarded by the portrait of the Fat Lady. He walked up to it and was about to say the password when the Fat Lady began in a rant.

'I hope you're a Gryffindor!' she huffed, 'Only Gryffindor's are meant to know where the entrance to this tower is. Of course I can _see_ you're a Gryffindor by your robes but what am I meant to say when students from other houses come up to me, knowing I guard the entrance to the tower and giving me the correct password!'

'Has that ever happened before?' James asked her with a tilt of his head.

'Why would I be talking about it if it hadn't happened before?' the Fat Lady said, outraged, 'Honestly. I thought the students of this school were meant to be bright. Yet you prove me wrong.'

James rolled his eyes and said the password, not wanting to listen to the Fat Lady anymore. The portrait hole swung open to reveal the Gryffindor common room and James stepped in, the Fat Lady's portrait swinging shut behind him, still ranting. The common room was crowded. It was filled with students sat in pairs being sickly sweet due to the valentine's day hype. There were high pitched giggles as the pairs tickled each other. There were people just staring across at someone they liked or into the eyes of someone they loved. And there were some couples snogging so intensely it should have been done in private.

James walked past them all and leapt up the stairs to the boys dormitories two steps at a time. He came to the door which contained his dormitory and opened it quickly. When he entered the room he saw Remus sat at the top of his bed, cross legged and looking at his calendar. James carried on into the room, jumped onto his own bed in a relaxed laying down position and folded his arms behind his head. He sighed deeply alerting Remus to his presence.

'Hey.' Remus exhaled, tossing his calendar to the side, 'Found out why Evans is mad at you.'

James sat up straight. He couldn't know. Could he? Of course not! Hestia had only just told James and Lily had told no-one. He assumed anyway.

'How?' James asked.

'Evans told me.' Remus replied.

_That'll do it, _James thought.

'Yeah,' Remus said, his expression becoming angry as his got up from his bed and walked towards James'. He leant against one of the bed posts of James' four poster bed and continued, his voice becoming laced with frustration and annoyance, 'She thinks we're all still too childish for her to be friends with us. She basically said that she gave us a chance and we blew it.'

James chuckled quietly, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. So Remus wasn't told the truth by Lily.

'Why are you laughing?' Remus asked, 'Don't you get it? It was all for nothing. I convinced her to give you a chance. You made a lot of changes, not going after those toss pot Slytherin's-'

'Are you all right moony?' James asked, getting the distinct feeling that something was wrong with him. Yes Remus would be annoyed that someone hadn't given his friends the benefit of the doubt but he was a lot angrier than he would have usually been, even going as far as to call the Slytherin's toss pots which to him was a horrible insult. The only time he became like this was when he was nearing the full moon, but that was still a week away. Usually James, Sirius and Peter could count on four or five more days of a normal, peaceful Remus before he would become short and angry at what Sirius always referred to as 'his time of the month'.

'I'm fine!' Remus snapped before softening, 'I'm sorry. It's just that I don't like the fact that she's mad at you for being you and she's mad at Sirius for being him-'

'That's not what's wrong.' James said, shaking his head. He knew that Remus' anger at Lily giving up on their friendship, though it would annoy him, was not what was making him this agitated. 'You can tell me.'

'How are you dealing?' Remus came out with, presenting what James thought was a sudden change of conversation topic.

In truth, it is what Remus had been thinking about for a while. How was James dealing with the death of his father. It was one of the reasons why he had reacted so harshly to Lily rejecting their friendship to her. As he didn't know how James was doing, he didn't want anything to change and trigger a drastic downwards spiral. It was so hard to judge James feeling sometimes. Mostly he wore his heart on his sleeve. Everyone knew who he loathed and they all knew how he felt about Lily Evans. The whole school knew how loyal he was to his friends but no-one but maybe Sirius could ever know how James was dealing with his family life at home. Remus knew the main facts but the details were unclear sometimes.

He knew that James had been close to his parents when he was a very small child. When he started going to Hogwarts things had begun to change but you would never know it from James exterior. (He had the distinct look of someone who had been adored and well cared for.) His parents had brought him to platform nine and three quarters to see him off to Hogwarts and picked him up from the train station for the first two years when things had started to change. But James never let it faze him. He went home for Christmas every year as if nothing was different, but as the war started to grow tense, his relationship with them had distanced due to the heavy load of their work. During this time he became extremely close to his house elf Linda. But knowing all of this didn't clue Remus into how James was really coping with the loss of his father.

'What do you mean?' James asked, having no idea where the conversation had steered to.

'How are you dealing with…your dad's death.' Remus asked.

James blinked a few times. His jaw relaxed and his mouth opened slightly. There was a small crease forming between his eye brows. He wasn't expecting that and had to think for a few minutes for an answer.

'Well…' he began, 'It's not the same obviously. I mean…I know he's not there anymore. I can't just decide to write to him because there'll be no reply. I'm not completely ok with that but…there's nothing I can do about it.' he continued sadly before giving an unexpected chuckle, 'Man he'd be annoyed if he saw me stewing. I can imagine him now, 'I had a full life James but you're not going to have nearly as much fun if you keep thinking about me!' is what he'd say.'

Remus smiled. 'So you're all right?' he said, 'Or at least you will be in time?'

'Yeah.' James said, smiling at Remus, 'That's not what's got you so angry is it?'

'Partly.' Remus shrugged, 'I didn't know how you were coping with things and I just thought, I dunno, that Evans saying she doesn't want to be our friend anymore would upset you. I know how much you like her.'

'Well I'm fine.' James grinned. Of course, Remus had no idea why James was completely fine with the situation. Truth be told, if James hadn't spoken to Hestia earlier he probably would have become quite depressed. But knowing what he did now, even though he had no idea what to do next, he didn't feel that bad at what Lily had told Remus though it was undoubtedly true; he did still act like a child sometimes.

The thing that James didn't miss though was Remus saying 'partly'. Obviously, and James had known this from the moment Remus had started talking about Lily being annoyed at their child like behaviour, something else was wrong. And James had an inkling of what it was.

'What's up with you?' James asked Remus with a knowing look.

'Nothing.' Remus said, with a small shake of his head and a slight shrug of his shoulders. He pushed himself upright from where he was leant against James' bed. He walked back to his own bed at sat on the pillow at the top, his back leaning against the wooden head board.

James made himself comfortable on his own bed, sitting crossed legged and leaning forwards slightly to see Remus more clearly over the bottom board of his grand four poster bed. 'Yes there is.' James said certainly, 'It's about the full moon coming up isn't it?' he finished.

'No.' Remus answered. He began picking his nails, a habit he had picked up from his father which meant that Remus was attempting to avoid the topical conversation. This action was what clued James into the fact that he was on the right track.

'Come on.' James said, 'What's up Moony?'

'Don't call me that.' Remus replied with closed eyes and a hanging head.

'Aha!' James half shouted, standing up fluently from his bed and walking over to where Remus was. He flopped down onto the foot of Remus' bed and stared directly at him, trying to get him to look up. He continued, 'So the full moon _is_ what's bothering you. You usually get angry about your nickname when it's close to that time of the month or when something about the full moon is bothering you! So what's up?'

Remus sighed and looked up reluctantly. He stared just over James' head, not looking him in the eyes as he was sure it would give him away. Remus held most of his emotion in his eyes. 'Nothing's wrong.'

James being James of course, didn't accept this as an answer. When he knew or felt that one of his friends was worrying about something, upset about something or depressed about something, he was always there for them to help them out. 'Are you worried the death eaters will try to sway you again? I promise they won't get to you mate. Firstly it's unlikely they'll try again after one failure and secondly, me, Sirius and Peter will be there to protect you from them.'

'It's not my protection from them I'm worried about.' Remus began with frustration coming out in his voice. He now looked at James directly. If his eyes were ever going to give away how he truly felt, than this was the time to use it to his advantage. 'I'm worried about protecting you from me. And Peter. And especially Sirius. What if I attack him again and this time he's not lucky enough to make it out?'

'Wow.' James said, 'You really think a lot of yourself don't you! You're not that strong against all of us!' he chuckled. 'I hope you realise that you saying you don't want us to come and see you during the full moon isn't going to stop us. And the only reason Sirius was so messed up last time is because me and Peter weren't with you both.'

'He was still messed up though wasn't he!' Remus stressed, 'You're not coming. I won't let you!'

'It's not about what you're letting us do or not.' James said. He was still chuckling. 'You do realise that no matter what you say you're not changing our minds.' James got up off of Remus' bed.

'We're never going to agree on this are we?' Remus asked looking up at James.

'Nope.' James said as he walked back to his own bed and jumped back on it the way he had originally landed; lain out with his arms behind his head, 'Don't you have prefect duties tonight?' he asked Remus, staring up at the deep red and gold canopy above him on his four poster bed.

'Yeah.' Remus exhaled, swinging his legs out and over the side of his bed, 'Suppose I'd better go.' He stood up and stretched slightly. He then walked around the bottom of his bed and towards the dormitory door which would lead him directly out onto the spiral staircase to the Gryffindor common room. 'See ya.' he called back to James as he left the room.

'Bye.' James called back to Remus as he exited the room, leaving James alone in the dormitory with his thoughts.

* * *

Lily was sat in her dormitory alone. She was hiding in case James came back from the potions room and saw her. Hestia was supposed to tell him that she wasn't feeling very well and it would be obvious that it was a blatant lie if she was sat in the common room doing some homework or reading a book. Keeping up this charade of illness though wasn't the complete reason of why she was hiding. Actually, at this point there was no point in locking herself away in her room. She had told Remus that she wasn't going down to make the Felix Felicis potion with James because she thought they were too childish, she'd given them a chance and they had blown it with their childish ways and though this wasn't the real reason, she was certain that Remus was sure to tell James it was. So in truth she was hiding in her room away from her lies and the embarrassment.

She looked around her room. It was draped with red and gold, a grand and mighty lion emblazoned tactfully on everything. Some Gryffindor she was. She wasn't even brave enough to go and tell James herself that she was 'ill' or that she believed he was too 'childish' for them to be friends. No. She had had Hestia go and make her excuses for her and then roped Remus in with a totally different and dishonest lie. It was a coward's way out and she felt that she didn't deserve the robes she was wearing.

At that moment, whilst Lily was wallowing in her dishonesty, Alice Prewitt and Emmeline Vance, the other pair of best friends that shared the room with Hestia and Lily, (Mary MacDonald wasn't that close to anyone in the dormitory. Her friends lived in a different one), walked into the room. Alice came in wringing her hands, a nervous and uncertain expression on her face. Emmeline followed her in, a dreamy look in her eyes with her head tipped slightly on one side. Straight away, Alice started pacing and Emmeline floated onto the edge at the head of Alice's bed. She watched her friend without giving away a single hint of how she was feeling.

Lily followed Alice out of the corners of her eyes. She was walking up and down so fast it looked as if she was either going round in a circle or in two places at the same time. She was going so quickly she was starting to make Lily go a bit dizzy. She had to stop her.

'Are you all right Alice?' she asked, getting up from where she was sat on her bed, walking over to Alice and steadying her by placing both hands upon her shoulders.

When Alice finally gave into being stopped by Lily she blurted out what was wrong. 'Frank just told me he loved me!' she said, an unmistakable trace of panic flitting across her face.

'Isn't that good?' she questioned, taking her hands down from Alice's shoulders and turning her head slightly with a look of curiosity.

Alice, who had been looking down in thought, with her right hand near her mouth with anxiety since Lily had stopped her pacing, looked up in disbelief. As if Lily hadn't fully grasped the situation. 'We've only been dating for two weeks!' she said in the silence that had ensued after Lily's previous comment. She continued in the same high pitched and anxious squeak, 'I'm not even calling him my boyfriend yet! How can he say he loves me when we're not that serious!' She then started to hyperventilate. 'Oh Merlin, Merlin, Merlin. Geez!' she panicked, now fanning both hands in front of her face in an attempt to calm herself down.

'All right, all right.' Lily said soothingly, guiding Alice to her bed and sitting her down at the edge of it in the middle next to Emmeline, who was still at the head of the bed. Lily sat down next to her at the foot of the bed and asked, 'What exactly did he say?'

Alice took a deep steadying breath. She was trying to calm herself down before telling Lily what had happened with Frank. 'Well, after the valentines feast, Frank asked if I wanted to go for a walk so I said yes and we went for a walk.'

'Naturally.' Lily said, receiving a sharp look from Alice to which she replied with, 'That's normally what you do when you go for a walk. Walk.' There was a short and awkward pause. 'So you went for a walk…' Lily carried on, encouraging Alice to continue with her story.

'Yeah.' Alice went on, 'He took me outside and walked me down to the black like where he had a blanket laid out with a jar of those blue flames and a bunch of flowers. Of course, you know, that's really sweet so I thanked him and hugged him and we went to sit down. He gave me the flowers and we swapped cards. His was really sweet. It had a really nice verse in it that said something like, 'You're eyes are like stars which fell from the sky', then a lot of other sweet things about the moon and the sun and it ended with, 'I'm glad I have you to call mine'…I think…'

'Well that's romantic. It's lovely.' Lily cooed.

'Yeah.' Alice said shortly, 'I know. Which is why my card was such an embarrassment!' She placed her elbows on her knees and put her head in her hands.

'Why?' Lily said suspiciously, 'What did you write?'

Alice turned her head to face Lily before muttering self-consciously, 'I put 'Roses are red, violets are blue, you're dating me and I'm dating you' and then I signed my name at the bottom.'

'Oh…' Lily replied, 'Well…' she began, trying to think of something positive to say, 'Well it rhymes!' she ended with.

In truth, it was a shocking Valentine's Day poem. Even the generic valentine's cards which you could find in card shops were better than that. It was one thing missing from the wizarding world; a card shop. Any cards sent in the wizarding world were handmade making it really hard to think of a nice verse to write in them for the recipient. Sometimes the outcomes were really bad. Like Alice's poem to Frank.

'Well what did he say?' Lily asked Alice in continuation of their conversation.

'He just laughed. And then he said that he loved me.' Alice said. 'He laughed…and then said he loved me! What do you say to that!' she ended her voice now in an unusually high register which wasn't natural for her.

'Well…what did you say?' Lily asked.

Alice turned in slow motion to look at Lily. She looked shocked and unsure. 'Nothing!' she squeaked, 'What do you say to that? Nothing!'

'Well usually it's followed by 'I love you too' or something along similar lines.' Lily replied with a slight shrug of her shoulders.

'Yes, but usually it doesn't happen until a few months into the relationship!' Alice yelped, 'By that time the foundations are cemented and you're calling each other boyfriend and girlfriend and, fingers crossed, hopefully, the feeling is mutual. This isn't mutual! I mean I like him, sure. But I don't know him well enough to say that I love him!'

'Alice,' Lily said, 'You're rambling.'

'Can you blame me?' she replied, her voice finally dropping back into its natural register and volume. She had been shrieking so high before Lily had been sure that only dogs could hear her.

'No.' Lily conceded, shaking her head, 'But you still haven't told me what you did when Frank said that he loved you. I know you didn't _say _anything, but what did you _do?'_ she asked, stressing certain words in an attempt to get her point across.

Alice muttered something inaudible to which Lily asked her to speak up. Alice then finally said, 'Nothing.'

'Nothing?' Lily replied, scandalised.

'Nothing!' Alice repeated. She then went into another rambling speech, her words gradually getting faster and faster, her speech becoming rapid, 'I did nothing. I got up and walked away. I said absolutely nothing and I did nothing! This sweet, sweet boy had just told me that he loved me and I got up and walked away! Oh good Merlin I'm a terrible person! I just left him out there in the dark where anything could have happened because I was too scared to say anything! Why couldn't I tell him that I just didn't feel that way yet?'

'Shh! Shh!' Lily soothed, rubbing Alice on the back trying to calm her down. 'I think you're going to have to go and talk to him.' she said, 'Just tell him that you were shocked and that at the minute, you don't feel that way but you're sure you will come to in time. Okay?'

Alice exhaled. 'Okay.' she breathed, 'Oh why did he have to tell me that's how he felt! Why couldn't he have just kept his mouth shut!'

'You can close your eyes to the things you don't want to see. But you can't close your heart from the things you don't want to feel.' Emmeline said serenely. She had stayed silent during the whole of Lily and Alice's conversation until this moment when she had randomly decided to spout out a philosophical idea relating to the situation. She was always doing that and it wasn't often that her pieces of knowledge made Lily think, but this one did.

_You can close your eyes to the things you don't want to see. But you can't close your heart from the things you don't want to feel._

* * *

**Thanks for reading**

**Galindaba**


	26. Chapter 25

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter Twenty-Five! **

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Five**

The next morning, everyone was still reeling from the post-valentine's day high. There were still lots of loved up couples sat in pairs around the great hall at breakfast the next day. People were still sharing kisses and chocolates and sweet wistful glances at their valentines. To some people, the continued valentine's emotion which had been carried through to the next day would be wonderfully romantic. For others though, it just reminded them of what they didn't have. Like Peter.

He had never had a girlfriend, just as James or Remus hadn't. The difference was Remus and James had actually had the opportunity to be in a relationship. They constantly had someone or another traipsing around after them and asking them out. Peter didn't. Nobody even gave him a second thought. Anytime he walked up to a girl they just walked away in the opposite direction as if they hadn't seen him. It's what most people did to Peter. He might as well have been wearing James' invisibility cloak all the time. To everyone in Hogwarts, Peter wouldn't even be known if it wasn't for James, Sirius and Remus. They all saw just saw him as the boy who James and Remus took pity on, (Everyone could see Sirius' dislike towards Peter. He never tried to conceal it).

Peter looked at his friends now. They were laughing together, Remus and James taking it in turns to throw cornflakes at Sirius to see if he could catch them in his mouth. Peter wasn't particularly included. His mother would blame him for not joining in himself. When he had told her that he had made friends in his first year she was overjoyed. She had been worried that he would just spend his seven years at Hogwarts on his own. She was always worried about him. It was apparent to anyone who met her or even heard about her that she over worried about her son. She might as well of wrapped him up in spellotape until he was seventeen just to curb the tip off of her paranoia. But knowing that her son was friends with three of the most popular boys in school…well is still didn't stop her worrying.

When Peter had introduced his mother to his three friends on platform nine and quarters after his first year at Hogwarts, he could tell that she instantly liked them. Everybody did but it was a bit much when you could tell your mother liked your friends better that you. She even liked Sirius better that her own son. The boy who had clearly never liked Peter and was always harsh towards him and Peter's mum liked him better than her own son. Peter glared at Sirius who had just received a cornflake in the eye.

'Woah Pete!' James laughed, 'What's with the evil eye?'

Peter looked up at James, caught out. He had no idea what to say. Sometimes he just stayed silent for lack of things to say. Like now. He lowered his head to avoid saying anything.

'Leave him alone Prongs!' Sirius said munching a cornflake that Remus had just thrown into his mouth, 'Who knows or even cares what goes on in that strange little head of his.'

James shook his head but didn't reprimand Sirius for what he had just said about Peter. Instead, he picked up a cornflake and threw it at Sirius. He again caught it in his mouth and Remus, Sirius and James celebrated with a cheer.

Remus' cheer however, was short lived as he had just spotted Hestia Jones and Lily Evans heading their way. The only spots left open on the Gryffindor table for breakfast were opposite the marauders and after Remus' outburst at Lily the night before, he was reluctant to sit near her.

Lily and Hestia reached the empty seats. Hestia sat down straight away and reached for a muffin whereas Lily took a little bit longer to accept the seating arrangement. She sat down eventually but it was clear she didn't want to be there.

'Let's go guys.' Remus said to James, Sirius and Peter, who hadn't noticed that Lily and Hestia had sat down until now. 'We can go and chuck cornflakes at Sirius in the kitchens because it might be viewed as childish behaviour out here.' he finished with a pointed look at Lily who looked down at her plate in avoidance just as Peter had done a few moments before.

James looked at Lily and then back at Remus. Whilst Lily looked a little bit abashed, Remus had a look of stone etched on his face, annoyance and a tiny bit of anger coming out in his eyes. James breathed in deep and leant over to Remus to whisper, 'I understand you're a little bit miffed but is this really necessary? I mean they only sat down for breakfast. Maybe we could try to-'

'I just don't want to lose my cool.' Remus said through the corner of his mouth, 'Especially around this time of the month.'

James nodded. He understood where Remus was coming from. As far as he knew Lily didn't want to be their friend anymore because she believed that they were all too childish and at this time of the month Remus' mood was touch and go. Sometimes he, like he believed Lily did, thought that James and Sirius were too childish and would snap at them. The difference between him and Lily though, and why Remus would argue that they were different, was that Remus would never use James and Sirius' childlike behaviour as a reason not to be friends with them. Other times however, he just wanted to let loose and be stupid with them and he didn't like being told that he wasn't allowed to be childish or even feel as if it was unaccepted to behave the way he felt. So the only way he felt he could stay calm was to leave Lily and Hestia's presence and continue in his silly mood.

Remus, Sirius and Peter got up and left the table. They walked down to the large double doors at the end of the great hall, not realising that James wasn't with them. He was still sat at the Gryffindor table opposite Lily who was now solemnly eating a slice of toast.

James was arguing with himself. He had promised Hestia the previous night that he would never tell Lily what Hestia had told him in the potions room. But there was something inside of him that questioned the agreement that they had made last night. It was all based on the fact that Lily would be horribly humiliated if James' girlfriend knew that she liked him. The only problem was James didn't have a girlfriend and didn't Lily have a right to know? Wouldn't this piece of crucial information change the situation for the better? James had to let her know. Maybe, finally, he would ask her out and she would say yes. Something he had been dreaming about since she had first turned him down. He had to try.

'Look, Lily,' he began.

Lily looked up, startled at the mention of her name for she had thought that all of the marauders had left. She saw James looking at her with an intense seriousness. She tried to rein in the unwanted and uncontrollable blush which powdered her cheeks under his stare.

James, not noticing this and just wanting to get the next piece of information out, unable to contain it any longer, continued. 'Last night Hestia told me that you- OW!' he yelped suddenly.

He looked at Hestia who was giving him a stern glance which said, 'don't you dare'.

James, knowing that Hestia would kick him again if he carried on, changed what he was about to say to avoid any more abuse. 'She told me you were ill and just wanted to make sure you felt better?' he said extremely quickly, a questioning tone underlying in his words.

Lily nodded, not saying anything, not trusting herself due to her lying spree the night before.

'Good.' James said kindly before saying through gritted teeth, 'Jones can I talk to you outside about Quidditch practice.' He stood up, said goodbye to Lily and walked out of the great hall.

'I'll be back in a minute.' Hestia said to Lily before getting up and following James out of the hall.

She reached the entrance hall where James was waiting for. He was stood with one hand holding up one of his trouser legs.

'You drew blood!' James said in a high pitched voice when he saw Hestia coming towards him. He pointed to his leg where some of his skin was shrivelled up towards the top of the cut, a bit of blood trickling down his leg. 'How could you have drawn blood with a kick?' he asked astonished.

'I'm wearing heels!' Hestia said simply.

James looked down at her feet. It was true. She was wearing some black shoes with a small heel but that was all he could really say about her shoes.

'Back to you.' Hestia said shrewdly, 'What on earth do you think you're doing? I told you last night you weren't to tell Lily what I told you!'

James sighed and tried to explain, 'I know but-'

'No.' Hestia cut him off sharply, 'No. No buts. I told you not to tell her, you promised me you wouldn't and you were about to go back on that promise right in front of me!'

James stepped forwards and attempted yet again to explain why he felt he had to tell Lily, 'Yes but I have a good reason though! You see-'

'I don't care if you have a good reason!' Hestia hissed, 'I don't care if the minister of magic himself told you to go back on your word. You can't tell Lily that I told you! She'll hate me! Do you really want my best friend to hate me?'

James breathed in deep, exhaled and looked down. He was now faced with a closed answer question. There was only one thing to say which would mean, as long as Hestia and Lily were best friends, (and he was pretty sure that that would be for a long time), he wouldn't be able to tell Lily the one fact which would pave the way for them to get together. He would have to keep his mouth shut for now and just hope that somehow, the fact that he didn't have a girlfriend would reach her and she would have the courage to tell him herself how she felt and they could be together. James answered Hestia's question truthfully but in defeat for he knew it was the final nail in the coffin or so to speak.

'No.' he said.

'Good.' Hestia replied, 'Now I'm going to go and finish my breakfast but if I find that you've told Lily what I told you, I'll do a lot more than kick you! Clear?' she finished before turning around, her hair flying out behind her and walking back into the great hall to sit with Lily.

James watched her go, along with his hopes of a relationship with Lily. He put his hands in his pockets and headed off to meet his friends in the kitchens.

* * *

That day, Lily only had three lessons; Transfiguration second period, and double Herbology after that in which their essay which she had been working on for three days was due in.

Transfiguration went by quickly. It seemed to be over in minutes rather that the hour that they had actually spent in that lesson. Professor McGonagall seemed to be in an oddly good mood, even singing to the class for ten minutes. Due to her inexplicably happiness she had only given them a short task to do, (transforming their partners rose into a pigs snout and back again), and then she let them continue to talk until the lesson was over. It wasn't until the end of the speedy lesson that the class found out that the marauders had slipped an elixir to induce euphoria into the tea that she always drank at the start of the lesson. When the effects of the potion had worn off, Professor McGonagall deduced who had slipped her the potion and gave all four of the marauders a detention. At the end of the lesson, she set the whole class a six foot long essay on the Inanimate Conjures spell. If anybody else had been the cause of the excessive homework, the whole class would be furious, but as it was the marauders, no-one much cared.

Lily left that lesson with Hestia and headed off to Herbology. They were to be in greenhouse four to learn about the properties of the venomous tentacula plant. The pair walked outside into the grounds of Hogwarts. It was still very cold but any snow that had fallen during the height of winter had disappeared. The wind was fierce. Lily hated this time of year. The weather was just so unpredictable. It wasn't quite winter anymore but spring hadn't arrived either so their walk down to Herbology was neither fun, (throwing snowballs at each other and playing in the snow), or pleasant (with a blossom blowing around in the spring breeze). Instead it was plain and dull with everybody hoisting their robes to cover their noses from the harsh, cold wind.

When they had reached the greenhouse, Lily and Hestia rushed inside the marginally warmer room to thaw out. They strolled over to their places next to Emmeline and Alice.

'Did you talk to him then?' Lily whispered to Alice when she stopped beside her.

'No.' Alice replied, glancing over to Frank Longbottom, with whom she had been dating for a couple of weeks, at the other end of the greenhouse. He was staring at her intensely as if he was thinking extremely hard.

'Are you going too?' Lily asked as she got out her Herbology homework, dragon hide gloves and her wand in preparation for the upcoming lesson.

'Well I kind of have too don't I?' Alice said, doing the same as Lily and taking out her equipment for the lesson, 'You can't really let something like that go by without talking about it can you?'

'I suppose not, no.' Lily sighed.

'Oh no!' Hestia said looking at the items Lily had just removed from her bag. Her eyes zeroed in on the rolled up scroll next to the dragon hide gloves.

'What?' Lily asked, following Hestia's eye line to her Herbology homework, 'Have you forgotten you're homework?'

'Kind of?' Hestia shrugged with a questioning tone coming through in her voice. She looked at Lily, biting her lower lip as if she'd made a mistake.

Lily, knowing Hestia inside-out and back-to-front, realised what this look meant. Her shoulders visibly deflated. Hestia did this constantly, but this time Lily had actually thought by sitting down with her and doing it at the same time that this wouldn't happen this time. 'Ugh!' she moaned hanging her head, 'How? We sat down together and made a start on this essay together! What happened?'

'Well you never said I had to finish it!' Hestia whispered in a high pitched voice.

Lily paused. 'Yes. I did!' she replied.

'Well…' Hestia spluttered, unable to think of a valid response.

'Well you better think of a good excuse because Professor Sprout has just walked in.' Lily said, motioning to the greenhouse door which had just swung shut.

In front on the door, putting on a pair of dragon hide gloves, was Professor Sprout. She was a plump, squat woman with permanently flushed cheeks from working in the sun her whole career. She had short, grey fly away hair which was partly covered by a small hat that was caked in mud. Her robes were a little bit tatty due to working with magical plants all day, but she had a motherly essence around her. She walked over to the front of the short vertical table that stretched down the entire length of the green house. Straight down the middle of this table, was a long line of Venomous Tentacula plants; they were green and spiky with waving stems which were attempting to reach out and grab the student which were gathered around the table. Around the edges of the table, nearer to the students, the table was lined with many different separate pots of mooncalf fertiliser, dragon dung and dragon dung compost.

Professor Sprout cleared her throat for attention. In about a minute she got it and all heads were looking in her direction. 'First things first I would like you're essays please.'

The unprepared people in the class who had left their essays in their bags began to dig them out. Hestia looked around the table. Everybody had done theirs, even the marauders, and they had all brought it with them. Her eyes widened in panic and she looked to Lily for help. Unfortunately for Hestia, Lily wasn't really in a very helpful mood and instead of helping her find a valid and reasonable excuse to give to Professor Sprout, instead gave her a disappointed look which also said 'I told you so'.

At this point Professor Sprout was squeezing around the edges of the greenhouse going round and collecting the homework. She was nearing Hestia and, if it was at all possible Hestia was beginning to panic more. She was trying desperately hard to think of a decent excuse to give Professor Sprout but everything she came up with in her head just sounded stupid.

'Homework Miss Jones?' Professor Sprout asked, her hand held out ready for Hestia to place her essay in.

Hestia's eyes widened and she suddenly spluttered out, 'My dog died.'

From the other side of the table and greenhouse, Sirius gave a small yelp. Many people turned in his direction and he shrank in his seat.

James elbowed Sirius in the chest and just said aloud to the class, 'He really likes dogs.'

Professor Sprout blinked a couple of times and then shook her head. She turned back to Hestia and said, 'Is this news relevant to this precise moment?' she asked.

'Yes' Hestia said simply with hopes that this would do and Professor Sprout would move onto Lily.

'I'm assuming you don't have your homework then?' Professor Sprout questioned, tilting her head slightly to the side.

'No.' Hestia said, hanging her head as if it had suddenly just become increasingly heavy, 'You see,' she sniffed, trying to make the sad story she was about to tell more authentic, 'I was halfway through my homework when an owl delivered a letter from my mum. It said that my dog, who I have had from a puppy and was bought when I was tw-three, had died. It was very upsetting!' She sniffed again.

'And this was the reason you didn't complete your homework?' Professor Sprout said.

'Yes.' Hestia said, making her voice crack so that Professor Sprout might think that she was crying.

'What's your dog's name?' Professor Sprout asked.

Hestia paused. She didn't know. She didn't have a dog. It was official. She was going to die in Herbology. But she had to say something. 'Herb?' she said in a high voice.

Professor Sprout sighed. She wasn't a mean teacher though. 'Have it on my desk by the end of the day, please.' She said before moving onto Lily and around the rest of the class.

When she had collected everybody's homework in, bar Hestia's, Professor Sprout turned to address the class and tell them what they were to be doing for the next two hours. 'Today you will be working with venomous tentacula plants. Now remember that these plants are highly dangerous so wear your gloves. Their bite is highly poisonous and the spikes are dangerous. If anything does happen, let me know immediately.' Professor Sprout said seriously, warning the class about the very risky plants that they were about to work with. She continued, 'Firstly you will be re-potting the tentacula as they have finished teething. Mix the mooncalf fertiliser, dragon dung and dragon dung compost together in a fresh planting pot, seize the tentacula from around the base of the stem like so,' She pulled of the venomous tentacula plants wards her and demonstrated the grasp, 'get a good firm hold, and as quickly as possible, pull it out and place it in the fresh plant pot you have ready.' Again, Professor Sprout demonstrated. She yanked the snapping plant out of its pot and placed it into a new one very swiftly. 'After you have done that,' Professor Sprout went on, clapping her hands together in an attempt to get rid of some of the mud she had just gotten on her gloves, 'I would like you to write a short answer on the uses of the venomous tentacula juice and its effects. Will you be able to finish that Miss Jones?' Professor Sprout said to Hestia.

Hestia blushed and the class laughed courteously at Professor Sprouts little joke.

'When you have finished your answer,' Professor Sprout carried on, 'come and give it to me and I will give you the equipment to procure the tentacula juice with. You will take as much as you can by the end of the lesson and the person who takes the most will receive a box of coconut ices from me. Off you go!'

Putting on their dragon hide gloves, Hufflepuff's and Gryffindor's alike set to mixing the compost and fertilisers in a new plant pot. Even though this was the easiest part of the lesson that day, the students still had to be on the lookout in case one of the venomous tentacula plants decided to reach out and strangle them. Professor Sprout wouldn't be best pleased if some of her students were strangled into a state of unconsciousness without first procuring the sap of the plant that was trying to murder them. At least Professor Sprout would let them swear loudly if at any point during the lesson the venomous tentacula did try to kill them.

'You really don't think things through before you say them do you?' Lily laughed at Hestia who was barely touching the dragon dung fertiliser. She did have her gloves on she just didn't like touching dirt. Or just touching anything dirty which was a real shock considering how messy her side of the dormitory was.

'Well I try not too!' Hestia said, wrinkling her nose at the mooncalf fertiliser, 'It just hurts my head when I think too much!'

'Well I'd have thought you could've come up with a better name than Herb! I mean, I know we're in _Herb_ology, but still!' Lily chuckled, taking slight joy in Hestia's silly choice of dog names.

Hestia looked at Lily solemnly. 'It's not funny if you explain it.'

Lily shook her head with a smile on her face. 'You know, I think she might have believed you if you hadn't have said that!' Lily said with a small giggle.

'Wait,' Hestia said, 'She didn't believe me? How insensitive! My dog has just died!'

'You don't have a dog!' Lily pointed out.

'Oh yeah…' Hestia mumbled.

Suddenly, from the opposite side of the table, there was a cry for help. Lily looked over to see who was in trouble when she saw James with what looked like his whole arm inside the venomous tentacula plant.

'Oh my god!' Lily gasped, her stomach dropping to the floor.

There was a flurry of movement as Professor Sprout tried to make her way over to James through the crowd of students which was starting to gather around him. She finally made it through the crowd, panic written across her face, when she reached James. Upon seeing him however, her face dropped and lost all signs of the panic it had had only seconds before.

'Really Mr Potter.' she said, shaking her head, 'Detention. And that goes for you three as well!' she said motioning to the other three marauders. 'All right class, back to work. Nothing to see here.' she said, sweeping the rest of the class away and back to their seats to continue with the lesson.

It turned out that James was not being eaten by a venomous tentacula plant after all. In the end, what had happened was James, Sirius, Remus and Peter had collectively carved out a small whole in the table, directly in front of the venomous tentacula, and had cast the _diffindo_ spell on the plant to stun its arms. Then James had stuck his arm through the whole and Remus, Sirius and Peter, to make it look as if the venomous tentacula plant was still mobile, were controlling the plants arms with their wands. It was just a childish prank.

Lily shook her head but couldn't resist, for some unknown reason to her as she did think that this prank was stupid and childish, not to mention, reckless and dangerous, giving a small fond smile.

For the rest of the lesson, nothing exciting happened. The class got on with their work. Professor Sprout had sixteen essay answers by the end of the lesson, (because that's how many pupils were in the class), and the marauders, even though they had pulled a stupid prank at the beginning of the lesson, walked away at the end of it with the box of coconut ices for procuring the most venomous tentacula juice. At first Professor Sprout was reluctant to give them the treat due to their behaviour at the beginning of the lesson but ultimately, after being sweet talked, persuaded and promised that she could have the first one, gave them the sweets.

The class piled out of the greenhouse and made their way back up to the school. For many of them, including the marauders and Lily, but not Hestia, Emmeline or Alice, as they now had divination, it was the end of their school day. Usually, at this point, Lily would go and hang out with James and the marauders but now, she was back to how she had spent her free periods at the beginning of the year; alone and reading a book. She just wished that she had never changed the situation with her developing feelings for James and the recent web of lies that she had told. She liked reading, but it was nicer spending her free periods with friends.

When she, Hestia, Emmeline and Alice parted ways at the Gryffindor tower about ten minutes later, Hestia, Emmeline and Alice going up to divination and her going up to her dormitory, Lily was trying to decide which book to read this time. She had read all of her books again and again. Every book she owned, and that was a lot of them, had been read three or four times each. She needed something new. There was nothing in the school library worth reading that she hadn't already read. And besides, most of the books in the library were reference books. What she wanted, what she really needed, was a good old fashioned fiction book from back home.

She climbed the stairs to her dormitory trying to think of what she wanted. She wasn't really in a serious mood or even a mood for the classics, so books like _Jane Eyre, The Great Gatsby _and _Wuthering Heights_ were out of the question_._ With the mood she was in, a bit depressed that James had a girlfriend and didn't like her, annoyed with herself for spinning a web of overlapping lies to avoid him and more depressed still that her sister wasn't speaking to her, (she had been hearing from her mother how far along Petunia's wedding plans were), what she really wanted to read was her favourite book of all time. It coincidentally happened to also be her favourite movie of all time as someone had created a video adaptation of the book. Unfortunately, she didn't have it with her so she'd have to write to her mum to send it to Hogwarts to her. It wasn't the type of book that she would bring to Hogwarts and it was the type of book that her mum wouldn't approve of her reading at her age. It was, after all, supposed to be a children's book and her mother would say that she was now too old to read it. Lily didn't care though. She wanted to escape into Roald Dahl's world of _Charlie and the Chocolate Factory._

She reached her dormitory door and entered her room. She walked over to the desk next to her bed, opened one of the drawers and took out a piece of parchment, some ink and a quill. Lily thought of how to write the letter to her mum without making herself sound childish and immature at wanting to read a children's book, even though that's exactly what she was doing. Her quill tip somehow made its way into her mouth as she thoughtfully tried to think of a way to word her letter. Suddenly inspiration struck her and she began writing fast and furiously.

_Hi Mum,_

_How are you? How's Dad? How's Tuney? How's the wedding planning going? Am I invited yet? Of course not. _

_(_She wrote, getting the pleasantries and necessary conversation subjects out of the way quickly so she could word her request.)

_You know, the other day I was talking with a group of friends and we were talking about childhood memories, so on and so forth, and I told them about my favourite childhood book. They were so excited that one of them wanted to read it. So could you send it over please?_

_Thanks!_

_Love Lily_

_P.S. In case you've forgotten, the book I'm talking about is Charlie and the chocolate factory._

She put her quill back into the ink and sealed the letter. Eager to send it, she ran out of her dormitory, down the stairs into the common room, past James and Sirius standing on their heads whilst Remus timed how long they could stay like that for, and out of the portrait hole. She then made her way up to the Owlery, found a school owl and attached her letter to its foot.

'Now make sure this goes quickly please?' she asked the owl who nipped her in response.

When her letter was tied she took the bird over to the window and let it fly away. She watched it go, hoping for a speedy return with her book and, maybe some chocolate?

* * *

The great hall was filling up quickly for the evening dinner. It wasn't a whole school feast like they had on special occasions, most recently the day before on Valentine's Day. No. Today, and every other normal day of the year, the great hall had food on the tables from five till seven and the students were allowed to wander in and have their dinner when they wanted within these times. Most students chose to have dinner at five so that they could get first pick of the desserts that were on range. Some, however, did have their dinner in the later time of the dinner period. Most of these students were Slytherin's though. Just to be awkward they always turned up at five to seven to eat so that the tables couldn't be cleared until they were finished, making more work for the house elves.

At six-thirty, when most of the sensible students had finished eating, Lily and Hestia, along with Emmeline and Alice were still in a discussion about Alice's conversation with Frank which had started an hour ago when they had started dinner, and had ended only minutes ago.

'So are you two ok?' Lily asked Alice curiously, 'Are you still together?'

'Yeah.' Alice sighed, a sickly, gooey, romantic, starry eyed look in her eyes which caused Hestia and Lily to turn to each other and crinkle their noses in disgust.

Emmeline saw this. She suspected that the only reason for them to do this was that they had never experienced it themselves.

'We talked.' Alice continued stirring her drink with her wand and unintentionally turning her orange pumpkin juice pink, 'I told him that it was really soon for me to start thinking about…err…well…stronger feelings than the fact that I like him, and he was fine about it. He said that he was sorry he freaked me out, he understood what I was saying, that we hadn't been going out that long, and we hadn't made anything official yet, and then he asked me to be his girlfriend, and I was so happy, and then-'

'Oh my god Alice! Take a breath!' Lily laughed, cutting off Alice's excited rambles about Frank.

The girls continued talking when the Slytherin's had finally decided to enter the great hall for their dinner. They walked collectively to their long table and sat down. From where Lily, Hestia, Alice and Emmeline were sat, they heard the Slytherin's outbursts of disgust. The girls turned to see what the least favourite house in the school was complaining about when they saw a thick layer of strawberry jam pasted across the seats of the Slytherin table. Hestia laughed, Alice gasped, Emmeline looked dreamily into the distance not noticing anything and Lily tried to hold back a smile as she had a strong suspicion who was to blame. Instead, she looked around for the culprits and sure enough she saw them laughing their heads off just outside the great hall in the entrance hall. James spotted Lily looking at him and he winked at her. This time she couldn't hold back the smile. She blushed and put her head down so James couldn't see her anymore.

'They've been doing things like that all day!' Alice said in a hushed tone.

'What do you mean?' Lily asked, eager to know what they'd been done and if she should be amused or disgusted. Maybe if it was really bad she would become mad at James again and her feelings for him would disapparate.

'Pulling pranks. I heard that they replaced all the trophies in the trophy room with toilet seats!' Alice said with a nod.

'That's nothing.' Hestia said, 'This morning after breakfast, in that first free period, they painted _Hogwarts_ red and gold. _Hogwarts. _The whole outside of the castle! That's just insane! I mean, Dumbledore cleared it all off within ten minutes of them finishing it so not many people saw it, but what a way to spend a free period!'

'I know!' Lily said, 'All you did was tweeze your eyebrows instead of finishing a Herbology essay!'

Hestia blinked at Lily. 'It was more important.' she said solemnly, 'And I've handed it in now anyway!'

'You know,' Alice said thoughtfully, taking no notice of what Hestia and Lily had been talking about and just continuing with the conversation they were in before about the pranks the marauders had pulled that day, 'I heard that they also turned the portrait of the fat lady upside-down, built a fort out of the restricted books around the librarians desk in the library and stole all the boats that the first years use at the start of the year, and crammed them into Filch's office.

Lily bit her lip in thought. Painting the school, which had stood as it was since the turn of the tenth century, the first wizarding school in the world, was bold to say the least. Plus the castle was huge so how on earth could they have painted it all? Replacing the trophies in the trophy room with toilet seats was quite disturbing rather that awe inspiring as painting the castle was. Where did they get all of the toilet lids from? The trophy room was huge. It had trophies that went back generations. There were more trophies in the school than toilets. Pasting jam across the Slytherin's seats. Pretending that a venomous tentacula was eating his arm. Turning the fat lady's portrait upside-down. Building forts out of library books, restricted ones. Stealing boats and putting them into Filch's office. All of these pranks were just a bit stupid, but none of them made her feel any less towards James. If maybe he had turned back to randomly picking on certain individuals from Slytherin, than her feelings for him might have dissolved. But as it stood, they were still there, manifesting and unfortunately, as much as she tried to deny it or pretend they weren't, growing stronger.

There was just one thing that bugged her. She looked out to where the marauders were now giving each other antlers and fighting with them when she had to ask, 'Why is he being so childish all of a sudden?'

'Do you want me to go and ask him?' Hestia asked Lily. She got up and excited the hall without waiting for a reply.

Lily nodded as she left. She didn't know why it bothered her. She had a feeling the previous night that James and the marauders might be childish today. It was the reason she gave Remus for not wanting to be their friend anymore. She knew that he might tell James but she had hoped that he wouldn't. Lily looked up to Hestia. She had just reached the marauders.

'Potter!' Hestia said, walking over to James who had a laughing smile plastered on his face.

'Yeah?' he said in response, giving a cocky glance to Hestia who didn't look impressed at all.

'Why are you being so childish today?' Hestia questioned, her hands on her hips and her eyebrows raised in question.

James thought for a moment. He had to choose his words carefully here. Hestia had told him one thing and Remus had told him another. Both of them believed that theirs was the only story James knew and neither one knew the others story. He smiled and said, 'Now I know what Lily really thinks of me, I see no reason to hide my immaturity.'

Hestia gave him a look of derision, turned around, tossing her hair and walking back to Lily in the hall. She got nearer to where her friends were sitting and sped up, reaching them in less than ten seconds.

'Did you find out why they're being so childish today?' Lily asked Hestia in suspense of what she was going to say.

'He said now that he knows what you think of him, he sees no reason to hide his… immaturity.' Hestia said, pausing halfway through with realisation that she may have just told her best friend, very subtly that she had told James the one thing she had been asked not to say.

'He did tell him then.' Lily said glumly.

'Lily I'm sorry, I just-' Hestia began in a full blown apology before stopping suddenly when her brain was able to process what Lily had just said. 'Wait,' she continued, 'He? He who?'

'Lupin.' Lily sighed.

'What do you mean?' Hestia continued, leaning into Lily so that Emmeline and Alice who were talking about their divination homework, couldn't hear their conversation, 'Did you tell him…why?'

'Well…' Lily said, choosing her words carefully, 'I told him a reason why.' she shrugged her shoulders innocently.

'What reason?' Hestia said slowly, emphasising her constantans.

'I kind of told him that I didn't want to be their friend anymore because they were being too childish.' Lily spluttered quickly, hoping that getting it out quickly would make her guilt easier to deal with. It was her version of, how they said in the muggle world, ripping the plaster off.

'Well…' Hestia started, unsure of what to say to her friend who, in the five and a half years they had known each other, had never lied but had now decided to take it up as a hobby, telling a web of overlapping lies on the same day. Hestia exhaled quickly and said, 'Why did you need me to go and ask them why they were being so childish today of you sort of already knew the reason why?'

'To make sure?' Lily said nervously with a tilt of her head and the raising of one of her shoulders, an innocent look upon her face.

Hestia shook her head. 'You never usually lie.' she said with disappointment.

Lily once again, hung her head, but this time in shame. 'I know.' she mumbled, 'And I know you're going to say, that it would be easier to just tell the truth but in this case I think that the truth could make everything a lot worse.' she looked up, a pleading look in her eyes, 'I think it would just be a lot better if I stayed quiet. To be perfect l honest, I'd rather not be their friend because they think I think that they're too childish than not be their friend because it's weird for James. I don't want to make him or…_Sophie_, uncomfortable.'

Hestia nodded. For the first time she understood where Lily was coming from. In the back of her mind though, her conscious was making her feel extremely guilty for telling James the real reason of why Lily didn't want to be friends anymore. She had betrayed her trust and if she found out, she probably wouldn't talk to her for a while. If only Lily had actually told her this last night.

* * *

**Thanks for reading**

**Galindaba**


	27. Chapter 26

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter Twenty-Six! **

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Six**

February had come and gone and Hogwarts was now descending into spring. March had arrived and with it a crisp spring air and blossoming trees. Out on the Quidditch pitch, James was taking full advantage of the change in season by working his Quidditch team to the bone with extensive practices for the upcoming match on the 19th of the month. It was only two weeks away and he was feeling the pressure to get the Gryffindor team whipped back into shape so that they could beat Slytherin in the match and win the Quidditch cup. Today, for example, he had called an all-day practice. Nobody was allowed to go into Hogsmeade anymore, so at the start of the session, the team was pleased that they had something to do on a Saturday again. Their pleasure however, was short-lived, and an hour into the practice people were complaining.

'I'm bored Prongs!' Sirius complained, 'Does this have to be an all-day thing?' he carried on, an annoying whine present in his voice which just made James want to shake him until he passed out and was unable to annoy him further.

James sighed to calm himself down from Sirius' complaints which had been non-stop for the last couple of minutes. 'You don't have to be here you know?' James said, not looking at Sirius but rather watching his team in the air above him, 'You're not even on the team anymore, remember?'

'I'm here to support you though buddy!' Sirius said brightly, clapping James on the back happily.

'Are you sure you're not just here to annoy me?' James exasperated, finally looking at Sirius for the first time. His face was weary and tired.

'No.' Sirius tutted, shaking his head, 'Definitely support.'

'Well can you go and support me from over there then?' James asked, gesturing to the stands which were half full with rowdy spectators who had nothing to do with their Saturdays since the Hogsmeade visits had been cancelled.

Sirius looked at the stand and back at James. He pulled out his best puppy dog face which caused James to roll his eyes, dig about in his pockets, pull out a chocolate frog and toss it to Sirius. As Sirius' face lit up with glee and he trotted off towards the stands, James shook his head, mounted his broom and flew up to join the rest of his team in the air.

He stopped his broom at the same level as everybody else and was about to speak when four fourth years from Hufflepuff raced past him on a couple of Cleansweep fives. James watched them go past with a frown. He wasn't expecting anyone but his team to be on the pitch today. He had asked around to make sure no other team wanted to use it today and he had seemed to be in the clear. He never minded spectators at Quidditch practice but it was another story altogether when they decided to join in the game without an invitation. Still, James took a deep breath and carried on with his practice session, attempting to ignore the fourth years flying around behind him.

'Alright guys!' James started, taking both hands of his broom clapping them together, sitting back and balancing perfectly; a useless skill which not many people could accomplish, 'Today I thought we could play three aside for a bit of fun first. If I umpire it, we have one beater on each team, one chaser and a keeper forwards slash seeker I think we'll do-'

'Excuse me mate!' one of the fourth year Hufflepuff's yelled at James, interrupting him mid-sentence.

James exhaled loudly, his lips disappearing in frustration and he turned slowly to face the boys. 'Yes?' he said through gritted teeth, a forced smile on his face.

'Can we use your Quaffle?' the boy asked, attempting to copy James with no hands on his broom but losing his balance and placing one hand back onto his broom.

'What?' James asked in disbelief.

'Can we use your Quaffle?' the boy repeated, his friend now gathering around him, looking towards James and waiting for an answer, 'We wanna play two aside Quidditch but we don't have a Quaffle. Can we use yours?'

'Has it really escaped your attention of what I'm trying to do here?' James questioned, motioning with one hand at the rest of his team who were also looking at the Hufflepuff boys as if they'd gone mad.

'Well you're just sitting in the air, you're not using you Quaffle.' spoke another boy from next to his friend.

'We're about too!' James said with exasperation. They were worse than Sirius and that was something that James didn't think very often.

The four boys looked at James as if he was being outrageously unfair. They didn't move though. They just sat on their brooms, in the air, and stared at James as if they believed that they could change his mind by the simple act of looking at him.

'Go away! We're trying to practice!' Hestia shouted at the four boys. She raised her eyebrows at them and gave them the same stare that James had been receiving. They however, were obviously lot less stubborn than James was as they flew away after a few dozen seconds.

James turned to thank Hestia who just shook her head at him and flew further into the air to assume her starting position for the three on three game. The rest of the team did the same as James flew back down to the ground. He landed smoothly on the ground, receiving an enthusiastic thumbs up from Sirius and walked over to the Quidditch gear box to release the balls for the game. He reached the case and flicked the lid open, only to find that the snitch had been taken. James looked around in hopes of finding it and, luck serving him well, he saw a small group of third year Gryffindor's trying to catch it.

James walked over to the small group of students, getting steadily more annoyed that his Quidditch practice was being constantly interrupted. He arrived in front of the third years and took a deep breath. They didn't notice him straight away but soon realised his presence when he lifted up his hand and allowed the snitch to fly easily into his hand. The third years turned around to see who had taken their new toy away from them and shrunk back slightly from the authority that James seemed to exude at that moment.

James took his hand down from above his head, looked at the snitch in his hand, let it go a couple of feet away from him and recaptured it fluently. The group of third years started to stutter an apology when James held up his hand to silence them.

'Firstly, why are you on the pitch? And secondly,' James said, holding the struggling snitch between his thumb and his forefinger, 'This is my snitch. I've become very attached to it and have even named it Steve. Touch it again and you'll lose an arm. Capiche?'

The third years nodded, scared, and scampered from the pitch. James shook his head. He turned around to return to the case containing the Quaffle and the Bludgers when he saw Lily in the stands looking up at Hestia and having a silent conversation through expression and gestures. His chest deflated at the sight of her. Apart from the necessary, 'please pass the lacewing flies' in potions, he and Lily hadn't spoken to each other since Valentines. James had tried to talk to her in a couple of lessons, charms and transfiguration, but any time he opened his mouth to speak, Hestia gave him a dirty look to warn him off, scared that he might accidentally let it slip that he knew. When Remus noticed these looks that Hestia was giving James, James realised it would only be a matter of time before Lily would notice them too, and rather than let it come out in a way that would ruin Lily and Hestia friendship, James decided that it would be better for everyone if he kept his distance. It wasn't easy as every time he saw her, he wanted to go and tell her that he liked her too.

'Potter.' Hestia said, landing next to James and snapping him out of his Lily based trance, 'We can't go on like this.' she continued, motioning around her at the ever-growing population of Hogwarts students who were swarming on the pitch, 'They just keep coming. It's the first good weather day in ages and people can't go to Hogsmeade. We're not gonna get anything done.'

James sighed and looked at Hestia, frustrated. 'We have two weeks until the game-'

'And we're prepared.' Hestia said convincingly.

James looked at her undecided for a few seconds. He then shrugged, 'Fine.' he said, throwing his arm up in defeat, the snitch still clutched in his hand, 'Go tell everyone that the practice is over then.'

'Thank you!' Hestia said, mounting her broom and flying up to her team mates to tell them to go.

James watched her fly, took one last look at Lily and then returned to the box full of Quidditch gear. He shut the lid on the box but pocketed the snitch. It would be another one he could add to his collection. Plus it was useless for any real game now thanks to the third years who weren't wearing gloves when they picked it up. The snitches flesh memory was now rendered moot because they hadn't worn gloves like James made the whole of his team wear during practice in case they accidentally touched the snitch.

He locked the case when Sirius walked over to him. 'What's going on?' he asked.

'We're calling practice off.' James said in annoyance, 'Too many people.' he ended, jerking his head to the growing crowd which was forming on the Quidditch pitch.

'Too bad.' Sirius replied, grabbing one of the handles on the trunk and lifting it with James.

Together, they walked off of the Quidditch pitch and into the changing room on the left to put the box back. They placed it under one of the benches against the wall and exited the changing room onto the Hogwarts grounds and began the walk back to the castle.

'What do you wanna do then?' Sirius asked James, bouncing around and exuberating enthusiasm.

'How about we go see Moony in the Library?' James suggested as they trudged up to the castle.

Sirius stopped and looked at James blankly. 'Hogwarts has a library?' he said with his head cocked to the side like a puppy.

'Obviously.' James said, putting his hands in his pockets, 'We put it on the map.'

Sirius clicked his fingers and pointed at James in sudden realisation. He nodded his head with an idea, 'The map!' he smiled, 'That's how we'll find the library!'

James chuckled and shook his head. He got out the marauders map and unfolded it. Sirius tapped the middle of the large parchment with his wand and whispered, 'I solemnly swear I am up to no good', causing the parchment to erupt in ink and form a map of Hogwarts. The two boys, who had been at Hogwarts for nearly six years, used the map they had created to navigate their way to the library even though they had been in it numerous times to mess about. Students moved out of their way as they didn't look up once as they climbed staircases, walked through arches which had decided to be walls and turned corners. Even though they weren't looking up and walking the way they usually did on their way to the library, the students they passed in the hall parted like the red sea as they walked by.

Sirius and James arrived at the library and spotted Remus sitting at one of the tables with Peter, completing a care of magical creatures essay they had due in on the upcoming Wednesday. They'd only been given it the day before and Remus, unlike Sirius and James who would have left it until last minute, was getting it done and out of the way, forcing Peter to do the same.

They walked over to Remus and slouched onto a couple of chairs. James, on a mere whim, which probably occurred because of his location and the atmosphere in the room, whipped out his Transfiguration and got started on the essay they'd been set on Thursday. Of course, if it was any other subject he probably wouldn't have bothered until the night before it was due in, but it was transfiguration and, besides the fact that it was his favourite subject, Professor McGonagall kind of scared him. Sirius, not following James' example, took out a pack of Bertie Bott's every flavour beans, leant back in his chair, and started throwing sweets in the air, catching them in his mouth.

For half an hour, James, Remus and Peter worked solidly and Sirius caught every sweet in his mouth. However, in the space of time it had taken James to write half of his essay, the library had filled up. There were students who were actually working but the majority of people in the supposedly quiet room were just bored and had nowhere else to go. They were chatting and laughing loudly in the cushy armchairs that were set aside for reading at leisure, slamming books down on the tables and building towers out of them and then there were the students who were just trying to distract the people who were trying to work.

It didn't bother the marauders until a group of girls came and sat on their table and began to flirt with them incessantly. No matter how many time James or Remus tried to tell the girls to leave them alone, (Peter wasn't being flirted with and Sirius was enjoying the flirting too much), they didn't budge. It was like a ringing in your ear that you could only get rid of if you banged our head against the wall and knocked yourself out. James was able to cope with this flirting for fifteen minutes before he stopped trying to ask the girls to leave politely and became too impatient for the niceties.

'Leave us alone now!' he said with a controlled frustration, 'We're trying to work.'

'Speak for yourself!' Sirius muttered under his breath, the comment receiving shrill giggles from the irritating girls from Hufflepuff.

James threw Sirius a dark look before turning to the girls and imploring and answer to their presence. 'Why are you in the library if you're not going to work?'

'Because we can't go anywhere else. The common rooms are full, the classrooms are closed, the great hall is closed, we can't go to Hogsmeade and the grounds are crowded.' said one of the girls, leaning into James and invading his personal space.

James leant away from her. She smelt like cabbage and it was pungent. James, still frustrated and becoming increasingly annoyed, could finally take no more. Something had to be done about this and he was pretty sure nobody else was going to take the initiative to find a solution. He scraped back his chair and walked out of the library.

'Where's he going?' one of the girls asked, disappointment coming through clearly in her voice.

'Don't worry about him!' Sirius said, leaning into the girl as she had to James and immediately withdrawing slightly due to the pungent aroma surrounding her, 'You still have me!' he said seductively, leaning towards another girl who didn't smell too bad. The girl giggled.

Remus rolled his eyes and said cheekily, 'Why torture the poor girl?'

* * *

Looking around the corner, Severus Snape looked out for Filch. He saw the coast was clear and beckoned to Bellatrix Lestrange who, giving him a sniff of disgust as she approached him, followed him to Filches office. Bellatrix tried the door handle. The office had been locked so, without any hesitation or thought for invasion of privacy, Bellatrix took out her wand and muttered the spell to open his door. The pair walked in to the cupboard of an office. Straight away, Severus walked over to the shelves which had rags and a magical cleaning solution upon them. Bellatrix however, strolled into the room casually and started to snoop around Filches office, picking up his possessions and throwing them back down with disdain.

'Will you stop snooping around and help me!' Severus snapped angrily at Bellatrix. He took the magical cleaning solution and unscrewed the lid. He sniffed it and recoiled in disgust at the strong pepper smell that emitted from the now open bottle.

Bellatrix turned to Severus with a sneer on her face. She hated the boy. He was greasy and she swore that he sympathised with mudbloods. She believed his loyalty to Voldemort was false and that angered her more than a Hippogriff who hadn't been allowed the first move. 'Like you're doing us a lot of use!' she spat at him, a haughty look written across her face.

Severus gave Bellatrix an evil look. He opened the window in the tiny office and tipped the cleaning product out of it. He threw the bottle after its contents, not bothering to look if he had hit someone. 'I'm doing more bloody use than you are!' Severus hissed, 'Now help me get rid of these damn things before that old squib comes back and we miss the Dark Lord's meeting.'

'Fine.' Bellatrix sneered. She walked forwards to the shelf where all the cleaning supplies that Filch had were kept. She grabbed the floor brush off of it and, with her wand, turned it into a crow, letting it fly out of the window.

Together, Severus and Bellatrix hurriedly disposed of Filches stock of cleaning supplies. They turned buckets into books and slipped them in their bags, rags into scarves, (or something along those lines), and bottles full of cleaning solution into pumpkin juice which would most likely be fateful if you were to drink it. Once they had emptied the shelves they went through all of Filches draws in case he had some spare cleaning equipment, such as rags or brushes, tucked away somewhere. Upon finding that they had successfully removed all of the cleaning supplies from his office, Bellatrix and Severus left the box room, each pocketing a little prize that they had found in Filches draw marked; confiscated.

The pair, wearing rag transformed scarves loosely around their necks, hurried down the corridor in case Filch came back before they had predicted from the distraction that Avery, Wilkes and Rosier had created. They were meant to start a duel in the middle of a corridor, nothing too serious that would get them into trouble, but something that would allow a bit of blood splatter from a broken nose or shallow cut from an arm to set itself on the wall or floors. All the Slytherin's, showing how disturbed their psych actually was, didn't mind being harmed to pave the way for them being able to attend the mandatory meeting that Voldemort was holding today.

They waited behind the corner of the corridor, watching for Filch's return for five minutes. It was then they saw him come hobbling quickly around the corner, muttering under his breath about 'bloody kids'. He marched lopsidedly into his office, holding his left leg stiff. The day before he had tripped over his cat, Mrs Norris and had severely bruised his leg. He didn't go and tell Madame Pomfrey to spare himself the humiliation, thinking nobody had seen him fall. In actuality, a group of second year Slytherin's and seventh year Ravenclaw's had seen his tumble and, of course, had told their friends. The story spread like wildfire.

Severus and Bellatrix, upon seeing Filch enter his office, waited with anticipation for his exit. When he did eventually emerge, still muttering under his breath, he looked as if he was in a fouler mood than before. He took his keys out of his pocket, ready to unlock the front gate where he was heading to now, (His office was just off of the entrance hall so he would be able to hurry down there). Bellatrix and Severus, as agreed with the rest of their little death eater group, sent some green sparks out of the corridor window which they were stood next too.

Upon receiving the signal Mulciber, the last Slytherin in their group who was attend the meeting, cast a disillusionment charm upon himself. He followed Filch whom he had just spotted leaving the entrance hall, down to the front gate and only entrance and exit to Hogwarts, (that they knew about). He watched Filch unlock the gate with the keys which were impossible to get. They were charmed with something similar to a flesh memory meaning only the caretaker could handle them. The only other way to exit Hogwarts was if you, like all the teachers in Hogwarts, had been given a charm Dumbledore had made up to allow them to open the gate. Therefore, the Slytherin's plan was the only way they could think of to leave the school unnoticed and without getting caught.

As Filch unlocked the gate and slipped out. Mulciber placed himself where the gate should shut, effectively keeping it open when Filch slammed it to close it. Mulciber held his breath. Their whole planned hinged on the next moment. If Filch turned around and saw the gate wasn't completely shut, their plan will have failed and they wouldn't make it to Voldemort's meeting. If their plan failed, they didn't know what might happen to them. Mulciber watched Filch's retreating and limping figure with bated breath. He left without turning back and Mulciber exhaled loudly.

Severus, Bellatrix, Avery, Wilkes and Rosier arrived at the gate. Severus and Bellatrix looked composed and smart, ready for the meeting. In contrast, Avery, Wilkes and Rosier looked dishevelled. Avery's sleeve on his robes were ripped and his white collar was dotted with blood. By deduction, the blood on Avery's collar came from Wilkes who was sporting a messy nose bleed and a cut near his eyebrow. Rosier didn't have any injuries but did have crinkled robes. By the looks of things, the events that had transpired were along the lines of Avery and Rosier attacking Wilkes.

Mulciber opened the gate and allowed the other Slytherin's through it. Without having a plan of how to get back into the school, the five boys and Bellatrix headed down to Hogsmeade, and up to the caves above the village where they were to be met by three death eaters to take them to the meeting as none of them had passed their apparation test as of yet.

They soon arrived in the cave off of the boundaries of Hogsmeade where the three older death eaters were ready to take them to the meeting. All of the death eaters wore long black billowing robes and masks which covered the entirety of their faces. They looked foreboding and yet intriguing all at the same time to the six aspiring death eaters. One of the cloaked figures was short and stout whilst the other two were taller and lean.

'Are you ready?' the shorter death eater asked the Slytherin group.

Severus said that they were whilst the rest nodded. The three death eater's took two young Slytherin's each and grabbed their arms. With a slight turn, all nine people in the cave had disapparated and disappeared and were on their way, with tangent anticipation, to Voldemort's meeting.

* * *

'Cauldron cakes. Acid pops. Oh come on Merlin!' James yelled at the gargoyle statue which guarded Dumbledore's office. He was becoming increasingly frustrated at his way being blocked. He tried again. 'Liquorice wand. Ice mice. Pixie puffs-'

'You might try, marshmallows.' came a voice from behind him.

James turned slightly, knowing who he'd see. He sighed, when he saw Dumbledore. He looked serene in his purple robe. His beard was tucked into his belt and his startling blue eyes shone kindly at James through his half-moon glasses.

Dumbledore walked forwards. 'Marshmallows.' Dumbledore said with a slight smile, 'Not my favourite muggle sweet. They're a bit too…how shall I put this…foamy, for my tastes.'

James smiled. Dumbledore had stopped beside him and was waiting for James to open his office. James turned towards the gargoyle once more. 'Marshmallows.' he said confidently. Straight away, the stone gargoyle of master craftsmanship sprang to life. It moved to the side whilst a winding, spiral staircase twisted itself round from the floor to a door floating around three spirals up.

Dumbledore held a hand out, signalling James to go first. James climbed up the staircase, Dumbledore right behind him, and made his way up to his headmasters' office. He opened the door and walked over to Dumbledore's desk, taking a seat in front of it as Dumbledore sat behind it in his throne like chair.

'You again!' came a voice from the wall. It was the portrait of Phineas Nigellus, the most hated headmaster in Hogwarts history who just happened to be Sirius Black's ancestor. 'What have you done now!' Phineas grumbled down at James with a sneer.

'Now, now Phineas!' Dilys Derwent said to Phineas sternly. She had always had a soft spot for James through his visits. Her fondness for him only strengthened with the frequent conversations that she had had with his mother at St Mungo's where her other portrait resided.

James smiled at Dilys who beamed down at him. He didn't, however, make an effort to continue any semblance of a conversation for he had other topics on his mind which he thought needed to be addressed.

'I want the Hogsmeade visits to be reinstated.' James said, without hesitation or stutter. His tone was assertive and definite and brought a tangible hush of silence to the portraits around the room.

Dumbledore, with no reaction, keeping his calm and serene composure, leaned forwards. He clasped his hands together and leant his forearms on his desk. 'And why exactly do you want that?' Dumbledore asked James, a kindness still present in his voice.

'Well,' James started, 'It's not all exactly for me. I mean, I'm not gonna lie and say that I don't want them back or having the trips back won't benefit me greatly because I do and it will, but I think that the rest of the students in the school would appreciate them being reinstated too.' James finished, looking at Dumbledore, now a little nervous that Dumbledore still hadn't particularly reacted to James' request.

Dumbledore breathed deeply, looking at James over the top of his half-moon spectacles. 'Please elaborate.' he said simply to James, leaving him to take the bulk of the conversation into the direction he pleased.

'Ok…' James said. When he was walking down to Dumbledore's office and had been thinking of reasons that he should reinstate Hogsmeade visits, he hadn't really been able to arrange his thoughts into a coherent sentence. Now, he guessed, he just had to give it a go. He had one shot at this and he was either about to do the school a favour or blow it for everyone.

'Basically, when we were trying to, err, study earlier, me and Remus…and Peter…' he started, realising that his first sentence wasn't going as well as he had planned. Still, he powered through, 'When we were trying to study we were being interrupted by all the kids that had nothing to do because the Hogsmeade visits have been cancelled. Most of the people trying to study are N.E.W.T or O.W.L students and we're not getting anything done because a load of kids have nowhere else to go and nothing better to do the weekend anymore.'

'When the Hogsmeade visits were on they weren't every week.' Dumbledore stated.

'I realise that but the trips that we did have sustained everyone until the next trip.' James said imploringly, 'Apart from interrupting the years that have important wizarding exams coming up, I think that the Hogsmeade trips allow us to let of a bit of steam and such. I mean, Hogwarts is great but, you think about it, we're cooped up in a castle for months on end without seeing any part of the outside world. I think the students of this school need the Hogsmeade visits to stop ourselves going insane and to feel some connection to the world we're going into.'

Dumbledore carried on staring at James with no trace of emotion entering or leaving his face. He looked at James thoughtfully, giving no hints as to what he as thinking until he eventually said, 'I do see your point.'

James smiled in relief, 'So they'll be reinstated?' he asked hopefully.

'No.' Dumbledore replied with a sad smile, 'After what happened in Hogsmeade last time, I don't feel comfortable sending the future of magic into the village on their own.'

'Then give us supervision!' James begged, 'Anything. Have us be led by a couple professors! Have set times of when any student who has permission to go to Hogsmeade can leave and have a set time and place where they all have to meet up and be lead back to Hogwarts. It's not like any of the professors wouldn't like an extra opportunity to go into Hogsmeade. And if that's not enough protection then cast some more protective enchantments around Hogsmeade whilst we're in the village! I know you've already got some in place. Just make them stronger.'

Dumbledore still showed no sign of change in emotion. His face was still serene and calm. Extremely composed. 'Is there anything else you wish to discuss whilst you're here?' Dumbledore asked.

James stared at Dumbledore, realising that his fight for the Hogsmeade trips was over. He thought for a moment and did come up with something that he did want and that would benefit all of the houses within Hogwarts. 'Quidditch practice.' he began, 'We we're trying to practice ready for the match in a couple of weeks but a load of other students from different houses were interrupting us and when we arrived at the pitch we didn't know if it'd be free or not.'

'And what do you suggest I do about this?' Dumbledore asked as he offered James a pepper imp. When James refused one, he took a few for himself and placed the bowl of sweets back in its usual spot on his desk.

James continued, undeterred. 'Well I'd say reinstate Hogsmeade visits but that won't fix the whole problem.'

Dumbledore chuckled at James' persistence on the matter but didn't say anything further about it.

James smiled a little. He went on about what he wanted, 'I think it would be…useful, to have a booking system for the Quidditch pitch. At the minute, if you want to practice you have to get up at the crack of dawn and claim the pitch, or go and find the other team captains and try to arrange some pitch time that way and it can't always be done. Firstly because the Slytherin team captain doesn't want to cooperate and, to be perfectly honest, none of the other Quidditch captains wants to talk to him anyway.' James finished with a shrug of his shoulders.

'And what is that supposed to mean!' Phineas snapped from his place on the wall. He was scowling down at James who just smirked up at him. 'My house is a perfectly nice house-'

'Oh please, Phineas!' Basil Fronsac, another one of Hogwarts' past headmasters said from his portrait from the wall, 'Slytherin is not a particularly nice house. Yes there are exceptions but they are very rare!'

'I do wish all the houses would get along.' said Phyllida Spore wistfully. She was a reasonably neutral headmistress and was also the author of one thousand magical herbs and fungi.

Dumbledore remained calm during the portraits conversation. He said nothing to them, not revealing how he felt about the strong house rivalry, but rather just motioning James to continue.

'Secondly,' James carried on, as if he hadn't been interrupted at all, 'because as the Quidditch captains are usually O.W.L or N.E.W.T students, we don't always have time to hunt each other down to see if the pitch is free. If there was some kind of rota, timetable or booking form then I think it would be easier to practice and we wouldn't have to get there before the sun rises. We wouldn't have to kick other students who aren't on the Quidditch teams off the pitch either because we'd have booked it for a couple hours and they'd know when it was free to play on and when it was being used for team practice. Does that make sense?' James finished, a bit worried that his purpose hadn't gotten across during his ramblings.

Dumbledore, being the brilliant, clever man he was, understood what James was saying perfectly and put a good deal of thought into both topics. He didn't reveal anything about the decisions he had made about either subject though. Instead, he thanked James for his opinions and ideas and told him he was free to leave at that moment.

James stood up and thanked Dumbledore for his time and exited his office, hoping that he had made some sort of contribution towards a change at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He doubted it though.

* * *

Lily and Hestia entered the main hall for the evening meal. The whole school was there this evening because Dumbledore had some sort of announcement to make to the school. Everyone was buzzing, wondering what it was. They spotted Alice and Emmeline sitting in the middle of the Gryffindor table. Alice beckoned the pair over to them and they hurried over to the two spots that had been saved for them.

They sat down opposite their dorm mates, Lily beside Mary McDonald, the other girl in their dormitory. Mary leaned into Lily and whispered, 'I found your book in the common room earlier. You left it there.' She took out a used and battered book and handed it to Lily.

Lily took the book graciously. It had a crinkled front cover which was worn and slightly worse for wear. She read the title of the book, _Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. _She thanked Mary, who nodded in return, and hugged the book to her chest.

'What is with you and that book?' Hestia asked, not understanding Lily's attachment to her favourite childhood book.

'It's a good book ok!' Lily said defensively, 'I've had it since I was five years old.'

'Exactly!' Hestia said, concerned for her friends current obsession to a book which was, by all extent and purposes, a childhood book.

'Her attachment to that book comes from what has happened in her life recently.' Emmeline said serenely, her head tipped slightly to the side. She was stirring her tea with a thin spoon. She always did this before she analysed a situation. 'Recently, her friendship with a boy she really liked had failed so she turned to the one thing which she could reach which had never failed her before. In this example, that book.'

Hestia, Alice and Lily looked at Emmeline with blank looks. Lily slowly put the book down, cover face down. 'You'd have made a good psychiatrist.' she said to Emmeline, realising her analysis of Lily's childhood book could, in some ways, be true.

Now it was Lily's turn to be given three blank looks. Coming from the wizarding world, none of her friends new what a psychiatrist was. Lily didn't want to go into the detail of explaining it so she just pushed her favourite book a little further away from her and turned to the front of the hall where Dumbledore was now stood up, ready to make a speech.

'Thank you all for coming tonight.' he began, his arms open wide in welcome, 'I realise that it is not a holiday or a special occasion and we don't usually dine together when these scenarios are not present, however, I do have a couple of announcements to make.'

The hall rippled with whispers. Nobody knew what he was going to say or what it was concerning. All they knew was that it must be important and would affect all the students in the school. If it didn't, he would have just called upon a certain year group. This must be a significant announcement and the school knew it. Their excitement was tangible in the air of the great hall.

Dumbledore waited for the noise in the hall to die down before he continued. 'First of all, for the benefit of the whole school and each houses Quidditch team, the Quidditch pitch is now available for booking in practices. A timetable will be posted on each houses notice board and if anybody wishes to book the pitch, all they need do is write on the timetable and the other houses will be notified on theirs.'

For all the fans of Quidditch and, as this was a wizarding school and Quidditch was the only sport worth mentioning, that was everybody, this was big news. For the first time in Hogwarts history, a student would be able to book a part of the school, in this case the school grounds, specifically the Quidditch pitch, for their own personal use. Team captains would be able to hold a Quidditch practice without being disturbed. It was big and exciting news which the whole school, even the Slytherin's, were happy about.

The hall, which had been talking for five minutes, only silenced themselves when Dumbledore calmly held up a long slender hand to get them to stop talking. He prepared himself to talk again. 'Before I say what I have to say next, I must explain to you all that we are living dark and harrowing times. Do not take what I'm going to say next lightly. It is a great trust which I put in you all and it is with great responsibility on your part, which I bring back your scheduled Hogsmeade visits.'

The hall took a couple of moments to respond but when they did, the noise in the room was deafening. Every student in the hall, even the children who didn't have permission to visit the village, was happy about it. There were students who jumped on the benches they had been sat on. Others had gotten out of their seats altogether and were celebrating by bouncing around in the spaces between the tables. This time, their excitement was uncontrollable and it took the headmaster and the heads of each house, Professor McGonagall, Professor Sprout, Professor Slughorn and Professor Flitwick twenty minutes to calm the students down.

'This is a great privilege, to have these trips to Hogsmeade brought back and I ask you all to please, not waste them or take them for granted.' Dumbledore said seriously, trying to get the student of the school to focus on the serious aspect of the reinstating of the Hogsmeade visits, 'There are conditions which you must all adhere to for these visits to be able to continue. Every student who wishes to go to Hogsmeade will sign out with Mr Filch.' he stated, gesturing to Filch who was sat in the corner of the great hall in a small wooden chair with Mrs Norris sitting underneath it, 'There will be three set times in which you can walk down to Hogsmeade, led by one or two of the Professors for protection. The same rules will apply for when you wish to return to the school. The set times for leaving the school will be eleven o'clock, eleven thirty and twelve o'clock. The times you will be able to be escorted back to the school will be two o'clock, three o'clock and four o'clock. From eleven o'clock to four o'clock, temporary protective enchantments will be cast over the village of Hogsmeade meaning no wizard or witch will be able to apparate or disapparate into the village. This has been done for your protection. If you have any questions or do not fully understand the arrangements, you are free to ask your head of house any questions you wish.' Dumbledore paused for a second before continuing with a serious message, 'I do warn you. If anybody abuses this privilege, or in any way disrespects the precautions which have been set up for your protection, then these Hogsmeade visits will be stopped, not just for the individual, but for the entire school.'

The hall was silent at this message. Every student in the hall felt the great burden which had just been put on their shoulders. Everyone was responsible for everybody else's happiness effectively.

Dumbledore had one more thing to say. 'You must thank one among you for these privileges to be instated. Enjoy your meal.'

The hall looked confused as the food appeared on the tables. Nobody understood what he had said last. It was lost on everybody except Emmeline who, being her unique self, understood Dumbledore last words.

'What did he mean?' Alice asked leaning into her friends as she grabbed the carrots from the middle of the table and dished them out onto her plate.

'I'm not really sure.' Lily said, looking at the food which had just appeared in front of their eyes. She took the carrots that Alice had just handed to her and spooned them out onto hers and Hestia's plates. At the same time, Hestia was scooping out the mashed potatoes onto their plates. It was something they always did at dinner, helped each other prepare their meal. They found it quicker that way.

'Maybe it was a riddle?' Hestia said with a questioning lilt in her voice.

'No.' Emmeline said. She hadn't dished out any food of her own but instead, sat where she was and continued to stir her tea, 'He meant that one student in this hall asked for the Hogsmeade trips to be reinstated and gave good reason for them to be.' she said dreamily, not looking at her friends but instead into the distance at the candles floating on the enchanted ceiling.

Lily tilted her head to the side in thought. It made sense, what Emmeline had said, but to Lily, there was only one person who would have been brave enough to approach the headmaster and ask for this huge favour for the school. She looked around the table and saw him, celebrating exuberantly with his friends. He had done it. James Potter had brought back Hogsmeade to Hogwarts.

* * *

**Thanks for reading**

**Galindaba**


	28. Chapter 27

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter Twenty-Seven! **

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Seven**

Sirius was sat alone in the common room near the fire, with his head in his hands. He was thoroughly depressed and in a foul mood and had been since Dumbledore announced that the Hogsmeade visits were reinstated fourteen days ago. He had been in his mood for the simple reason that, out of the whole school, he was the only student who was banned from Hogsmeade. It didn't help that the final Quidditch match of the season was the next day and he wasn't allowed to take part in that either.

He had been back in the common room from his detention, which took place every Wednesday and Friday for two whole hours in Dumbledore's office, for ten minutes. He hadn't come straight back to the Gryffindor tower after his detention but had rather wondered around the school for an hour and a half. When he finally arrived back, nobody else was in the common room, so nobody saw him take his anger out on the chairs and tables as he walked past them. When he had entered the common room, in rage, he had kicked any chair that he walked past and he had hit the tables. He made such a frustrated racket that he was surprised that nobody had come down to see what was going on. But they were all in bed so that they could be wide awake for the game early the next morning. Sirius didn't care much. It's not like he had any special role to play anymore.

Everything that Sirius loved about being at Hogwarts, Quidditch, Hogsmeade and a free Friday night had been taken away from him because of a stupid mistake he had made months ago. Now he regretted it. It was the one mistake in his life which he hated. Other mistakes he could live with. Staying at his parents' house for so long, he could live with. After all, he wasn't there now. Leaving his motorbike magazines behind at his parents' house, he could live with. He had re-bought them since. And even spending half of his savings on a new racing broom, he could live with. After all, he got a broom out of that mistake. But this mistake would plague him for the rest of his life.

The punishments wouldn't last. His friends anger at him for being so stupid had already dissolved. It was his guilt ridden conscience that would cause him trouble for the rest of his life. Merlin forbid he be sent to Azkaban. The dementor's would have a field day with this little gem of guilt. He _would_ be able to suppress it and had been doing a bang up job so far but, having the whole school excited about things he was now expressly forbidden to do just brought his regret back to the surface.

He sighed and looked up. The fire was just dying out and the light in the common room was slowly dimming into pitch black. He didn't want to go to bed. He should do really but he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep and even if he did, his dreams would be filled with Dumbledore's disappointed face, Remus' betrayed one and an angry James. Whenever he went to sleep thinking about this that was what happened constantly. It was a reoccurring nightmare he couldn't shake. What was worse was that sometimes, especially on Wednesday's and Friday's, the days of his detentions, the nightmare continued into the day.

He heaved himself out of the comfy armchair he had slumped himself down in and walked around the common room. He looked at the things, possessions and such that people had left in the common room overnight. There were scrolls of parchment which had foot long essays scrawled across them. There were games of wizards chess which had been left half played, ready to be returned to the day after. Quills, ink, books and even a pair of socks. Nobody was worried about their possessions being stolen in Gryffindor tower. They were one of the most trusting houses, not unlike Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. It was the Slytherin's you had to watch out for. They didn't just nick things within their own house, they stole anything they felt valuable. You could be sitting in the library and if a Slytherin student saw something they thought could be useful to them, it would disappear from your side and you wouldn't know for minutes that anything was missing.

Sirius put down a remembrall that he had been throwing up and down in the air. He turned to the winding staircase that led to the boy's dormitories and began to trudge up them. His hands were deep in his pockets, almost weighing him downs as he moved slowly up the spiral staircase. It was a few floors up, his dormitory, and when he got there he slowly opened the heavy door which let out a slight creek. He shut it carefully and dragged his feet over to his four poster bed which was dressed in red and gold. He sat down on his pillow, his legs bent up making triangles with his bed, his wrists resting on his knees leaving his hands hanging in the air. He looked around at his friends. They were all sleeping.

James, who never really slept like a normal person, had on foot on his pillow at the head of the bed and his other leg bent underneath his knee. He was lying on his back. One of his arms was hanging off of the bed, holding his glasses, and his other hand was placed, palm up on his forehead. His quilt was hardly hanging onto the bed and only covered James from his chest to his knees. To Sirius, James couldn't possibly be comfortable.

Remus was a more usual sleeper. His quilt covered his entire body, from his chest to his feet. He was lying on his side with his hands resting on his pillow. His bed was still surrounded by birthday cards and presents that he had received about a week ago on the 10th of March; his birthday. He had received a lot of chocolate frogs which Sirius had gladly ridded him of. The watch he had been given by his parents, a traditional present for young male wizards who were coming of age, turning seventeen, was resting on his bedside table, its insufferable ticking easy to hear in the deathly quiet dormitory. He had also gotten a lot of books. So many that the huge pile covered up his calendar which was hanging up above his bedside table on the wall.

Peter was curled into the foetal position under his quilt, sucking his thumb. _The big baby!_ Sirius thought. He had always slept like this and Sirius constantly tortured him about it. Sirius had always told Peter that he slept like that because he had been babied by his mother for his whole life. Peter would just stay silent at these comments but he, Sirius and the two remaining marauders, knew that this was true, but it wasn't like it was his fault.

Not yet feeling the drowsiness of sleep overtaking him, Sirius reached for a book. If you knew Sirius, this was a very strange occurrence, but when you saw the book that he was going to read, it all made sense. It was the book, more like a manual, that Mrs and the late Mr Potter had bought him for Christmas. He opened it up to the section he was reading at the minute on the tools he would need for building his motorcycle and lit his wand. He didn't understand a word that he was reading. _Start with a metric 3/8" drive socket set from 8 mm to 19 mm. And a 3/8" ratchet wrench. 3" and 6" long 3/8" drive extensions. Metric combination wrench set from 8 mm to 19 mm. Phillips and straight blade screwdrivers, _he read, allowing the information to seep into the front of his brain and out of the back.

'What are you doing?' came a tired voice from across the room.

Sirius looked up from his battered motorcycle manual to see Remus sitting up in his bed. He gave a huge yawn and reached for his watch. He looked at it through tired eyes and gave a huge annoyed sigh when he saw the time.

'It's the middle of the night Sirius!' he moaned at his friend, throwing a small cushion at him in frustration, 'What you doing up at this time! The game's tomorrow.'

'I know.' Sirius said with a sad look at his kneecaps.

Remus, exhaled with a slight groan. 'Are you still feeling sorry for yourself?' he asked with slightly raised eyebrows. He was in no mood for sympathy. It was the middle of the night and, due to his lycanthropy, not getting the sleep he needed made him very cranky.

Sirius, seeing Remus getting very impatient and annoyed with being woken up when he was perfectly sound asleep, knoxed his wand. 'Don't worry.' Sirius said, pulling his quilt over himself and settling into his bed, 'Go back to sleep.'

'Thank Merlin.' Remus murmured, putting his watch back down on his bedside table and making himself comfy in his bed again.

Sirius smiled sadly to himself as he placed his motorcycle manual under his pillow. He flopped his head down heavily on his pillow and moved about until he felt relaxed enough to go to sleep. He closed his eyes and had a peaceful night's sleep. But instead of his dreams being filled with Dumbledore's disappointed face, Remus' betrayed one and an angry James, he dreamed of motorcycles that flew.

* * *

'Welcome to the final Quidditch game of the Season! Gryffindor vs. Slytherin!' the commentator shouted, her voice magnified by the sonorous charm. It resounded and echoed around the Quidditch stadium which was filled with the whole school, three quarters of which were supporting Gryffindor. Mary McDonald, the commentator of most of the schools Quidditch matches, spoke again, her loud voice reverberating through all of the cracks and crevices of the stadium.

'This is going to be a nail biter guys. I've never seen the teams so strong!' Mary announced to the crowd at large.

Through the walls of the stadium, James could hear Mary speaking. He was trying to give his team a little pre-game pep talk but kept being put off of his train of thought by the loud voice emanating from the Quidditch pitch. He was very nervous about the game. He was always nervous about the final game of the season, mostly because it was his last chance to show the school how good his team was. He was also nervous about this game because if they didn't win, they would lose the Quidditch cup and it would go to the Slytherin's. That was just something he couldn't bear, plus Professor McGonagall would be very angry if James lost her the cup. She had, after all, grown accustomed to it being in her office.

James gave up on his pep talk. Instead he just told the team to do their best and warned them that McGonagall would eat them alive if they lost. The team laughed nervously and prepared to walk onto the pitch with their captain.

They walked out onto the pitch to a rapturous applause. James waved to the crowd in with a cocky attitude. It was something he did before every Quidditch game and he saw no fit reason to stop this tradition now. He walked ahead of his team, who were flanking him in a triangle type shape, and met the Slytherin's team captain in the middle of the pitch. His team was also flanking him yet they looked a lot less friendly than the Gryffindor's did. James shook hands with the opposing captain. He tried really hard to crush James' hand but James took it, showing no pain on his face but his mind was screaming.

Madame Hooch stepped towards the boys whose hands were still clasped in a locking handshake. Neither would give up. They were both really stubborn.

'All right boys let go!' Madame Hooch said, breaking their handshake once and for all, 'You can all hold hands in your own time!' she continued, now separating the two boys, the Slytherin captain glaring evilly at James and James staring smugly back with unwavering confidence.

'Everybody on your brooms!' Madame Hooch announced.

Collectively, both teams mounted their brooms, flew up into the air and assumed their positions. James turned around to his team and gave them all a thumbs up. Most of the team smiled back apart from Dirk Creswell, who, after the recent practices and the last game against Hufflepuff, wasn't feeling too confident. He gave James a small, weak grimace and looked around the pitch. James sighed. There was a reason that Dirk didn't make the original team, but he was the only option when Sirius had been banned from playing.

The teams looked down at Madam Hooch who held the Quaffle in her hand. She gave them all her usual stern warning, telling them all that the game should be nice and clean. The Gryffindor's nodded. They would adhere to the conditions. The Slytherin's however, would seize every opportunity to play dirty. They would try to win at any cost, in any way. It was up to James' team to keep the rules of the game.

The Bludgers were released from their case with a flick of Madame Hooch's wand. They erupted into the air and the four beaters, two from each team, immediately hit them further into the air to give their team more time to escape when the game finally began. The Snitch followed the Bludgers out of the case. It whizzed in front of James, behind Hestia's head and up into the air so you couldn't see it. The seekers from both teams watched it fly away. Madame Hooch then threw the Quaffle into the air beginning the game. Everybody scrambled. The beaters flew away to protect their team from the Bludgers and the seekers left to find the Snitch. The keepers went to their goal posts and the chasers from both teams raced forwards to grab the Quaffle.

'And the captain of the Slytherin team has the Quaffle!' Mary announce to the watching crowd, 'He swerves around the attempts to seize the Quaffle by Hestia Jones and heads towards the goal posts! He shoots…he misses! An excellent save by the Gryffindor keeper there!'

The Gryffindor's and everybody else supporting the team, or just everybody else who wasn't a Slytherin, cheered in delight at the keepers excellent save, denying the Slytherin's any points at this early stage in the game. The Slytherin's however, cursed and spat and booed at the Gryffindor team.

Hestia took the Quaffle from there. She and James passed the odd shaped ball back and forth between them, giving the Slytherin's no real chance to snatch it away from them. As soon as they tried to intercept it, James or Hestia, whoever had the Quaffle at the time, dropped the ball down to the third chaser who would zoom off and attempt to score a goal for the Gryffindor team. It was a tactic James liked to use because, if their opponents weren't too bright, such as the Slytherin's, they would have all three chasers focusing their energies on him and Hestia who had the Quaffle and wouldn't pay and heed to the third chaser beneath them. It meant that as soon as the Quaffle dropped, the third chaser would have about five seconds to make a dash for it and score a goal.

'…she shoots…SHE SCORES!' Mary McDonald yelled, her hand moving to change the score board as she said, 'Ten points to Gryffindor!'

The crowd yelled and cheered, this time in a more enthusiastic manner than they did when the Gryffindor keeper had saved the Slytherin's attempted goal. This time they were up on the points. One step closer to Gryffindor winning the game and the Quidditch cup.

'The Slytherin captain takes the Quaffle!' Mary shouted, getting into the swing of commentating a Quidditch match once again, 'He races up the pitch to shoot…OOH! A great shot with the Bludger by Dirk Creswell. Well that decides it folks! We thought he'd be no good, even saw it in the last game he played but here he is proving us wrong. If he has a significant other they're very lucky! Looks as if he's been working on his game if you know what I mean!'

'Miss McDonald!' McGonagall snapped sharply, 'Please concentrate on the game!'

'Sure thing Professor!' Mary said, turning back to the gripping game of Quidditch that was happening in front of her. She looked at the crowd who had just been roaring jubilantly.

'Err…Professor?' Mary whispered as quietly as she could considering her voice was magnified by the sonorous charm, 'What's the score right now?' she asked.

Professor McGonagall sighed. 'It's still 10 to nothing. Gryffindor.' she said, shaking her head exasperatedly at her student.

'Right you are Professor!' Mary said with a salute to her head of house. She continued with the commentating of the Quidditch game. '…and James Potter takes the Quaffle. He dodges a Bludger from the Slytherin's beater and…HEY!…That's got to be a foul! The Slytherin captain has stolen his beaters bat and has hit our team captain over the head with it! What a prat! What a tosser! AIM THAT BLUDGER AT HIM DIRK!'

'Mary!' McGonagall said sternly.

'Well you saw what he did Professor!' Mary retorted, outraged that the head of Gryffindor house wasn't the least bit bothered that her star chaser and captain of the Quidditch team had just taken a mighty blow to the back of the head.

'Just commentate on the _game!_' McGonagall hissed at Mary who rolled her eyes and carried on telling the spectators what was happening.

'And it seems like James Potter is out of the game at the minute! He's off the side of the pitch having his head looked at by Madame Pomfrey. It was a nasty whack that was…I'm commenting on the game professor!' Mary said in response to McGonagall's glare.

James was holding the back of his head in pain. He was sat on a bench, on the ground, at the side of the pitch. Madam Pomfrey was hovering over him trying to get him to move his hand from where the bat had hit him. He was applying pressure to it because it hurt so much. He knew that if he took his hand down, it would hurt but it would be healed in a matter of second. It was just gritting his teeth and doing it that was the problem. He counted to five in his head and quickly took his hand down. In an instant James' head was healed and he was able to get back onto the pitch.

He flew back up to join his team in the air. Straight away, whilst wondering why he was such a wuss and unable to let his wounds be healed straight away because they hurt, he grabbed the Quaffle off of the Slytherin who had hit him over the head and threw the Quaffle a distance of ten metres to the goal posts, scoring another ten points for Gryffindor easily. He then flew up to the Slytherin captain, stopped in front of him, and smirked. That'd tell him that no matter what, James could still come back fighting.

'James Potter is back on the pitch. He throws the Quaffle to Hestia Jones who takes it to the hoops. She shoots…SHE SCO-…did she score? YES SHE SCORED!' Mary yelled to the roaring crowd, 'That brings the score to thirty-nil!'

The game went on for two more hours. Near to the end, the spectators, who had been attempting to keep their enthusiasm levels to the standard they were at the beginning of the game, had begun to get tired. Now when Gryffindor scored, (because nobody cared about Slytherin), the crowd didn't cheer so much as grunt in tired respect.

The score was 320 to 280 to Gryffindor. James was getting frustrated. The game couldn't go on much longer. He'd already lost one chaser and one beater because of the Slytherin's ruthless tactics. He flew further into the air to catch the Quaffle that Hestia had just thrown his way. He dodged the Slytherin's attempts to steal the odd shaped ball and scored another goal bringing Gryffindor's score up by ten points proving that, even without part of their team, they could still give the Slytherin's a challenge.

'Yay.' Mary said unenthusiastically. It was the extent she was now going to in commentating the game. She had been doing these short comments on the game for nearly half an hour but now something was happening that warranted a proper sentence.

'THE SNITCH HAS BEEN SPOTTED!' Mary yelled suddenly, waking everyone in the stadium up from their bored stupor, 'The Gryffindor and Slytherin seeker are neck and neck! The Slytherin seeker knocks the Gryffindor seeker off course! No! The Slytherin seeker makes a grab for the snitch…AND THE _GRYFFINDOR_ SEEKER CATCHES THE SNITCH! Wow folks what a way to end the game! It looked as if Slytherin was going to win at the end there but good old Gryffindor snatched it back at the last minute! What a way to end the season! GRYFFINDOR WINNING THE QUIDDITCH CUP! YES! GO US!'

The crowd roared in appreciation, finally managing to muster enough energy to congratulate their team who had fought for the cup so valiantly. Three quarters of the stadium were celebrating. The final quarter was Slytherin and they weren't best pleased. They were hissing and stamping and throwing wrappers from the sweets they'd been eating pathetically down onto the pitch at the Gryffindor team who had just landed on the pitch looking worn out.

James punched his fist into the air in triumph. He smiled at the crowd and at his friends and then finally at Professor McGonagall. She was clapping politely in a dignified manner. If you weren't James you wouldn't have seen how gleeful she actually was with the Gryffindor win. You would have just seen her as an unbiased teacher, even though her house team had won. James however, received a wink and a quick victorious smile which also said, in James words, that the Slytherin team could 'suck it'. She didn't always show it because she was a professor and she wasn't supposed to be biased, even towards her own house, but Professor McGonagall always got satisfaction out of Gryffindor crushing the other houses in Quidditch.

James returned the smile and breathed a deep sigh. Quidditch was over.

* * *

Severus, with his hands clenched in fists beside him, was walking through the entrance hall on the way back from the Quidditch pitch where his house team had just lost sorely. He was thinking about the meeting Voldemort had held the other day. It was the meeting which they had snuck out of school to attend only to return to Hogwarts and realise that they couldn't get back in. The group had stood out in the cold night air for an hour when finally, Professor Slughorn on one of his less than innocent wanderings opened the gate to nip down to Hogsmeade, presumably to sell some tentacula leaves that he had taken from the Herbology greenhouses without permission. Just as the gate was swinging shut behind him, the six potential death eaters slipped back into the school.

On their way up to the castle, through the vast grounds, the group discussed the meeting. They had each been given until the end of the summer after their final year at Hogwarts to, for the last time, prove their worth to Voldemort and formally and forever join his ranks by being branded with the dark mark. All they had to do, was to either, bring someone else who was worthy into the fold or, with no easy way to say it without sounding vulgar, kill somebody who was unworthy of magic or had none at all. Muggles, muggleborns or blood traitors would fall into this category. They didn't have to show him bodies, he would know if they had done it.

Bellatrix was the one who was most excited with this prospect. She was bouncing as they had headed towards the castle, laughing madly at the thought of finally spilling some blood which wasn't worthy of magic. She jumped around suggesting people who they could sacrifice to serve Voldemort. Of course the first group of people out of her mouth were most of the Gryffindor's. Severus had to tense himself to stop himself lunging at her when he mentioned one certain name. The others that she mentioned he couldn't care less about. In fact, if he wasn't so nervous about taking someone else's life he'd have probably killed a couple of them at that moment.

Now, back in the present and slowing up the crowd which was trying to race into the school to celebrate the Gryffindor win, Severus wondered what to do. He did have more than a year to decide but doing it early would take the pressure off of him quickly. If he was honest with himself, he would prefer to bring someone else into the death eaters rather than kill someone. He wouldn't admit it to anybody but he was scared to commit such an act. An act you could never come back from no matter what you tried. No amount of redemption could save your soul one it was ripped in pieces by cold blooded murder. But he had to do it. If he brought someone else into the ranks instead of helping to purify the wizarding world, well, he saw it as a coward's way out. And he was no coward.

He looked among the throng of students passing him. Many of them were muggleborn or had families which liked muggleborns. He could easily pick any of them. Watch their movements for a while. Recognise their routines. Capture them alone. Disarm them, taking their wand and kill them with it so that their murder couldn't be linked back to him through a magical trace. It would be easy if he could do it. But committing such a crime under Dumbledore's nose would be near to impossible. If he was going to do this, he would need to do it when he wasn't at school.

He walked down some stairs into the dungeons and made his way across to the Slytherin common room. He said the password to a blank space of wall which instantly transformed into a small passage which led to the Slytherin common room.

The room was very large and rounded room which was lit by dim green lights. The furniture was a deep rich mahogany apart from the sofas which were deep green leather. The fire place, which had carved snakes entwining themselves around the frame, was glaring out a fire which was the only emitting light. The common room was cold beyond belief but Severus' crowd, for he could hardly call them friends, were buzzing. He walked over to them.

'So who are you thinking?' Avery asked Mulciber. He was strewn out across one of the sofas his head resting on Bellatrix's feet as she was sat on the arm of the couch.

Mulciber, who was sat opposite Avery in an armchair, replied 'Someone who bugs the hell out of me. Like Alderson.'

'Why does he bug you?' Wilkes asked who was sat on the floor near Avery's head.

'He always wears his jacket inside out.' Mulciber sneered. The Slytherin's around him laughed.

Severus pushed Avery's legs off of the couch and sat down in the place where they were. Avery was about to argue but after a stern and evil look from Severus, he backed off. Nobody in the Slytherin house messed with him. It was a shame that the same didn't apply to those in other houses, more specifically Gryffindor.

'You should go after Potter.' Avery said to Severus with a malicious smile, 'He's a blood traitor.'

'Are you stupid?' Severus spat at Avery, 'The dark lord would not want valuable magical blood to be spilt. Even if it is Potters!' Of course, this wasn't the real reason that Severus didn't want to go after James Potter. If truth be told Severus would rather avoid a real duel with James. He had seen what he could do in school boy fights. His reflexes were fast and his skills as a wizard were faultless no matter how much Severus hated him.

'Who you going for then?' Mulciber asked Severus with a daring look.

Severus thought for a moment. 'Not someone in Hogwarts.' he said finally.

'Why?' Bellatrix snapped as if this was a totally outrageous thought.

'Because,' Severus began, giving Bellatrix a harsh glare, 'if it is someone in Hogwarts, Dumbledore is bound to get suspicious. I don't know about you but I'd rather leave that duel to the Dark Lord. After all, he is the only one who can match his power. Also, if it is someone out of school, it can be done over the summer. I'll get branded quicker and the Dark Lord will be able to rely on me to do his bidding. That is why.'

'What about you then Bellatrix.' Avery said to her, 'Who are you going to unleash your wrath on?'

'I was thinking my cousin.' she said thoughtfully, her face glazing over with a truly wicked look.

'As much as I would love to see that happy event,' Severus smirked, 'I should reiterate that the Dark Lord wants no pure blood spilt. And besides, with that lot, you attack one, you attack them all. It would be a blood bath and, let's be honest, you wouldn't survive against three of them.'

'Fine!' Bellatrix spat. She knew he was right. 'Then,' she continued, 'I have someone else in mind then and I'm sure you'll be pleased. A little mudblood whose sunny disposition annoys the hell out of me!'

Severus tried with all his might to not let himself react. He knew who she was talking about. Anyone with half a brain did.

'Lily Evans would make a great offering to the Dark Lord!' Bellatrix whispered with a hushed but malevolent tone to her voice, 'Don't you think Snape?' she asked, daring him to disagree.

Severus looked up slowly, keeping his expression under calm control. He looked around at his fellow Slytherin's who were waiting for his answer with baited breath. They all knew how he felt about Lily and their past friendship. He knew that if they even suspected that he was still involved with her that they would give him no chance to explain, tell Voldemort at once and Severus wouldn't live long enough to give a defence. His betrayal would be all that was seen.

He finally turned to Bellatrix to give her an answer. 'I couldn't agree more.' he said.

* * *

Gryffindor celebrated their glorious win in the common room in true marauder style; with lots of butterbeer and jelly. The celebration lasted for four hours and, surprisingly, everybody's energy levels kept up for the whole of the party, unlike during Quidditch game. It ended at eleven o'clock at night when McGonagall had to go up to the Gryffindor common room to break the party up. They had become so loud that the Ravenclaw tower, at the opposite end of the school, could hear them. So the Gryffindor's departed the common room in groups until James was the only person left.

He sat staring into the dying embers of the fire, his defence against the dark arts homework lying untouched in front of him. He had stayed up to attempt to finish it but wasn't having any luck. He sighed and threw his quill, which he was holding poised and ready to write, on the table. He stood up and turned around to head to his dormitory but was stopped by the sight of Lily Evans on the staircase to the girls' dormitory.

'Hi.' she said tentatively. She stepped down a step so that she was only a couple of steps from the bottom of the staircase and only a couple of centimetres above James. (He was quite a tall lad).

'Hi?' James replied, a little bit confused. They hadn't spoken to each other in almost a month.

'It was erm…a good game.' Lily said with a small nod, 'I mean…I don't know a lot about Quidditch but, we won so I'm guessing that we played well. Look at me! I'm saying we when I didn't actually play. I've never even been on a broom. The idea of flying just scares me I guess-'

'Lily.' James said, cutting her off. He was smiling fondly at her. 'You're rambling.'

'Right.' Lily said after a short pause. She guessed that not having conversations every day with him for a month had sort of, strangely, made her forget how to talk to him. She had lost the rhythm of the relationship. 'So,' Lily began again, 'I see you came late to the celebrations. Of winning. Were you celebrating elsewhere? With someone else?'

James frowned, 'What do you mean?' he asked her. He folded his arms and tipped his head to the side slightly in question.

'I think the question is pretty self-explanatory!' Lily said in response. She now walked down the remaining two steps in front of her and entered the common room fully. She walked over to the fire place and turned to face James, also folding her arms.

'I don't think so.' James sighed, hiding a smirk for he knew that this would aggravate her. Also, as they hadn't spoken in a month and he assumed that they wouldn't speak again after this, he had to take all that he could get and he knew this would get her talking for a bit longer.

'Yes it is!' Lily replied already getting annoyed. She was very quick-tempered. Why couldn't he ever just answer a question straight out?

'I'm gonna need some kind of explanation for that question.' James said with a shrug of his shoulders, walking towards Lily slowly. He was now level with the couch opposite the fireplace where she was stood. 'Why do you want to know?'

'Just…because!' Lily exasperated, shaking her head and looking at her feet, her arms still folded, 'Just answer the question.'

'Why do you want to know if I was celebrating with someone else before I came to the party?' James asked before cheekily adding, 'Are you keeping tabs on me?'

'No. I was just wondering…you know it's just a bit rude for you to go off with someone else when there's a party being thrown for you.' she said, becoming increasingly frustrated.

'Technically it was for the whole of the Quidditch team.' James muttered under his breath and turning his head to the side slightly. It was almost as if he was trying to disguise his words but purposely doing it badly.

'Mainly for you though!' she snapped at him, wishing that she hadn't come down to the common room and started this in the first place. She could see that he was getting obvious pleasure from annoying her this way though.

'So…why do you want to know where I was?' James pressed, attempting to keep the growing smile off of his face.

'Just because I do!' Lily spoke, her voice becoming raised and her temper flaring up again.

'You gotta give me more than that!' James laughed, taking a step closer to a clearly irritated Lily, 'What do you want to know? Where I was or who I was with?'

'Both!' Lily said straight away, without hesitation before adding, 'Who.'

'And why do you want to know that?' James asked her, his tone becoming more serious as he began to realise where this was going. Was this it?

'Why won't you just tell me?' Lily stressed taking a step closer to James. She was getting closer and closer to boiling point.

'Because you won't tell me why you want to know!' James said in a quieter voice, an even more serious voice.

'Because I like you!' Lily announced finally, leaving a stunned and tangible silence behind her. She shocked herself. She hadn't come down stairs to tell him this. She had actually just come down to get dressing gown which she had left in the common room. When she had seen James however, she had decided, on a whim, to attempt to make peace. She missed being his friend. But finally, after weeks of failed attempts, weeks of silence and weeks of convincing herself to just let it go, she had told him how she felt. But how would he react?

'I know.' James said softly, raising his eyebrows and a small kind smile creeping across his face.

Lily looked at James, confused. The silence continued with neither of them saying a word. James was waiting for a response from Lily and Lily was trying to think of something to say. In this situation, she believed that she would be the one who would be waiting for the response, however, the tables had been turned somehow and, instead of James, she was the one in shock and she was the one who needed to give a response.

Lily thought for a few minutes but the best she could come up with was, 'How?'

'Jones told me around a month ago.' James shrugged. He wasn't smiling now. Neither of them was.

Lily rolled her eyes and heaved a great, and irked sigh, 'I'm gonna kill her.' she muttered to herself, shaking her head. She looked up at James who was looking at her curiously, wondering what she was going to do. Lily deflated and made her way towards the staircase, now unsure of how their conversation could go anywhere else.

'Doesn't matter anyway.' she said as she walked away from him, 'You have a girlfriend.'

James grabbed her arm as she walked past him. He turned her around to face him. She looked extremely surprised and, for some reason, nervous. James looked into her startling emerald green eyes and as soon as he had captivated her, dropped her arm.

'What girlfriend?' James asked, determined to know where this ludicrous idea of him having a girlfriend had come from.

'Sophie.' Lily said, obviously uncomfortable of saying the name of the girl she believed to be dating James.

'Oh…' James whispered. Everything fell into place for James as soon as Lily said that name. It was as if somebody had flicked a switch on in his head and he suddenly understood who they thought his girlfriend was. He understood that she would have overheard him speaking about Sophie on many occasions. Obviously, they hadn't heard the full story of who she was though.

He gave a breathless laugh and smiled at Lily, nodding his head. 'Come with me.' James said, explaining nothing to Lily but taking her hand and leading her towards the portrait hole.

'Where are we going?' Lily asked, willingly being lead out of the room by James, (much to the displeasure of the Fat Lady who was woken up when they stepped out of the common room), and following him without thinking about the fact that they were now out after curfew. Her hand tingled at the touch of his and, although she believed that she was crossing some kind of line because of the relationship she thought James to be in, she couldn't drop her hand and had to check every couple of minutes that he was actually holding it. Her heart beat fast at the contact, even if it wasn't in a romantic way.

James didn't say anything to Lily as he led her through the dark school. He dragged her up a few flights of stairs and through a door into a cold tower. Inside the tower was a spiral staircase which grew colder as you climbed up it. He took Lily to the top of the tower, opening the door that was at the top of the stairs. They entered the circular room, the coldest room by far in the whole of the Hogwarts due to the lack of windows. James whistled. Lily watched him.

'This is Sophie.' James said with a smile, gesturing to the figure that was now next to him. She was beautiful. She was sleek and brown with large, round brown eyes.

Lily smiled. 'This is Sophie?' she whispered.

'The one and only.' James smiled, looking to Sophie with a proud look on his face.

'She's an owl!' Lily cooed, walking forwards to the tiny bird who was perched tentatively on James' arm.

'That she is.' James nodded, 'But,' he continued cautiously, 'She's not really called Sophie.'

Lily looked at him confused.

'When I got her, at Christmas, I couldn't think of what to name her.' he began, taking a step closer to Lily so that she could stroke the owl and get a better look of her in the moonlight, 'Anyway, Sirius decided he'd call her Sophie and she started to respond so I tried to pick a name that was similar. Turned out that all I had to do was give her a nick name. She responds to it and Sirius is happy. Her name is Sox.'

'Sox.' Lily whispered with a small smile appearing on her face. It all made sense now to her. When she had overheard them talking in the Owlery, (their location also making sense now), when Sirius had been saying about her flying, Remus asking James if he was happy with her, James saying that he loved her already even though they had only 'met' over the Christmas holidays. It was all coming together. Anytime Sirius had said to James, 'can we go and see Sophie?' and his replies of 'no, but we can go and see Sox.', made sense to Lily now.

She had been stroking Sox for a couple of minutes in silence. Her feathers were so soft and even changed in shade towards her feet so that she looked like she was actually wearing socks. Lily had been involved in her head, making things clear to herself, not realising that things were now a little bit unclear to James.

'So,' James said, recapturing Lily's attention, 'You like me…and I still like you. Do you want to…do anything about that?' he asked slowly and cautiously, being very careful not to ask her out directly, as she had specifically asked him not to do that at the beginning of the year. He also didn't want her to think that he expected anything or scare her away.

Lily's face dropped and, without thinking, she said, 'I'm sorry.' and quickly left the room, leaving James devastated, holding the owl that had caused so much confusion.

* * *

**Thanks for reading**

**Galindaba**


	29. Chapter 28

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Can I just say a quick thank you to everyone who has reviewd my story! It really makes my day to find out that someone has taken the time to write me a little note so THANK YOU VERY MUCH for your lovely comments! :)**

**Anyway, here's chapter Twenty-Eight! **

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Eight**

Lily raced through the school. She didn't know what to do. Of course, she was rather happy. She had just found out that James didn't actually have a girlfriend and he still liked her. However, through all her imaginings of how she would react to James telling her that he still liked her, with all of her feelings in the air too, she had never imagined herself running off with just the words 'I'm sorry'. If anything, she had imagined something from a fairy tale or romantic story from one of the many books she had read. But that's not what had happened and now she was rushing to the Gryffindor tower for some advice.

She said the password to an irritable Fat Lady and entered the common room. Of course, no-one was there. She'd have to wake someone up to talk. It was past midnight. She headed towards the stairs but was soon stopped by the mention of her name.

She turned around. 'Hello?' she whispered wondering who would be up at this hour. It was Hestia. She was sat on the armchair near to the extinguished fire with a cat on her lap. She picked the cat up and placed it onto the floor. It hissed in disapproval at being dismissed and stalked away whilst Hestia watched it leave. She then walked towards Lily and yawned. 'Where did you go? I woke up and you weren't there.' she said.

Lily paused. 'Doesn't matter.' she replied with a shrug, 'Is Alice upstairs?'

'Err…yeah.' Hestia replied, a little bit confused, 'She's asleep….Why?'

'I need some advice.' Lily said bluntly. She turned around and walked towards the spiral staircase which led to the girls' dormitory.

'Wait, wait!' Hestia said hurriedly, walking over to Lily in a state of shock, 'Why Alice?' she wondered, 'I'm your best friend.'

'You're fired!' Lily said simply.

'What? No!' Hestia whined, upset. 'Why can't I give you advice?'

Lily turned around to face Hestia and thought for a moment, her head tipped on its side. 'Oh I don't know,' she began, her tone dripping with irritation and a little bit of sarcasm, 'maybe because you told James that I like him after I specifically told you not to.' she finished, folding her arms and giving Hestia a look which dared her to deny it.

Hestia shrank back a little bit. She couldn't deny anything. Lily obviously knew. But how? 'Who told you that?' she asked quietly.

'James did.' Lily stated, looking disappointedly at Hestia for betraying her trust with her biggest secret.

Hestia, however, instead of being ashamed, she was very curious, 'Why did he tell you that?' she questioned.

'Because I told him that I liked him.' Lily said with a sigh as if it was an obvious fact that Hestia, as her, now fired, best friend, should have known.

'Yay!' Hestia exclaimed in hushed excitement, being careful to be quiet so as not to wake anybody who was sleeping up, 'Well what happened?' she asked with eager anticipation.

Lily stared at her as if she had lost her mind. 'I think the more pressing question is why did you tell him when I told you not to?' she demanded, looking at Hestia in a way which said she would not give in until she got the answer.

Hestia turned her head towards her hand and started to pick at the loose threads on the couch that she was stood next to. 'I thought he deserved to know.' she said, her voice going up at the end of her sentence.

'He did.' Lily said, causing Hestia to look up towards Lily expectedly, as if she believed that Lily would forgive her there and then. Lily continued, 'But he deserved to hear it from me.' she finished shaking her head disappointedly.

'Sorry.' Hestia murmured silently before returning back to the question she so desperately wanted answered, 'So what happened?'

Lily held back a smile and this time shook her head fondly. It was classic Hestia. She believed sorry should fix everything straight away and just returned back to normal after it had been said. Lily debated whether to tell her. She was still mad at her but she knew that it would kill Hestia if she didn't know the gossip or what was going on in her friend's life. Then again, Lily still had a strange compulsion to punish her in some way, if only for personal satisfaction. In the end, she decided to tell her. She was after all, her best friend. However, for the advice she wanted, she would still go to Alice. That would be Hestia punishment.

'He took me to meet Sophie.' Lily said finally.

Hestia's jaw dropped. She was gob-smacked at this piece of news. It took her completely by surprise. When she finally managed to pull herself together, all she could say was, 'That's so insensitive!'

Lily chuckled. 'That's what I thought too.' she said with a small grimace.

'So…' Hestia asked, folding her arms and glancing at Lily compassionately, 'What's she like.'

'Oh she's err…' Lily said pausing for a second, '…she's something all right.'

'I'm sorry.' Hestia replied, not really sure how she should react to this. No-one she knew had been in this situation before.

'She's beautiful.' Lily continued, 'Magnificent really. Brunette I'd say.'

'Brunette? Really?' Hestia asked, not being able to imagine James with a brunette. She couldn't actually imagine him with anyone but Lily.

'Yes.' Lily said before adding, 'Oh, and did I mention that she's an owl?'

'An owl?' Hestia repeated.

'An owl!' Lily confirmed.

Hestia burst into hysterical and uncontrollable laughter. Lily had to wait for five minutes for her to calm down enough to squeeze out the words, 'that's hilarious' only to have her continue laughing for another two minutes.

'Are you done?' Lily asked impatiently. It wasn't that funny and it wasn't as if her assumptions were unfounded. Granted, when she first believed she had overheard them talking about Sophie being James' girlfriend they were in the Owlery. But, it was very likely that anybody who didn't know that Sophie, or Sox, was an owl, would have made the same assumption that she did. It wasn't so unimaginable that James would have a girlfriend. Plenty of girls threw themselves at him every day.

Hestia stopped herself laughing enough to say, 'I'm finished'.

Lily exhaled and turned away from her friend. She began to climb the stairs up to her dormitory and sensed Hestia was following her. They managed to climb two floors up before Hestia realised that Lily still hadn't told her something.

'Why do you need advice? What happened after you met Sophie? Does he still like you? Are you going on a date? In Hogsmeade? Is that why you need advice?' she reeled off, her one question expanding into an extensive list after she had asked it.

Lily sighed and, in very much the same way as Hestia had just done, reeled off a list of answers for her. 'No, we are not going on a date in Hogsmeade or anywhere else. Yes he still likes me. He prefers Sophie to be called Sox and the reason I need advice is because of what happened after I met her.'

She opened the door and crept over to where Alice slept, Hestia on her heels behind her. Lily sat down on the edge of Alice's bed and stared at her for about her minute. This was always a sure fire way to wake Alice up. She had a sort of sixth sense and could always, well, nearly always tell if someone was staring at her. Even in her sleep. She hated the feeling of someone watching her and, sensing this discomfort now, woke up.

Alice's eyes fluttered open and she looked between Hestia and Lily slowly. She slowly yawned and pulled herself up so that she was sitting-up straight. Her eyes flickered over to the old-fashioned cuckoo clock which hung on the wall and widened at the time. It was twenty to one in the morning. She finally turned back to Hestia and Lily and glared at the both of them. 'Yes?' she asked shrewdly, wondering why on earth her dorm mates had stared her into consciousness at this time when she had been sleeping soundly. It would now take her a long time to get back to sleep and the dream she had been having would now be abolished.

'I need some advice.' Lily whispered, taking on an anxious tone in her voice.

Alice sighed. 'My office hours are nine till five. Go away.' She lay back down and pulled her quilt over her head, struggling a little bit for Lily and Hestia were still sat on it.

Lily pulled back Alice's covers and pleaded with her desperately. 'Please Alice. I could really use some advice and I could really use it now.'

Alice groaned loudly and sat up once more. She hung her head and rubbed her eyes, yawning again, before turning to face Lily with watering eyes. 'Fine.' she breathed, 'What do you want?'

'Well,' Lily began planning to tell Alice the whole story but upon looking at her tired face, decided to just speed through it, 'basically, I told James that I like him and he told me that he still likes me but when he asked me what I wanted to do about it I just said, 'I'm sorry' and ran out of the room.'

Alice shook her head slightly. 'I thought you said he had a girlfriend?' she asked, biting back yet another yawn.

'Yeah but she's really an owl.' Lily shrugged.

Alice blinked a couple of times and sniffed. 'I'm too tired to question that.' she said solemnly, 'So, _do _you want to do anything about it?' she continued.

'Well I do like him but,' Lily paused, 'I don't know. It just doesn't feel right. Like it's not the right time for anything to happen.'

'Okay.' Alice said matter of factly, pulling herself up even more and sitting crossed legged in a determined fashion. She wanted to get this done as quickly as possible so that she could attempt to salvage the rest of her night's sleep, 'All relationships need time to grow. You and James have only just admitted to each other how you really feel so, instead of diving in feet first into a proper relationship, I would just see how things progress and if at the end you do start going out then great. If you don't, it's not like you've made anything official and you could probably still be friends.'

'So,' Lily said, trying to figure out what Alice had just said to her in her head, 'I should just be friends with him. And see if anything happens?'

'Exactly!' Alice replied with relief and flopping herself back down onto her bed and wrapping herself back into her quilt. 'Now go to bed!' she said lastly through muffled sheets.

Lily and Hestia made their way back to their own beds. Hestia fell asleep straight away. As soon as her head hit the pillow she was out of it. Lily however, took a bit longer to get to sleep. When she did finally fall asleep, her last thought was about Alice's advice. She was right. Lily would just have to see how things progressed naturally with her and James. If things happened then that would be great. If nothing did, it was just meant to be and she would have to live with it.

* * *

The next morning, Sirius, James, Remus and Peter were all at breakfast. Sirius was, as per usual, stuffing his face with every piece of available food which he could get his hands on. He even resorted to stealing some of his fellow marauders breakfasts when they weren't looking. He was eating enough to feed a crowd but anybody who knew him knew that this wouldn't be enough to sustain him for the day and he would be hungry again in about an hour. By the way he ate it was a wonder how he stayed so in shape.

Remus, who was sat opposite Sirius, was deep in a book, reading about the newest devised techniques to use in defence against the dark arts. It was a very popular book at the minute considering the chaos and crisis of the wizarding world at the present moment. Every so often Remus would snort of chuckle derisively, knowing that the methods described in the book wouldn't have a cat in hells chance of working if they were ever put into practice.

Next to Remus was Peter. He was scribbling away, trying to finish his astronomy homework which he believed to be due in today. He often mixed up the days of the week and, even though the calendar that was hung up in their dorm room stated that it was Sunday, he was still one day ahead of time. None of his friends bothered to tell him that he had one more day to finish his work in instead of the one hour deadline he was attempting to work to. They just let him continue to write furiously.

James, who was sat opposite Peter and next to Sirius, wasn't eating. He wasn't hungry and even if he was he doubted if Sirius would let him eat his own food. It would be gone before he could start. He wasn't reading any of the latest top sellers. He had only ever seriously read one book for pleasure and that was Quidditch through the ages. He had started other books such as the one he stole off of Lily earlier in the school year or his father's favourite book, but had never had the patience to finish them. He would find one thing he didn't like in the book, fixate on it and be unable to read the rest of it. He wasn't doing any last minute homework either. Any work that needed to be in for the following week was, miraculously, already done. So James wasn't eating, reading or doing homework. He was however sat in thought. But his thoughts were soon and suddenly interrupted by Sirius.

'I had the strangest dream last night!' he said loudly, spraying bits of food everywhere from talking with his mouth full.

James turned to face his best friend with raised eyebrows. 'And what was that?' he asked, trying to sound interested but failing miserably.

Sirius didn't seem to notice and just continued with a description of his odd dream from the previous night. 'Well,' he began, turning to face James, 'you came into the dormitory and everyone was asleep and then we all woke up at the same time.'

'You're right that is odd.' Remus said sarcastically, turning the page in his book.

Sirius again, took no notice of one of his friend's tone of voice and continued with his dream. 'So we had all woken up and you said that Evans told you that she liked you and that you were dating your owl and then I think I laughed and then…I can't remember. Weird right?'

'No.' James said, raising one eyebrow, 'That happened. And I didn't say that I was dating Sox I said that Evans thought I was.'

Sirius blinked a couple of times at James. 'That's perverted.' he said solemnly.

James smiled and shook his head. Typical Sirius.

'So Evans likes you!' Sirius announced happily, reaching for yet more food to stuff himself with.

'Yeah but she doesn't want to do anything about it.' James said glumly. Everything he had ever wanted, Lily returning his affections, had happened but the overall outcome was not something he had even considered. He always believed that she would come to like him eventually. However, he had also believed that when his happened, they would ride of in the sunset together, or so to speak.

'How do you know that?' Remus asked, placing a bookmark onto the page he was on closing his book and putting it down on the table.

'I asked her what she wanted to do and she said 'I'm sorry' and ran off.' James recalled. Yes he had told them the previous night but, after all, it was the middle of the night and they were all tired. They wouldn't be able to remember much of what he said so he'd just have to repeat it again, tedious as it was.

'That'll do it!' Remus tutted. He looked at his friend in sympathy who just returned his look accompanied with a small shrug which meant, 'hey, what you gonna do'. It was a reluctant and defeated motion.

Suddenly, making all of his friends jump and causing Peter to spill some ink on his freshly completed astronomy homework, Sirius slammed his fist down on the table. 'No.' he stated, 'I do not accept this.'

'Well you're just gonna have too.' James said simply, 'I have to so you can too.'

Sirius glared at his friend. He couldn't believe James. He had put up with him, chasing after one girl for almost six years, casting anybody else who tried to strike up a relationship with him to the side. (This was actually beneficial for Sirius as he did become a shoulder for those girls to cry on and managed to get almost all of them to go out with him, being his girlfriend for the week, but that wasn't particularly the point.) Through all of James' failed attempts to get Lily Evans to go out with him. Through the countless times Sirius had to hear about James' next ridiculously over the top plans to ask her out again, knowing that no matter how hard he tried she would still just reject him anyway. Through his best friend's constant miserable state at the situation and all of his whining that Lily Evans didn't like him, Sirius had supported his decision to desire the one person in the school who couldn't stand him. (Well, most of the time anyway.) But now James was giving up even though at long last the feeling was mutual. Sirius couldn't stand it anymore.

He looked around the table and spotted her. 'Oi! Evans!' he yelled across the table.

She looked up to see who had called her. When she saw it was Sirius, her eyes immediately looked for James and, upon making eye contact with him, she blushed furiously.

'Come here!' Sirius continued to shout, 'It's an emergency!'

Lily waited for a couple of seconds, reluctant to go. Then she saw Alice and Hestia urging her to and she slowly stood up and made her way over to the marauders.

Whilst Lily was making her decision to go and join the group of boys, even for just a short conversation, James was angrily whispering at Sirius.

'What are you doing? Don't make this worse just leave it alone now alright.' James was hissing to his best friend who just waved his hand at James in a way which told him that he had the situation under control and not to worry.

James however, couldn't help but worry. Although he always had the best intentions set at heart, whenever Sirius tried to fix something or attempt to make it better, more often than not he just ended up screwing everything up for everyone involved.

Lily reached Sirius and James and stood behind them. 'Yes? she asked nervously.

Sirius grabbed James arm and placed it in Lily's hand ignoring his protesting looks and warning eyes. 'Feel this.' he demanded to Lily, taking a bit of James' robes between his thumb and his forefinger and rubbing the fabric together, 'Know what this is?' he asked.

Lily did the same as Sirius albeit quite a bit more hesitant than she was. She tried to control the blush that was seeping into her face. She eventually shook her head. 'No.' she answered.

'That's boyfriend material.' Sirius said, nodding his head slowly as if he thought he was the coolest person in the world.

Remus chuckled as did Peter. James took his arm out of Lily's hand and smacked his hand to his forehead in embarrassment. Lily raised her eyebrows.

She couldn't think of anything witty to say so, not knowing what affect her words would have, she said, 'I know.', and walked away from the marauders to re-join her friends who were wiggling their eyebrows at her suggestively.

'I'm sorry.' James called after her, extremely embarrassed by what Sirius had said.

'Wow.' Sirius said, 'They must be her favourite words. 'I'm sorry'. Huh?'

'I said that.' James said after a short pause, moving his hand out in a questioning gesture.

'Wow.' Sirius repeated, 'You sounded so much like Evans just then. Spooky.'

James rolled his eyes and ran a hand through his hair in his usual fashion. 'Why did you do that?' he asked exasperatedly.

'Well you could be a little bit more grateful!' Sirius replied haughtily, 'After all, it's not like she said _no_. She said that she _knew_. _I _just gave you hope.' he finished cockily, stealing James' muffin from his plate.

'Yeah.' James said thoughtfully, 'Maybe you did.'

* * *

The day sped along. It was the first day where the weather was decent enough for the students to go outside. Everybody took full advantage of that fact. Every professor urged the children to stay outside so that they could have some peace and quiet. Any student who had work to do took the opportunity to use the library which had been restored to its usual quiet atmosphere and everybody else went outside to get away from the people who did this and their professors. It was a winning situation all round.

Severus and his gang of wannabe's were outside in a dark corner near the castle wall. They were talking about what they would do once they had been branded and were fully fledged death eaters. The most frequent response was what the current death-eaters likes to call muggle baiting. They would go into a muggle town, find a muggle who was sat on their own and randomly start shooting spells here there and everywhere. The muggle in question would then usually run screaming for the hills, but the sport didn't end there. The death eater would follow the muggle who would, usually, immediately tell everybody and warn them about what had happened. Now, thanks to the wizarding community being secret and kept on the down low, nobody would believe him and the muggle would slowly go insane. The death eaters would play tricks on him when nobody else was looking and finally, when they got bored with their current muggle, they would kill him after his personal torture. They would then find another muggle in a different town and repeat the process again, all for a laugh.

Bellatrix was particularly keen on this idea. She saw it as a way to prove dominion over the far less powerful and a way to show them who should really be in charge. Avery didn't mind the idea and just believed it to be some sort of hobby to do when you got bored unlike Mulciber and Wilkes who would gladly take it up as a full time job. Severus was looking forward to it. Rosier wasn't particularly bothered. He preferred to be hunting blood traitors and muggleborns or, as they called them, mudbloods. He had never been any good at any sport, failing miserably at Quidditch like Severus. Maybe this could be the one which he excelled in.

Their conversation was dark and twisted, but if anybody was to walk by, they wouldn't know. They could probably guess as it was common knowledge that they wanted to be death eaters, however, without any evidence that they had actually taken steps to make the dream come true, Dumbledore, within his rights and role as headmaster, couldn't do anything about it. They covered up well. If anybody _did_ walk past, they would immediately turn their conversation to something far more likely to be socially accepted. Like any homework assignments they had due in. It wasn't often that they had to do this though as nearly everyone found any excuse to steer clear of them.

Of course, not every student in the school stayed away from the group of Slytherin's. The Marauders for example. But it wasn't because they didn't know what the Slytherin's were all about and what they aspired to be. It was because they knew that, even if they did become death eaters, they would be no match for the marauders in a duel at their current level of skill and they enjoyed annoying them. Unfortunately, when other students interrupted the Slytherin's underhanded and sly goings on, they couldn't match them, hence the reason nearly everyone stayed out of their way.

A couple of first years from Hufflepuff, obviously unaware of the Slytherin's in the shadows, walked by talking about their families back home. They were excited about the summer holidays already even though it was five or so months away and were talking about everything that they were going to do. They were so excited talking about going to see their old friends from their previous school, that they didn't notice the sixth years walk up behind them. They only knew when they heard Bellatrix Black whisper in their ears the word, 'Mudbloods'.

The two first years turned around, fear and fright plastered across their faces. They cowered in the silhouettes of the six older students and attempted to escape from them. But they were like giants with a mouse; they let the first years believe that they could leave but then just blocked their path.

Severus took out his wand and muttered a spell of his own creation, (though not only used by him since James Potter snuck a look at his potions book and tried it out), to hoist one of the first years into the air by the ankle before intentionally breaking the spell and dropping her again. '_Levicorpus_.' he whispered, saying the spell again and this time, hoisting the other first year into the air by the ankle, again intentionally breaking the spell and dropping her on the floor. He continued the cycle with a malicious smile to amuse his fellow Slytherin's until a call of his name, his given name, stopped him.

'Severus! Stop it now!' Lily said, rushing over to aid the two first years that were on the floor. She knelt down next to them and checked them over to ensure they weren't hurt at all before helping them to their feet and sending them on their way.

'What did they ever do to you?' she demanded of Severus stepping forward to him, looking up at him angrily.

'They exist.' Bellatrix hissed at Lily from beside Severus, 'Much like you do.'

'Well you exist much to my displeasure but you don't see me throwing you around the floor do you?' Lily retorted to Bellatrix before turning back to Severus, 'How could you do this!' she said to her former best friend with a fierce glare.

She turned around to leave but saw Bellatrix move suspiciously in the corner of her eye. Thinking fast, she whipped out her wand from the sleeve of her top, turned back the way she came and shot the first spell, '_Petrificus Totalus_', at the Slytherin girl. The next thing Lily knew, Bellatrix was on the floor and four other wands were pointed at her. Severus was the only one who wasn't armed and ready to curse her.

Everything slowed down for Lily. One minute she was wondering how on earth she could possibly defend herself against four people at once. She was skilled but she wasn't there yet. She turned her head to every Slytherin in turn before, one by one, they fell to the floor face first.

From behind them, James, Sirius and Remus stood, wands outstretched in front of them, after just casting stunning spells to knock out the Slytherin boys.

'You all right Evans?' Sirius shouted at Lily as he turned his wand to Severus, not casting any spells but keeping it there as a precautionary measure.

James walked forwards to Lily, Remus close behind him. He stopped right in front of her, placing a caring hand on her arm and looking into her eyes. 'All right?' he asked, reiterating Sirius' question.

Lily nodded and walked away from him over to where Severus stood not saying a word. She looked at him with an appalled look. She shook her head disappointedly at him.

'What happened to you?' she asked him, searching his face for the friend she once knew.

Severus took a deep breath, breathing in her scent, flowery, something he hadn't smelt in ages. He took enough to last him. 'You stopped being my friend.' he said before turning around and walking away, leaving his so-called friends on the floor and surprisingly, walking away from the marauders, unscathed for once.

'Come on.' Remus said to Lily and his friends as he glanced around at the Slytherin's on the floor. They were beginning to stir.

Remus walked away, Lily coming up behind whilst James and Sirius took it upon themselves to transfigure the Slytherin's school robes, with the Slytherin snake emblem on them, into Gryffindor robes with the glorious lion emblem emblazoned on their chests. They then walked away, giving each other a high five as they went.

* * *

Peter was in the astronomy tower. He was tracking planets and plotting constellations. Earlier on in the day, in fact, just after breakfast, he had lost his friends and hadn't been able to find them all day. He looked in all the usual places; the kitchen, the common room, underneath the beech tree in the grounds and even on the Quidditch pitch. He couldn't find them anywhere. So, when he had failed to locate them, he headed up the astronomy tower and had been sat there for six hours, since half past twelve. It was now six thirty and, even though he didn't have a watch due to his mother worrying that he might break the glass and injure himself, he was sure that it was time for dinner. His belly was rumbling, growling at him to be fed but he had just gotten into the swing of plotting the constellation Piscis Austrinus, obviously unaware of the fact that it wasn't actually visible, and didn't want to lose his momentum.

He drew the fourth star in the unseen constellation, the one which wouldn't actually be seen until October, and looked out of the window to find the next one in the pattern when he saw two figures near a large tree whose limbs were waving wildly. He looked back towards the dark sky and saw that the moon was full and bright. Realisation hit. He dropped his quill and piece of parchment, on which he was plotting out the stars, and ran out of the tower.

He raced down the stairs, his blonde straw like hair bouncing atop his head. He became very sweaty very quickly because, with all the will in the world, he wasn't a particularly small lad. He left the tower jogging, his face now flushed. He was heaving heavily as he ran slowly down the corridor. He turned a corner and came to a sudden and unexpected halt. Severus Snape was stood in front of him with Avery and Rosier flanking him.

'Where you running off too piggy?' Rosier sneered, looking Peter, who did at that moment, with his flushed pink face, straw-like hair and sweaty complexion, look remarkably like a pig.

'I…well…err…' Peter stuttered. He had no idea why he was so nervous. He wasn't breaking any rules. After all, curfew wasn't for a few hours even though you wouldn't think it due to the early darkness that the first few months of the year, including March, brought with it. Plus, even if he was breaking any rules, it wasn't like the Slytherin's could do anything about it. They weren't exactly prefects or even upholders of the rules themselves. He decided to leave. Nothing was keeping him there. But when he attempted to get by them, Avery pushed him back by the shoulder to where he started.

'He asked you a question!' he spat at Peter who was now quivering in his boots. The three Slytherin boys towered over him menacingly.

'Get out that pathetic piece of wood you call a wand!' Severus whispered, 'If you manage to beat us in a friendly duel, we'll let you go, if not…' he chuckled evilly, 'well, we'll think of a suitable punishment for you.'

Peter hurriedly searched through his robes for his wand, anxious to find it so that this nightmare would end and he could go and help his friends with Moony. He couldn't find it and so checked again in all the places he could possibly hide his wand. It was still no use. He had left it in the astronomy tower. It was a rookie mistake. James had told him to always keep his wand on him at all times.

'I can't find it.' he said meekly, hoping beyond belief that a miracle would occur and the three boys in front of him would let him pass. At the minute, there was no way around them. They blocked the whole of the corridor.

'Well then,' Severus smirked, 'this should be relatively easy then.'

The three Slytherin's took out there wands and aimed them, all three, at various parts of Peter's body. Severus pointed his wand right between Peters eyes, Avery had his pointed at Peters chest and Rosier pointed his wand at Peters knees which were now knocking together so hard that it was audible.

Peter, his cowardice instincts kicking in, quickly scampered back towards the direction he had come from. As soon as he was around the corner, he closed his eyes tight and transformed into his Animagus state; a rat.

Wormtail heard the Slytherin boys walk around the corner and scurried into a dark patch of shadows to hide from them, not daring to move or make his escape until he was sure that they were long gone.

'He's not here.' Rosier muttered, 'For a fat little boy he can sure run quick.'

Severus slapped Rosier across the back of his head for the comment which, in some twisted ways, could probably be construed as a compliment.

'Running fast won't help him in the real world.' Avery said, smiling darkly, 'He'll never succeed in a duel with the dark lord. He probably wouldn't win in a duel with a toad.'

The other two Slytherin boys laughed at Avery's comment.

'Let's just be thankful that the dark lord will never invite him into his ranks!' Avery continued, enjoying the fact that he seemed to be the popular one out of the three at this moment in time.

'He'd never do that even if he was any use in a duel.' Severus said, steering the conversation back towards a more serious topic, 'He's a blood traitor. And at least we know that's one person we could deliver to the dark lord. We just have to work on the rest now.'

The three boys turned and left calling out, 'here piggy, piggy, piggy' as they went in reference to Peter.

Wormtail peeked his little nose out from the shadows where he was hidden. He'd have to remember to tell James, Sirius and Remus about what he had overheard this evening. Obviously, that was proof that at least three of the Slytherin's were seriously pursuing a 'career' in Voldemort's army of death eaters. But right now, Wormtail had to get down to the whomping willow where his friends would be waiting for him.

The winter months were hard when taking care of Moony as were the first and last months of spring and autumn respectively. The nights were longer so Moony was transformed for longer too. The early darkness was a problem. Everybody was still up at about at half past six in the evening. Moony would be able to smell them but would become increasingly frustrated as he was cooped up in the shrieking shack, unable to get to them. At least when everybody was asleep there was less of a risk that someone might wonder outside and become a prime target for him. When everyone was asleep, Prongs, Padfoot and Wormtail could take him out of the shrieking shack for some air and some room because there was less of a risk that he might attack someone.

Wormtail reached the whomping willow. James and Sirius were nowhere to be seen. They had evidently already let themselves into the tunnel at the base of the whomping willow which lead to the shrieking shack as Padfoot and, halfway down, Prongs. Wormtail did the same. He approached the trunk of the flailing tree and pressed the knurled knot that was hidden near the roots. The tree immediately froze and a small gap at the trunk opened revealing the secret passage way which led to the shrieking shack where Wormtail was positive his friends were.

He slipped easily into the passage way watching it shut near to his long tail. He then scurried down the dirty passage which, in his Animagus form, seemed huge to him. He moved quickly and silently, his paws making hardly any noise as he came to the incline near the rickety house. He entered it and dashed across the decaying wooden floor boards. Almost straight away, he heard Moony howl and heard claws scratching at the closed door which he was approaching.

The door flung open and there stood a huge werewolf which seemed even larger to Wormtail considering the animal that he had become. The large pair of yellow eyes were fixated on the tiny rat. Wormtail stood stock still, waiting and praying that Moony would recognise him and accept him into the room. He could see Prongs, a brilliant stag, and Padfoot, a scruffy black dog, lingering inside.

After what seemed like a lifetime to Wormtail, Moony allowed him entry to the room. He seemed more human with his friends by his side and, instead of doing the instinctive werewolf action of running back down the passage way to find fresh prey, he closed the door and went to lie on the splintering four-poster bed which stood in the centre of the room against the wall.

Wormtail followed him and went to curl up near the foot of bed on the floor. He received a gallant nod from Prongs who was looking very noble as a stag. Padfoot didn't acknowledge his presence and instead, rolled onto his back, paws in the air, tongue lolling out and panting heavily in a clear attempt to get some attention. None of the animals in the room were interested. They were all clearly bored in waiting for the evening to become later so that they could go and explore the forbidden forest as they had planned tonight.

Sensing his friend's boredom, Padfoot rolled back over and jumped onto all fours. His tail began to wag and he snuck up to Wormtail who had closed his eyes for a brief moment. Padfoot pounced on him, causing Wormtail to squeak and go hide by Prongs' hooves. Moony also jumped up, wondering about the commotion. He peered over the edge of the bed, his snout poised and sniffing the air.

Moony looked around the room for Padfoot who had hidden himself somewhere. Moony jumped lightly of the bed onto all fours with and arched back and began to sniff Padfoot out. He sniffed around the bed and under it. Around Prongs' hooves. He even sniffed Wormtail but that could have just been an instinctive act as a werewolf. Suddenly, Moony stopped in his tracks and turned to face the direction he had just come from, coming face to face with Padfoot. Padfoot licked Moony's snout and the two began to engage in a play fight, rolling around the floor. No claws were out so there was no danger of being harmed.

Prongs watched his friends with amusement and lay down, tucking his hooves in behind him. As humans, James and Sirius were the ones to mess around whilst Remus assumed the role of reason. As animals, Moony and Padfoot were able to let loose and play fight whilst Prongs, whose animagus form made it harder to engage in these activities, watched and supervised. He was the sensible one at these times.

Wormtail, afraid of the play fight, curled himself up next to Prongs' hooves and shook slightly in fear. He believed that as long as he was near Prongs, he wouldn't get hurt. Prongs was a good friend to him and wouldn't let anything happen to Wormtail if he could possibly help it. He was like this with all his friends; fiercely loyal, trusting and extremely protective. He was the same whether he was James or Prongs.

Moony and Padfoot's play fight simmered down after about an hour. For a couple more hours after that, nothing much happened in the shrieking shack. The four animals, one werewolf and three Animagi, sat in comfortable silence and relaxed, each one enveloped in their own thoughts until Prongs decide it was safe for them to venture out of the old house. Moony thought about what he would do if he wasn't a werewolf, he thoughts becoming more human thanks to the presence of his three friends. Prongs thought about his life. His situation at the minute and his parents. His mum _and_ his dad. Padfoot thought about food. And Wormtail thought about himself and how he would show everyone one day that he was more than the tag along friend of James, Sirius and Remus. He thought about his dreams to achieve great things and how they could possibly come true. He would show them all one day. He wasn't worthless.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	30. Chapter 29

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter Twenty-Nine! **

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Nine**

The next morning went extremely slowly. The Gryffindor's and the Ravenclaw's had double charms first thing, or at least those who had taken the subject had. They were cooped up in a tiny classroom on the third floor of Hogwarts castle, attempting to listen to a two hour lecture from Professor Flitwick. They were doing no practical work. Instead, they were supposed to be taking notes on what Professor Flitwick was explaining about the technique of non-verbal spells. Unfortunately for Flitwick hardly any of the class were actually taking notice.

Remus, was sat on the back row in the small classroom with his feet up on the desk. He was dying inside. He felt so tired and warn out. He wasn't meant to be in lessons today due to the full moon but he hated missing classes. It took him longer to catch up because the people who were supposed to bring him the work, namely James and Sirius, never really paid attention anyway and always forgot. However, actually turning up to the lesson in his current state didn't exactly improve his reception of the work. It was making no difference, his presence. He might as well have waited the usual week to find out what the lectures were about. He was too exhausted to take any notice and he felt extremely angry. If somebody said something even remotely out of line to him today, he would most likely punch them. He was not in a good mood.

Peter was sat on his left hand side, attempting to take notes. He wasn't getting very far. There was no ink in his jar but he didn't notice as the label read 'invisible ink'. What he didn't know was that Sirius had switched his inks around. He didn't have any proper scrolls of parchment left so he was writing, or just scratching his quill, on the back of his astronomy map. The last thing getting in his way was Remus' feet. They were actually tugging on his parchment making it impossible for him to write. But he didn't dare say anything to Remus because he was more afraid of him during his werewolf period than he was usually.

Sirius was the opposite side of Remus and James was next to him. Both were slouching in their chairs, taking it in turns to throw Bertie Bott's every flavour beans into each other's mouths. Both had relatively good aim so there was no fear of any beans flying astray and hitting someone on the head, though this didn't stop the boys purposefully doing this for a laugh. They weren't just eating Bertie Bott's though, they were feasting on nearly all of the sweets that Mrs Potter had sent James that morning in advance of his birthday that month. Strewn across the desk were layers of wrappers, some empty, some full. There was lots of chocolate frogs, cauldron cakes, liquorice wands, exploding bon-bon's and ice mice along with half a page of doodles un-expertedly drawn by James.

Two rows in front of the four marauders, sat Alice, Emmeline, Hestia, and Lily.

Alice, instead of working, was thinking about going to Hogsmeade that weekend. It would be the first time she and Frank had gone on a date outside of the school grounds. She was extremely excited and, whilst doodling love hearts and hers and Franks initials, she was planning the outfit she was going to where for what _she_ looked upon as their first official, official date. She was also planning where they should go. She had heard of a darling little teashop in town called Madam Puddifoot's. Maybe they could go there?

Next to Alice, Emmeline was chewing on her quill. To anybody looking at her, they would probably suspect that she was eating an edible quill. To those who knew her though, knew that she in fact, was just munching upon her own. She was staring off into space as she usually did, thinking of everything and nothing.

Oddly enough, it was Hestia who was the one doing the work today. She was taking accurate neat notes pertaining to what Professor Flitwick was squeaking on about. Her notes were taking up quite a bit of space in the notebook she had stolen from Lily when she couldn't find her own. She was running low on ink halfway through the lecture and so leaned over to Lily to ask if she had any spare.

Lily, who was shaken out of a daydream, rummaged around in her bag to find her spare bottle of ink, not thinking to give Hestia the one she had already gotten out at the start of the lesson as she wasn't using it. She found a bottle of multi-coloured ink, the only spare bottle she had in her bag, and gave it to Hestia before returning to her daydream. She was thinking about her sister and her sister's wedding. She wasn't invited and Petunia didn't return any of the letters Lily had tried to send her. Or rather she did. They were just unopened. She was broken out of her thoughts again when a bag of sweets landed on her desk. Upon closer inspection, she saw that they were exploding bob-bon's, her favourites.

She turned around to see where they had come from. Her suspicions were correct and sure enough, it was James who was smiling at her, giving her a nod before returning to the mound of sweets in front of him. Lily turned back to face the front, smiling to herself and becoming a little bit flushed. She opened the bag of sweets, offered them to her friends who took them willingly, before taking one herself and popping it in her mouth. Her thoughts returned back to Petunia who had always liked bon-bon's in the muggle world. She wasn't quite sure how she'd react to the exploding ones, one of which was now fizzing and crackling in her mouth.

Lily decided to write another letter to Petunia. She was sure that anybody else would have given up by now but Lily just couldn't do that. She was, after all, still her sister and nothing on earth could change that fact. She grabbed the notebook Hestia was scribbling in, much to her protestations, ripped out a page, slung it back into her best friend's arms and began to write.

It took her the rest lesson to finish writing her letter. Or at least it took her the rest lesson to be happy with what she had written. When Professor Flitwick dismissed the class, Lily asked Hestia to take her bag to the common room whilst she nipped up to the Owlery to send her letter. What she wasn't expecting, was to open the door to the staircase, which lead to the Owlery, and bump into James.

'Hey.' James said to her in surprise, glancing up at her quickly and then continuing to scribble what was presumably a letter in his hand. He was stood a couple of stairs up into the spiral staircase leaning on his hand and writing a very messy thank you to his mum on a scraggy piece of parchment, the only piece he could find in his pocket. Sure it had his Defence Against the Dark Arts doodles, (for you could hardly call them notes), on it but he had to find something to write on. When he finished the note, he shoved his quill in his pocket, folded up the piece parchment he was holding and sealed it with his wand. He looked back at Lily who hadn't moved or said anything. He raised an eyebrow at her. 'Hey?' he said again.

Lily shook her head, waking herself up from her moment of sudden, shocked silence. She looked up at James and said, 'Hi.'

'Hi.' James laughed. He motioned at her to walk up the stairs with him and the pair set of up the tower.

'So, are you alright?' James asked her, running a hand through his hair and then shoving his hands in his pockets.

'I think so.' Lily began before going into one of her nervous rambles, 'I mean, thanks for the bon bon's today. They were really nice so that made me feel happy. Charms made me feel quite bored which is rather unusual for me as it is my favourite subject. And I forgot to take notes because I was too busy wrapped up in my own little world but Hestia took notes so I'll copy hers. But right now I just feel a little bit embarrassed. I mean, last time I was in the Owlery I accused you of dating your owl and I-'

'-am rambling.' James completed for her.

Lily looked at him trying not to flush bright red. 'Right.' she smiled weakly, 'I do tend to do that.'

James smiled at her again and opened the door to the windowless circular room, which was the Owlery, for her. They both walked into the room and Lily went to select one of the school owls to deliver her letter for her. James however stopped in the middle of the room.

He had a cheeky smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. He knew how she would react and he believed it would be funny. Not necessarily for her but for him. So he held out his arm and, although he hated the name, he called, 'Oh Sophie' with a mischievous lilt in his voice.

Sure enough, Lily turned around slowly with a less than amused expression. 'Very funny.' she said with a small shake of her head.

James chuckled softly to himself. 'I thought so.' he said, walking over to the glassless window to join Lily and tie his letter onto his owl's leg. 'So,' he continued, determined for things not to be awkward and just keep the conversation going, 'who you writing too?'

Lily sighed. 'My sister.' she replied depressively with a sigh.

'Is everything all right with you and her now then?' James asked. He had finished tying his letter to Sox' legs and was now stroking her as she nipped at him affectionately.

'No.' Lily answered with a sad look up at James. She was struggling to tie her letter to the school owl which she had picked out as it was very unsettled and angry about being woken up to deliver a letter. Lily continued, 'I keep sending her letters but she keeps sending them back unopened. Any sane person would have probably given up by now.'

'Yeah but you're not sane.' James said offhandedly.

'Thanks!' Lily retorted snappily.

James sighed and took the owl off of Lily, which had just pecked her rather hard, and attempted to calm it down enough to tie the letter to it. 'I didn't mean it like that.' he carried on, his voice getting lower, softer and quieter, 'What I meant was that you're a very sweet person and if you care about someone and something is wrong in the relationship between you, then you won't give up until it's sorted out. Not many people would have the patience for that kind of thing and…I really admire you for it.'

He had tied the letter to the owl finally and stroked it once before it flew out of the pane-less arch that it had been in. He then stroked Sox' head a couple more times before sending her on her way.

Lily watched him do this. She smiled slightly as she watched him. He was very good with animals, something that she didn't know before. It took her all she had to follow Alice's advice and not just jump in feet first right there and then. She looked at him and saw everything she wanted at that moment. She saw someone who understood or at least respected her somewhat pointless one-sided correspondence with her sister. She saw someone who was kind and gentle and who really liked her.

James looked at her, feeling her gaze on him. 'What?' he asked with a lopsided smile.

'Nothing.' Lily shrugged, wanting to stop there but not being able to help herself in continuing. 'It's just-'

'Well, well, well. What do we have here?' came a voice from the door.

Lily and James, in unison, turned their heads to see Severus Snape stood in the doorway with his arms folded. He walked slowly into the room and stopped about two metres from where the pair stood. He looked back and forth between the two of them with a malicious smirk.

'What do you want?' James demanded roughly, not wanting to waste any of his day being harassed by someone who he could easily defeat in a duel but, because of certain situations, couldn't.

'I want to send an owl.' Severus replied, pronouncing every syllable, consonant and vowel with utmost precision.

'You can send as many owls as you like Snivellus but you actually have to have friends to get a reply.' James said exasperatedly, receiving a warning look off of Lily who didn't approve of the snideness, pettiness and sometimes just plain cruelty and bullying.

'I. Have. Friends.' Severus said angrily through gritted teeth, his eyebrows lowering considerably creating a dark shadow over his eyes.

'You keep telling yourself that.' James retorted with a teasing smirk, very different in every way from Severus' evil one.

'You better watch yourself Potter!' Severus hissed.

'Ooh I'm so scared!' James said sarcastically, bringing his hand up to his mouth and pretending to bite his nails nervously.

Lily huffed from beside him. She didn't like this side of James. It reminded her of the version of him from fifth year downwards, although it had been tamed slightly. She looked at him disappointedly, shaking her head. He didn't look at her though.

'Don't push me Potter!' Severus said marching up to James with a furious look blazing on his face.

Slowly, James looked him up and down, shrugged, and with his right hand, pushed his shoulder.

Severus' eyes widened and he quickly searched for his wand to teach James a lesson. He found it in a pocket around the back of his robe and took it out to point at James. However his hesitation in casting a spell allowed James to take his wand off of him and inspect it.

'Surprised you can do any damage with this thing.' James said with a chortle. He tapped the wand twice in his hand, twice on the wall and then twice on the windowless window sill causing a few splinters of wood to break off before Lily snatched it off him and gave it back to Severus.

James rolled his eyes at his personal fun being ruined and folded his arms.

'I can do more damage than you can!' Severus sneered tucking his wand back into his pocket after receiving a disappointed look from Lily which he couldn't deny. It made him feel as if he had failed in some way.

'Okay.' James chuckled derisively.

Severus looked at Lily who looked as if she had just about had enough of the both of them. He looked down at his shoes and then back to James with a contemptible look. 'If I were you Potter,' he said taking a step backwards, 'I'd watch your back.' his head then turned snappily towards Lily, 'That goes for you too!' he spat before exiting the room swiftly.

Lily looked at the door with a disgusted shock. 'He threatened me…' she whispered quietly in disbelief, mostly to herself but she couldn't stop James hearing her.

'He wasn't threatening you.' James said, suddenly serious again. He looked suspicious and a little bit worried as he turned to Lily to continue, 'He was warning you.'

* * *

Remus and Sirius were sat in the hospital wing. It was raining outside which made a great change from the weather the previous day. The heavy downpour beat angrily against the windows and created a shadowed illusion on the wall opposite the boys. They stared at it; Remus with interest and Sirius with boredom. They had now been sat there for fifteen minutes of their free period.

Sirius had dragged Remus to Madame Pomfrey after he had collapsed on their way up to the Gryffindor tower. It hadn't actually occurred to Sirius to levitate his friend down to the hospital wing so it took him twice as long as it should have done to get his unconscious friend down to the medical room and into Madame Pomfrey's capable hands. Sirius pestered her for ten minutes whilst she overlooked Remus to see what was wrong and why he had passed out. After she had finished inspecting Remus and had concluded what was wrong she told Sirius.

Half of the reason was apparent without examination; it was the days of the full moon and Remus was naturally weaker in his human state at this time. There were two other reasons which contributed to his collapse. First of all, he hadn't eaten or drunk anything for about fourteen hours and due to his recent transformation had dehydrated quickly. The other reason was that there was a rather deep cut at the base of his back which had been bleeding heavily, covered up by his robes. After she had finished telling Sirius what was wrong with Remus, she set to work healing him. It took her no time at all and Remus was soon sat up in a hospital bed with strict instructions not to leave or even move.

So both of the boys were now facing the wall watching the shadow of the rain in silence. The only sound was the water hitting the glass pane behind them until Remus spoke.

'I can't believe you did that.' he said shaking his head with an annoyed expression apparent over his face.

'At least I got you here!' Sirius said through gritted teeth, not grasping why Remus was irritated with him. In his eyes, which usually over exaggerated these situations anyway, he had saved one of his best friend's lives by his heroic act of bringing him to the hospital wing. Why couldn't Remus see that?

'Why didn't you levitate me?' Remus asked, shaking his head, 'You used that spell on certain Slytherin's many a time. How could you not think of it?'

'I panicked!' Sirius whined, his voice reaching an unnaturally high register.

'So your solution was to drag me here, by the foot with my face trailing on the floor?' Remus questioned with raised eyebrows, finally turning to Sirius.

Sirius paused. 'Yes?' he replied, unsure.

Remus paused as well. 'I can taste floor in my mouth!' he said with a bit of outrage.

'Well you're a werewolf. I'm sure you've tasted way worse than the floors of Hogwarts before now.' Sirius shrugged offhandedly.

'None that spring to mind!' Remus sighed shortly. He reached over to the small table beside his hospital bed and grabbed the book which was placed upon it. He opened it and began to read, not having any patience left to deal with Sirius. He was reading what Sirius and James called his hospital book. It was the book which, much like Remus, held a permanent residence in the hospital wing.

Sirius folded his arms and leant back in his chair. He had a face like a wet fish. He just couldn't understand why Remus was so mad at him. He had been able to get him down to the hospital wing after all and he had been able to make sure that Remus had received the assistance that he needed. Sirius shook his head, not understanding.

'Hey!' James said as he walked through the door to the hospital wing, his hands held out in question, 'Pete said you were here. What happened?' He stopped in front of Remus' bed.

Remus closed his book, marking the page onto which he had read, and place it back on his bed side table.

'Well,' Remus began turning to James with a less than amused expression written across his face, 'I collapsed on the way back from charms and so Sirius _dragged_ me across the floors to the hospital wing.'

'Dude, why didn't you just levitate him?' James asked Sirius.

Sirius stood up in a huff. 'I didn't think of it, all right!' he yelled stomping out of the hospital wing like a moody four year old.

James watched him go warily. He turned back to Remus. 'Did I touch a nerve?'

Remus nodded his head and rolled his eyes. He sat up more in his bed as James came and sat in the chair that Sirius had just vacated. He put his feet up on Remus' hospital bed and leant back in his chair his arms folded behind his head. He heaved a great sigh.

'So why is he being such a girl then?' James asked Remus.

'He's always like that.' Remus replied, staring at the door which was slowly closing shut after Sirius' somewhat dramatic exit. He sighed in an echo of James and looked back towards the gently slowing shadowed rain on the wall opposite him.

'Fair point.' James chuckled, a smile spreading across his face. 'So you got to stay here for the next few days then?'

'Yes.' Remus said miserably, not liking the prospect of spending two and half more lonely days in the hollow room. He would have to be alone for these days due to an infliction which he couldn't control and that wasn't his fault. It was at days like this that he really hated his father.

James spent the rest of his free period sitting in the hospital wing to keep Remus company. They played wizards chess for a while, Remus won, and then they played with half a pack of exploding snap cards. The other half were somewhere in there dormitory from when they were trying to knock a goblet of pumpkin juice off of Peters desk by throwing cards at it. Neither of them saw Sirius until the end of the period when he stormed in eating a chicken drumstick which he had obviously taken from the kitchens.

He walked into the room, chewing with his mouth open, Peter was trailing behind him. He stopped in front of Remus' bed, making a big deal about the fact that he was upset. Heaving huge audible sighs and looking up to the ceiling sadly, averting eye contact with both of his friends. Peter looked at a loss.

'It's dinner time.' Sirius said, still not looking at either James or Remus but rather, taking another bite of his chicken wing and looking at the window above their heads.

The heavy rain had begun to slow and the deadening sound got softer. The shadow illusion which Sirius was now stood in front of began fade away making his shadow bolder in the light from the window. From opposite the wall, looking at his shadow, Remus saw Sirius turn his head to James.

'It's time to eat.' he said shortly, his head turned towards his best friends but his eyes glancing up at the ceiling, still not looking at him.

'With you it's always time to eat.' James said with a soft chuckle, relaxing back into his chair and, once more, putting his feet up on Remus' hospital bed.

Sirius finally looked at James in the eye, the hand holding his half eaten chicken wing relaxed to his side and his eyes narrowed. 'You know what I mean.' Sirius sighed, obviously not amused.

'Enlighten me.' James said testily.

'Aw come on!' Sirius whined, his voice reaching that unnaturally high register again which would soon become his natural voice if he used it too much, 'It's lunch time and I'm hungry!'

'Then go and eat.' James said, motioning towards the open doors of the hospital wing, 'Nothing's stopping you.'

'I can't eat on my own!' he moaned, stamping his foot slightly, giving of the image of a spoilt little girl once again.

'Eat with Peter then.' James shrugged simply, gesturing to the small plump boy beside Sirius. Peter looked thrilled.

Sirius didn't even dignify the comment with a response. Instead his face dropped and he looked at James disappointedly for even suggesting such a ludicrous idea. After almost six years of sharing a dormitory with the boy, hanging out in the same friendship group as him and taking nearly all the same classes, Sirius could still hardly stand Peter Pettigrew. No one could ever figure out why. And he didn't seem to care that he was right next to him now.

James shook his head slightly at Sirius' obvious hatred at his suggestion. Even he didn't know why Sirius didn't like Peter that much. They had all been friends for six or so years and, even though Peter wasn't particularly a great conservationist and was just a little bit slow and stupid, there was nothing that he had done, that James could think of, that would have caused Sirius' dislike.

He sighed, rose out of his chair and turned to Remus. 'I'm gonna go and baby sit.' he said, 'See you after potions?'

'If I haven't died of boredom.' Remus sighed, taking a dramatic turn in mockery of Sirius.

James chuckled and walked over to Sirius who was still stood at the end of Remus' bed. 'See you later!' he said waving a hand to Remus and he, Peter and Sirius left to exit the room leaving Remus on his own with nothing to do but read his hospital book for two long and lonely hours.

* * *

Lily left the great hall after lunch and headed off on her own down to potions. When she got to the classroom, there was only one other person in the room; Severus Snape. He stared at her when she entered the room. Lily had no idea why. The only thing she could think of was the warning that James had told her that Severus had given her in the Owlery. Then again, she still couldn't figure out what she needed to be warned about. She may no longer be friends with him but she knew in her gut that he would never hurt her. Still, it didn't mean that his constant and unwavering staring at her didn't tick her off.

She sighed frustrated and her eyes glanced to the floor, widening in annoyance.

'That was a big sigh.' James said, entering the room with Sirius and standing behind her, 'What's up?'

Lily turned around and using her eyes, motioned towards Severus, (who was still staring at her), to indicate that he was the problem.

'Oh.' James said, grasping what Lily was not saying. He tried to make it less awkward, 'The sky is up…Except, from when it's down…and it's never down…so…I'm gonna stop talking now cause this isn't making any sense.'

'It made sense to me.' Sirius said shrugging his shoulders.

Lily, because of James attempting to make the situation less awkward and failing, turned around and walked to her seat. She felt a lot more comfortable now James was there. She smiled when he sat down next to her but to disguise it, she reached down to grab her text book. When she emerged from under the table, her smile was still there, however, it quickly faded when she saw Sirius sitting at their table too.

Lily, in a state of shock and not thinking of how it might sound to anybody else, asked, 'What is he doing at our table?'

'Sitting?' James questioned, wondering what the problem was. He looked at Sirius. Sure he was attempting to discreetly stuff a whole chocolate frog in his mouth and failing poorly, bits of chocolate jumping onto the table, but he wasn't that bad.

'You know what I mean.' Lily replied exasperatedly.

'Well Remus doesn't feel too well and you can't leave Sirius unattended in a potions room.' James said, still looking at Sirius, a little bit disgustedly now as he was chewing with his mouth open, 'If we leave him alone he may just blow up the school. He's a mad man you know.'

'Don't worry though,' Sirius said, swallowing noisily, 'If you two want to discuss your newly declared feelings for each other I won't stand in your way.'

Lily looked away, as did James, both uncomfortable by Sirius' suggestion.

'I mean you don't have to if you don't want too.' Sirius continued, not taking any notice of the new and uncomfortable atmosphere he had created, 'I'm just saying that if you did I would give you full privacy and-'

'Sirius.' James said, 'Shut up.'

Before Sirius could answer, Professor Slughorn entered the room much to Lily's relief. Hopefully his presence would bring an end to this embarrassing one-sided conversation. She looked around the classroom to see that everybody else bar Remus of course, had arrived and was ready to learn. Well, as ready as any Slytherin's could ever be. She suddenly felt quite surrounded. She, James and Sirius were the only Gryffindor's in the class. Seeing this, made Lily reluctantly allow Sirius to continue sitting at their table. She didn't really have a say in the matter but it was nice to feel as if she did.

'All right then class.' Slughorn said, busting around his desk to find his own, personal textbook, 'Can you all turn to page forty-six of your advanced potions book. Today I want you to make the hiccoughing solution but be warned, I am not a great fan of this potion. It is easy to make but extremely difficult to make well. I won't be impressed if you put minimum effort in.' he looked at Sirius. 'Now, any ingredients you may need are in the cupboard. You can start.'

There was a rustle as every student in the room scraped back there chairs and made their way over to the store cupboard, each person determined to get the best and freshest ingredients they could lay their hands on. There was a lot of pushing and shoving as nine people all tried to cram themselves into the small cupboard. It was an even tighter squeeze when they all tried to force themselves out.

James and Sirius returned to their table where Lily was already sat beginning her potion. They sat down next to her and sorted out their ingredients before starting their own individual potions. The table was cramped with three of them working on it. They kept bumping elbows which they usually wouldn't have minded. But every time James and Lily accidentally touched, Sirius would wolf whistle, make kissing sounds or other suggestive noises making Lily blush furiously and James roll his eyes. It went on for around fifteen minutes before Sirius was told off.

'Really Mr Black!' Professor Slughorn said, 'is that really necessary?'

'Err…yes?' Sirius replied cheekily.

Professor Slughorn shook his head and turned to Lily, his most favourite student and then to James, a student whom he liked and whom he wanted to be in his slug club but was always disappointed when the answer was no. 'I was just coming over to see how the Felix Felicis was coming along.'

Lily and James turned to each other, wide eyed. Through everything that had happened recently, James finding out about Lily's feelings, Lily finding out about James finding out about her feelings and Quidditch, it was a hectic month in their teenage lives and they had completely forgotten about the potion that they were supposed to be brewing.

Thinking quickly, James made up an excuse as to their lacking of lucky potion. 'There was no boomslang skin.'

Professor Slughorn blinked. 'You don't need boomslang skin for the Felix Felicis potion Mr potter.'

'Oh.' James said, 'Well, then I guess there's no reason for us not to get started then. We'll do that as soon as possible professor.'

'Miss Evans,' Professor Slughorn said, turning towards Lily with a disappointed expression forming on his face usually jolly face, 'surely you knew that boomslang skin isn't used in Felix Felicis?'

Lily looked down at the table, drawing around the natural wood patterns with her finger. 'Well, you see sir,' she began, not knowing what to say, 'the thing is, I-'

'I said I'd get all the ingredients for the potion.' James said, cutting Lily off.

Slughorn turned back to James with a suspicious stare. 'But surely Mr Potter, by following the ingredients list you should have known that boomslang skin isn't in that potion.' Professor Slughorn said. He then paused. 'Was I wrong in trusting you with this potion?'

'Probably.' James said.

'No.' Lily said immediately, almost at the same time as James. She turned to him and gave him a warning glance before turning back to Professor Slughorn and saying, 'You can trust us Professor. We'll get started on it this week.'

Professor Slughorn nodded. 'Well see that you do. I'll check your progress in a couple of weeks. The first stage should be complete by then.' he said before walking away to check on some of the other students in his class.

'That was close.' Sirius said with a sigh of relief.

'I know.' Lily said, looking back to James.

'He almost saw me eating my Bertie Bott's!' Sirius continued, taking a pack of the small jelly beans out of his robes and shoving a few into his mouth.

James chuckled softly at his best friend, shaking his head fondly as he did. He carried on with his potion.

'Want one?' Sirius said offering a sweet to James who took one willingly.

'Thanks.' James said, eating the small bean and then turning back to his potion which was bubbling and hissing. Never a good sign.

'You want one?' Sirius said to Lily who accepted and reached over to get one of the sweets. Before her hand entered the packet though, Sirius snatched it away and said, 'Give Jimmy-boy here a kiss and you can have one.'

James suddenly dropped all of the chopped rats tail he had just sliced up into his potion, making it bubble furiously over the top of his cauldron. An even worse sign. Lily and Sirius jumped back slightly as James tried to control his fuming potion. He managed to salvage it within a few minutes after which he turned to Sirius and said, 'Bit too far there mate.'

From the table above the three Gryffindor's, Severus watched the whole exchange. He gripped the blade he was holding tightly. They obviously knew that Lily liked James. He couldn't stand it. The whole situation made his skin crawl. The little looks they stole at each other when the other wasn't looking were sickening. He gripped his blade tighter. She shouldn't be giving him those looks. She shouldn't be giving anybody those types of looks. And James Potter, in Severus' opinion, should never look at Lily like that unless he wanted to be seriously harmed. But now he had no say in who Lily wanted and it tore him up inside.

Severus stuck his blade into the table, extremely close to Avery's hand.

'What do you think you're doing?' Avery yelled, snatching his hand off of the table and yanking out the knife out of where it was embedded in the wood.

'Well maybe if your hand wasn't in the way.' Severus snapped back, snatching his blade back off of Avery angrily.

'My hand wasn't in the way it was on my side of the desk!' Avery hissed stepping threateningly towards Severus.

'Don't threaten me!' Severus whispered dangerously, taking his wand out and poking it into Avery's slightly chubby stomach.

Avery was about to answer back when Professor Slughorn rushed over, pre-empting a fight and taking precautions to stop it.

'What is the meaning of this?' Professor Slughorn said, holding the two boys apart by the scruff of their necks. He looked between the two of them with disappointment, shock and curiosity. He couldn't believe that two of his own sixth year students, from his own house, would act up so unexpectedly.

Neither of the boys answered. They just stared at each other menacingly, each cursing the other in their heads.

'I don't want to ask again.' Professor Slughorn said, 'Now what was the meaning of this?'

Severus took a deep breath. 'Nothing.' he growled, pulling himself away from his head of house's grasp. He rearranged his robe which had been disturbed by Slughorn holding him. He glared at Avery, shaking his head in despise.

'Not nothing!' Avery snarled, 'He tried to chop my hand off the little wart!'

Severus leapt at Avery, pushing him onto the ground. The pair scraped in a good old-fashioned brawl until Severus got bored stood up and cursed Avery so that he was covered in cuts which would not stop bleeding. All the while, Slughorn attempted to stop the fighting in every which way possible, but was unsuccessful until it stopped on its own naturally leaving Avery bleeding on the floor and Severus stood up in a sick defiance.

Severus watched on as Slughorn knelt down beside his student, healing the wounds as quickly as he could. Severus was in a state of shock. He could not believe what he had done. The spell he had cast wasn't a real spell. He had no idea what it would do. They were just words floating around in his head. He had never meant for them to be that brutal. In that moment though, through all of the commotion that he had caused, he could only remember one thing. It was what Voldemort had told them at their last meeting; _we will get nowhere if we turn on each other. We must be united if we are to win the war on purity._

Taking a step back Severus looked around the small class who watched on as Slughorn attempted to heal the cuts which consumed Avery's body. He looked at Mulciber who was glaring angrily at him and then down to Avery with what could only be described as worry, (although he would never admit it). The three other Slytherin's in the room, all girls looked aghast at the situation. Sirius Black was wide eyed, confused and, finally, James Potter was hugging Lily to his chest. He was shielding her in shock. She had turned into him when the fight behind them had turned to the worst. It was clear to Severus at this was what had happened. James shock wasn't to the event which Severus himself was involved in; it was to Lily's sudden grip around him.

Severus looked back to Avery. It was clear he was alive. Professor Slughorn had healed nearly all of his wounds. Everything was still in slow motion to Severus. He looked between Avery and James and Lily with a deathly scowl on his face all the while, his two made up words whirling around in his mind. Two thoughts occurred to him. One, he was most likely to get in trouble for this, a detention most likely. And two, his new spell would become very handy in the death eater ranks, (if he was still in the dark lords army of hand-picked young witches and wizards.)

Focusing more on the second of his two thoughts, Severus made to leave the room. He rounded his table and, before exiting the class, stopped in front of James and whispered so quietly that only James could hear; 'Now you should be worried.' Then, with one last fleeting look at the back of Lily's head, for she was still facing James in a hug, left the room.

Slughorn saw him exit and, not noticing the exchange between Severus and James, shouted after him. 'Detention Mr Snape! This Saturday. With the headmaster!' The punishment for this sort of behaviour was usually a lot more severe but, due to the circumstances, Severus being in the house of which he was in charge off, Slughorn had the authority to lighten the punishment.

The class was silent after Severus' departure. It wasn't long until Avery was back on his feet and taken down to the hospital, the class ending early due to the dramatics of the lesson. Everybody left in a stupor. Especially James. He had just been threatened with an unidentified spell. How could he beat that?

* * *

**Thanks for Reading!**

**Galindaba**


	31. Chapter 30

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter Thirty! **

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Thirty**

On Thursday morning that week, James, Sirius and Peter collected Remus from the hospital wing and, to celebrate the end of the full moon, they all decided to take the day off of school to do nothing. They were successful until the final period of the school day when they were out near their beech tree and Peter and Remus' Care of Magical Creatures professor caught them. Professor Kettleburn told the pair to march over to the game keeper's cabin where he was holding his lesson. Remus and Peter did as they were told and joined there class. James and Sirius, who didn't take the subject, followed and watched the lesson, interrupting at random moments.

'HEY REMUS!' Sirius yelled over to his friend from where he stood at the edge of the forbidden forest, 'WHY DON'T YOU TRY FEEDING A FLOBBERWORM TO THAT THING?'

'Padfoot you don't have to yell!' James laughed, 'He's literally six feet away from you!'

'BUT YELLING IS MORE DISRUPTIVE!' Sirius barked at James with a silly grin on his face.

James laughed but didn't do for long as Professor Kettleburn walked over and gave them both a stern look. 'Come on boys. Can you not disturb my class?' he said, placing his hands on his hips and glancing at the pair in turn.

James and Sirius looked at each other for a couple of seconds before looking back to the tall professors and saying, in unison, 'No.'

Professor Kettleburn shook his head and returned to his class, clapping his hands as he did so to capture their attention.

James and Sirius looked at each other again for a couple of seconds, before, once more in unison, clapped their hands in an imitation of Professor Kettleburn.

The pair stood at the edge of the forbidden forest talking and shouting out interruptions to Professor Kettlburn's class, annoying him and almost bringing him to the end of his tether until the game keeper and his dog, Hagrid and Fang respectively, came out of the forbidden forest. Hagrid was carrying Fang and, seeing this, Remus and Peter left their Care of Magical Creatures class and, along with James and Sirius, rushed over to see what was wrong.

Fang was whimpering which made Sirius, a dog in his Animagus form, cringe in empathy. The great boarhound had a small gash across his side. It was barely a skin wound but the huge dog sounded as if it had been deeply cut by the crudest weapon on the earth.

'Be quiet yeh dozy dog.' Hagrid said to the large animal, shaking him gently in an attempt to comfort him.

'What happened Hagrid?' Remus asked.

Hagrid turned around to face the boy who had spoken to him and his friends. They stood in his huge shadow, all of them craning their necks to look up at the half-giant.

'Daft dog ran in teh some centaurs an', o' course, they defended themselves didn't they!' Hagrid said as he walked to his hut as if the massive weight of dog he was carrying was nothing but a tiny mouse.

James, Remus, Peter and Sirius followed the huge man and dog, Sirius muttering 'That poor dog…could have died…unjustified attack…poor dog…' all the way to Hagrid's hut.

'He wouldn't 'ave died.' Hagrid said, turning to face to boys when they all reached the door to his little cabin. 'Yeh see, 'e was barely grazed with the arrow.' Hagrid continued lowering himself slightly to let the marauders see the flesh wound on his dog. 'It was 'is own fault really. 'e was tryin' teh chase the damn things. Daft dog. Anyway, best get this mutt inside.' Hagrid finished turning back towards his door and entering his residence, leaving the four boys on his doorstep.

After a couple of moments Sirius suddenly turned to Remus and said, 'Did I tell you that Evans and Prongs got cosy in potions the other day.'

James sighed. He hadn't been able to hear the end of this and was getting tired of the topic. 'Why did you have to bring this up again?' James moaned exasperatedly.

'This reminded me of it.' Sirius shrugged.

James' eyes widened slightly and he looked from side to side searchingly. '_How?_' he stressed.

'Oh, the cut on fang.' Sirius nodded, 'It reminded me of the cuts on that death eater wannabe. Anyway, so Evans flung herself at our Jimmy-boy here and-'

'What cuts?' Remus asked curiously, cutting Sirius off half way through his sentence. Remus looked at James questioningly, knowing that he would give him a straight answer. Peter peered around him with a similar expression on his face.

'Well, Snivellus did this odd spell, never seen anything like it and, basically, that prat Avery ended up on the floor.' James said, shaking his head in a serious and grave fashion. 'He had cuts all over him. And not skin ones like Fangs.' he continued, 'Really deep ones. I think he could have died if Slughorn hadn't been there. I mean, I hate the guy but I wouldn't wish that on him.' James finished before quickly adding, 'You know, unless he does actually become a death eater.'

'So is Snape gonna be punished?' Remus asked as they all walked back towards the Care of Magical Creatures lesson that he and Peter had just casually strolled in and out of for the past forty-five minutes.

'He's got a detention.' James said shaking his head in annoyance. The punishment was too soft.

'What?' Remus blurted out, sharing the same annoyance that James was feeling, 'He should be expelled for that.'

'I know.' James sighed, 'But Slughorn was the one giving the punishment and you know that he has his favourites. He won't expel him.'

'Shame.' Sirius shrugged, rolling his eyes and pausing for a moment before carrying on with what he originally wanted to talk about. 'So Evans flings herself in to Prongs' arms and Prongs shields her from the devastation before her.' Sirius continued doing over large and dramatic gestures as he described what he thought had happened. He continued, 'Meanwhile, I stood by and watched Prongs-'

'Shut up Padfoot!' James laughed, pushing his best friend, 'You know that's not what happened!' He turned to Remus, 'She was in shock and turned away from the bleeding. I just happened to be behind her and she bumped into me.'

'And stayed there?' Remus asked with raised eyebrows.

James smiled and chuckled, shaking his head. 'Think what you want.' he smiled, 'I'm sticking to my story.'

'No, you see, I think you just don't want to read too much into it.' Remus said.

James rolled his eyes. 'So what?' he questioned.

'So,' Remus said, 'she likes you. You know that now. Plus, you still like her-'

'We're just friends.'

'-and to be perfectly honest it seems as if you've kinda given up.' Remus finished. He carried on talking even when James had tried to interject.

James looked at Remus impatiently. 'What do you mean?'

'I mean,' Remus said, taking a step forwards and lowering his voice, 'you have liked this girl since you first met her six years ago. You've annoyed us morning till night talking about her and asking her out every five minutes. You finally find out she feels the same way and you decide to do nothing about it. If you were going to do that then why put us through the torture of coping with you for the past six years?'

James stayed silent, a neutral expression on his face. He looked down at his feet and folded his arms in thought. After a few seconds he looked back up to Remus who hadn't moved. 'It's not that Idon't want to do anything about it. It's that she doesn't.' he concluded before walking off towards the castle.

Remus, Sirius and Peter watched him go although Peter was totally oblivious as to the possible reasons behind his departure. As James neared the doors of the castle, Peter turned around and trotted off back to his Care of Magical Creatures class which was nearly over leaving Sirius and Remus looking at each other deflated. This happened every time they had any kind of confrontation with James about Lily. James would just walk off.

'Where do you think he's going?' Remus asked Sirius.

'To get lucky.' Sirius insinuated turning to wiggle his eyebrows as Remus who looked disgusted. 'I meant the potion.' Sirius said, 'You know, Felix Felicis?'

'Sirius?' Remus sighed.

'Yeah?' Sirius responded.

'Shut up.'

* * *

Lily closed her eyes in frustration. She swore he had been doing this all lesson. Ancient runes were bad enough without his eyes boring into the back of her head for a whole hour. She hated this subject now. She had love it in previous years, when she had taken it for her Ordinary Wizarding Level's but now, many things contributed to her new found loathing of the three hours she spent in this class room every week.

She didn't know why, but when she had returned from the summer holidays, at the beginning of the school year, her Ancient Runes Professor had, all of a sudden, taken a strong dislike to her. Every opportunity she had, she told Lily off or found an excuse to give her a hard time even though Lily was, by far, the best in the class. Even if Lily was the only one who had finished the work, Professor Babbling would find it unsatisfactory in one way or another. The strangest thing was, invariably, Lily answers were always correct. She hated handing anything in that was wrong.

At the minute she was translating some runes that had been found on a crypt in Transylvania. She was positive that they were all correct. She had tripled checked them again and again to be sure. It didn't stop Professor Babbling looking over Lily shoulder and tutting at her work before moving away to look at what the rest of the class was doing. As she went Lily heaved a sigh causing Babbling to turn back, walk over to Lily's desk and leant on it to talk quietly to her.

'Miss Evans,' she began in a whisper, 'I don't care much for your attitude. You have been rather rude lately and I don't appreciate it. Now, if you carry on like this I'll have no choice but to put you in a detention.'

Lily looked down at her desk and she drew around the natural ridges of the wood with her finger as she usually did. She avoided eye contact with her teacher but was unable to stop herself from speaking.

'With all due respect Professor, I don't think I've been rude at all. I think that, for some reason, you've taken a disliking to me and you aren't satisfied with my work even though I _know_ all my answers are right.' Lily said, still not looking at her professor and already regretting what she had said.

Professor Babbling stood up straight and said simply, 'Detention Miss Evans. Eight o'clock tomorrow night. My office.'

She then left leaving Lily with her thoughts, no longer continuing with the work she had been set. She held in a sigh and put her head in her hands in exasperation. Her hands gripped her hair, frustrated. She glanced at the great clock which hung on the wall above the door and prayed for time to move quicker. She couldn't stand this class anymore but it was too late to drop it or transfer to something else. Well, it wasn't really, she could just have left if she wanted too but she didn't want to be seen as a quitter and, no matter how anyone span it, that would be the next piece of gossip that circulated the school; Lily Evans quits Ancient Runes

Unable to find any sort of motivation to get back to her work, Lily began to pack her things away slowly and decided to just sit and think for the last five minutes of the lesson. It was hard for to drift off to that place where she was absorbed in thought as she could still feel Severus' eyes boring into the back of her, what was now, undoubtedly messy hair. However, she didn't know if it was just paranoia. So, under the pretext of rummaging through her back, Lily looked behind her to find out whether or not what she felt happening was true. It was.

She sat back up and shook her head. Why was he still doing this? She wondered yet again if it had anything to do with him warning her to watch herself. She hadn't really taken the alleged warning seriously until after her potions lesson on Monday. She didn't believe that Severus was capable of any kind of serious damage until then. If he could attack one of his friends, (and the term was loose), so brutally, without feeling, what was to stop him from doing that to her. Was that what he was warning her about? Himself? She had no idea. The Severus she had known wouldn't be able to seriously harm anyone. But then again, the Severus she knew was obviously long gone.

She looked at the clock again. There was now only three minutes left of her Ancient Runes lesson and yet, she was quite absorbed with her potions lesson from Monday. It was a shocking lesson, that was true, and the rumours about what had happened were still circulating the school. In some of the tales she had heard, Avery wasn't even the victim. In some stories it was Sirius Black. In others it was James Potter who had taken the blow, people bouncing off of the idea of the everlasting feud between the marauders and Severus and, even more prominently, Gryffindor and Slytherin. But Lily knew the truth. James wasn't the victim because she was next to him and, at one point, hugging him.

She smiled at that part of her memory and remembered his scent. He smelt like beech wood, as if he had been handling a brand new broomstick. It was an intoxicating fragrance with a hint of sweetness in the nature. She sniffed hoping to catch a whiff of that scent again only to quickly snap herself out of it. She wondered what was wrong with her. She sounded as if she was addicted which wasn't good. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to clear her mind.

Upon opening her eyes she glanced at the clock for the last time and saw that it was finally the end of the lesson. Hurriedly, she grabbed her already packed school bag and her three Ancient Runes textbooks that would never fit in her bag, and headed toward the door. Hestia would be waiting for her. She was behind a couple of slow walking Slytherin girls and exited the classroom after they had. She had taken one step out of the door when she suddenly found that the books she had been holding had been taken out of her arms. She stopped, holding up the class behind her, to see who had taken them and saw James leaning against the wall in his usual fashion holding all three.

'How do you understand this stuff?' he asked, opening the cover of the first book and looking at the symbols written inside.

'Practice.' Lily said, moving out of the way of the door which her class was still piling out of, 'What are you doing here?' she asked James curiously, reaching to get her books back.

'I thought we could make a start on that potion.' James replied, holding the books out of her way, still staring confusedly at the first page.

'Err…well…' Lily began, not really in the mood to spend any alone time with James as she had just been reminiscing about the way he smelt and had recently become absorbed in her James filled thoughts. With a person you like, it's not a good place to be when you're with them. She knew that she'd forget herself and probably begin to act weirdly in a way she would regret. Plus, Alice had told her to just see how thing went and if she went to make the Felix Felicis potion with James now, with her thoughts organised the way they were, she'd probably end up saying something she didn't want to, like she did to Professor Babbling.

'Well what?' James questioned, waiting for her answer.

'I have to drop my bags off at the common room and then-'

'Jones will take them for you.' James said, volunteering Hestia for the job.

'Huh?' Hestia grunted at the sound of her name being mentioned. She had been stood in a daydream for five or so minutes waiting for her best friend. She hadn't even noticed that she had come out of her lesson.

'You'll take Lily's bags to the common room so we can go work on our project won't you?' James asked, taking Lily's bag off of her and giving it to Hestia, after which he piled the books into her arms.

'Sure.' Hestia said in the same insinuating voice that Sirius had used before. She smiled at Lily who looked quite worried and desperate not to go. When she looked at Hestia in a plea to get her out of making the potion today, Hestia just wiggled her eyebrows and walked away in the opposite direction.

Lily watched her go and turned back to James, (who was grinning broadly at her), with a nervous smile and an accompanying laugh. Her expression became nervous again when James began to lead her, by placing his hand on the small of her back, down the corridor. When they had turned the corner though, James removed his hand leaving Lily's back tingling where it had been. They walked down to the potions room in a comfortable silence, both working out what to say to each other.

When they arrived at the dungeons, James opened the door for Lily and she entered the room, thanking James as she passed him. She went and stood by the desk that would usually be used by the professor and watched James as he followed her into the room.

James placed his bag on the table, unzipped it, and took out the book that they had borrowed from the restricted section of the library. He then zipped his bag up again and threw it on the floor before opening the book to the page where the ingredients list for their potion was written. He scanned down the list and then, realising Lily was looking at him, turned to look at her.

'You wanna get a cauldron out?' he asked her, gesturing towards the cupboard.

'Oh…' Lily said, standing up straight from where she had been leaning on the desk, '…sure.' she continued, walking away to the store cupboard in a bit of a trance. She hadn't realised she'd been staring at him. She hadn't meant to, she just drifted off into a day dream and her eyes had just landed on James. She was a little bit embarrassed but did, against her mind, emerge out of the cupboard with a large cauldron.

'Here you go.' she said putting the large pewter pot onto the table in front of James.

'Thanks.' James replied, a bit confused as to why she was giving it to him. They were working on the project together. It didn't make sense. Nevertheless, James took the cauldron and put it on heat to warm it through in preparation to make their potion.

'Do you have all the ingredients?' Lily asked him, taking a shaky step towards him and leaning over his arm, breathing in the scent that she had been day dreaming about only a short while ago.

'Just need to get the unicorn hair from the cupboard.' James said, pointing to it on the ingredients page.

'I'll get it.' Lily answered, moving away from James and walking over to the cupboard. She stepped inside and looked along the rows of many potion ingredients. She finally found it in a vile next to a box of bezoars and a jar of boomslang skin. She smiled to herself and shouted out, 'I found the boomslang skin.'

'Oh ha, ha!' she heard James call from the other room, 'Say what you like, I saved us a lot of trouble!' Lily heard him continue.

'You made us sound stupid!' Lily called back with a good natured laugh. She grabbed the vile which contained the single unicorn hair and walked back into the room where James was now taking out his blade to chop some of the roots for the potion. She looked at him with a smile and carried on to stand next to him. She went to hand him the vile. 'Found it.' she said, shaking it in front of James' face.

'Thank you.' James said, taking the vile off of Lily and putting it with the rest of the potion ingredients which were piled on the desk next to the gently heating cauldron.

There was a moments silence and Lily, in an attempt to fill it said, 'I've never seen a unicorn.'

James looked up a little bit confused before realisation spread across his face. 'Of course.' he muttered quietly to himself before reverting back to full volume and saying to Lily, 'You didn't take Care of Magical Creatures did you?'

'No.' Lily sighed, 'But if I'd have known that seeing a unicorn was part of the deal I might have been persuaded to take it.'

James laughed and handed Lily some roots to chop as he started to squash some seeds for the juice inside. 'That's not really a reason to take a subject.' he chuckled with a small wonky smile.

'Maybe not but I don't think it would have stopped me.' she replied, quickly and efficiently dicing the roots like a master chef, as prescribed on the ingredients list.

'That's for sure.' James smirked cheekily. He squashed one of the seeds on the desk with the flat edge of the blade as Lily had shown him to do when they first became potion partners. He still didn't know how she had discovered that it was a quicker and easier way to get the juice out of the seeds. He just assumed she had been experimenting when making potions in the past. With all his intelligence though, it didn't occur to him that she may have picked up the trick from her old potions partner.

'Have you ever seen a unicorn?' Lily asked, measuring out the roots she had just diced on an old scale. She found she still needed a few ounces more and set to chopping more of the dirt-ridden roots.

'Yeah.' James said without thinking.

Lily stopped. 'But you didn't take Care of Magical Creature either.' she stated, curiosity mingled with suspicion appearing on her face.

'Oh…' James said, trying to think quickly. He needed an excuse. He could hardly tell her that he had seen several unicorns on many occasions during his monthly moonlit excursions with a werewolf and two other illegal Animagi. He also couldn't tell her that, as a stag, he had not only seen unicorns but had often raced with them, playing as only animals could together in the woods. He ran a hand through his hair trying to think of something when he remembered that he and Sirius had barged into a Care of Magical Creatures lesson only about an hour ago. He looked Lily dead in the eye, determined that his lie would sound truthful. 'I snuck into the lesson when they were showing the unicorns.' he said confidently.

Lily nodded her head slowly, deciding if she wanted to believe him. She did. It was something he would do. 'Of course.' she said rolling her eyes, once again measuring out the roots and finding she had the amount spot on this time.

After Lily had finished the roots, she reached for some beetle juice, which had been purified and was now sloshing about in a large jar and put the roots into the liquid. She then put a lid on the jar, tightened it and, whilst watching the clock, shook the jar for sixty seconds. For this minute, neither of them talked. Lily was concentrating and James was still breaking seeds. (They needed twenty for the potion)

When Lily had finished shaking the roots and juice, she set the jar down on the table to rest for two minutes before picking it back up and shaking it again for another minute. The whole while she was doing this, she and James didn't pass one word, so Lily had some moments to think. She cleared her head of the day dreams she had had in Ancient Runes and resolved to just continue with the potion and attempt to put any thoughts of her and James out of her head.

She managed to keep this going for another ten minutes, where she and James exchanged nothing but words about their potion. After this time the first part of the potion was finished. Everything had flowed smoothly until James undid the vile containing the unicorn hair.

'Sorry about the other day by the way.' he said, carefully removing the unicorn hair from the fragile vile.

'What do you mean?' Lily asked confused as she passed James a small pair of solid gold goblin made scissors.

'Well…' James hesitated, 'The way that Sirius was going on about you and me. All his…insinuations.'

'Oh.' Lily said, blushing a little as she handed James a tape measure. Their hands brushed as she did so and she quickly withdrew her hand.

'I mean,' James continued, a cheeky expression spreading across her face, 'If you'd have wanted to kiss me I wouldn't have objected. It's really-'

'James.' Lily said cutting him off and looking at him with raised eyebrows good naturedly, 'Let's just finish the first part of the potion.' she smiled at him and watched him cut half an inch of the unicorn hair off and drop it into the cauldron, thus completing the first part of the Felix Felicis potion.

* * *

Hestia smiled and waved a handsome young man away from the Gryffindor table and back to the Hufflepuff table. She sighed and turned back to her dinner, waiting for her best friend to return from making the first part of the Felix Felicis potion. She taped her nails rhythmically on the table whilst looking at her other hand and the chipped nail polish. She had to redo those. Heaving a big sigh, Hestia looked around the hall getting a bit bored of waiting for Lily. She had promised that she would wait for Lily start eating because whenever she started eating before her best friend she naturally finished before her. However, instead of waiting patiently for Lily to finish, she would annoy her until Lily decided to finish dinner early meaning Lily would be really hungry later on and annoy Hestia. Overall, if Hestia didn't wait for Lily to start eating, they would be arguing all night. But she was taking so long. Surely one bite wouldn't matter.

'Hestia!' Lily said sternly as she walked up behind her best friend.

'I wasn't eating.' Hestia defended quickly, popping the sausage she had just picked up, back on her plate.

'Good.' Lily said sitting down next to Hestia who stared at her pleadingly. 'You can eat now.' Lily said with a smile and a laugh.

They both dug in. Hestia grabbing the sausage she had dropped and spooned some mashed potato onto her plate along with some vegetables. Lily though, not really wanting what her parents would call a proper meal, spooned herself some chips out along with some chicken nuggets. The pair ate hungrily until dessert where there was so much choice they decided to take a couple of moments to see what they fancied.

'Oh that reminds me.' Hestia said suddenly as she overlooked some jelly, ice cream and treacle tart, 'The first Hogsmeade weekend is this week. The notice came out when you were making your potion.'

'Oh cool.' Lily said giving herself a generous portion of the treacle tart, 'What do you want to do?'

'That's the thing.' Hestia muttered as she served herself the treacle tart, ice cream, jelly and almost all of the other deserts she could see, 'I have a date so I kinda need you to make yourself scarce.'

Lily looked at Hestia, unamused. 'Well that's a nice way for you to treat your best friend. Discard her when some guy comes along.'

'Glad you understand.' Hestia said, eating a spoonful of her multitude of deserts.

'I'll find someone else to go into Hogsmeade with then.' Lily continued, looking around Gryffindor table for Alice and Emmeline to see if they wanted to go with her.

'You can't go with them either.' Hestia said through a mouthful of mashed desserts, 'Alice is going with Frank on their first official date outside of Hogwarts and Emmeline is doing some divination rubbish.'

'Great.' Lily said, putting her elbow on the table and cupping her chin in her hand in a fed up way. It was the first Hogsmeade weekend since Dumbledore lifted the ban and she had no one to go with. She sighed. Lily loved Hogsmeade and the visits to the small village always lifted her spirits. The small windows of freedom in that town was always a welcome relief after being cooped up in the castle for every waking moment, and even though their freedom would be slightly restricted when they all made their way to Hogsmeade, it was still a need for most of the students.

'You could always ask the marauders if you could go with them.' Hestia said suddenly, breaking through Lily reverie.

Lily smiled and looked up, taking her hand away from her chin and putting on the table. 'I could couldn't I. We are all friends after all!' she said happily, thinking that there could be a possible chance that it would give the opportunity for something to happen naturally between her and James. She didn't want to force it and by doing this she was still following Alice's sound advice.

She glanced around the table and spotted James who was attempting to balance a spoon on his nose. She took a deep breath and walked over to him. 'James,' she started bravely before retreating into herself a bit and becoming a bit shy, 'can I go to Hogsmeade with you guys on Saturday?' she finished quickly, crossing her fingers behind her back.

James turned to his friends and they all leant in together to discuss their reply. They obviously decided this through facial expressions as Lily couldn't hear a thing that they were saying. Eventually, after a couple of excruciatingly slow minutes, the group came up with a united answer.

'Yes.' Remus said simply for the group before turning back to his friends and carrying on playing with their cutlery.

Lily beamed to herself and bouncing on the inside, turned around and bobbed along back to Hestia.

* * *

Professor Dumbledore was sweeping through the ministry of magic an air of importance about him. His long purple robe trailed behind him as he walked with defiance to the Minister of Magic's office. He was there with a purpose and every ministry employee that passed him could see this plain and clear. This atmosphere just meant that everyone stayed clear of Dumbledore's path as he journeyed to his destination. It was a good job too; he was in no mood to entertain today.

'I'm sorry Professor Dumbledore,' the Ministers assistant said as Dumbledore strode past her, 'the Minister is resting. You can't go in there!'

Dumbledore paid her no heed and marched into the Minister's office, closing the door shut behind him. The Minister was sat in a large chair, not unlike the one in Dumbledore's office, with his hands folded over his plump belly and his eyes closed in rest. He didn't open his eyes or even realise that someone had entered his office. Using this slight window of opportunity where the Minister for Magic wasn't paying attention, Dumbledore approached his desk, the desk which had been offered to him several times in the past, and took a look at the papers that were covering it. There was nothing out of the ordinary. It was just general daily reports which weren't what Dumbledore wanted to see. He wanted to see action.

'Minister.' Dumbledore said gently, startling the Minister into sitting up straight.

Dumbledore was smiling neutrally at the head of the whole of the English wizarding community. He was stood over him, towering due to his height and stature. The Minister was automatically intimidated and began to fiddle the papers around on his desk out of nervousness.

'Dumbledore.' he started, shuffling his papers and sorting them quickly into piles, 'What brings you here?'

Dumbledore sighed and put his hands behind his back. Allowing the Minister to stew for an answer, he walked slowly and casually over to the grand fireplace in his office, and inspected the small ornaments which were lined along the mantle. 'I've always found ornaments to be extremely intriguing.' Dumbledore said serenely, 'They usually have such interesting back stories. It is thoroughly amusing to attempt to decipher what they are.'

The Minister for Magic said nothing. He just sat very uncomfortably watching the legendary wizard who had passed on the position he now held so many times. He was a truly incredible wizard and well respected in the wizarding community. Unfortunately for the Minister, the public valued Dumbledore and his opinions much more than the policies that he was trying to instil. This made it so much harder for him to be a good Minister. How could you be the best you could possibly be at a job which you know, others wish went to someone else? Still, it was his job now and his job came along with the unwanted added bonus of Dumbledore and his opinions. He just had to deal with it.

'What's the story behind this little toad?' Dumbledore asked, handling a small ceramic toad which was painted green and yellow.

'A gift from the muggle Prime Minister.' the Minister of Magic stated plainly before returning to his original question. 'What brings you here Dumbledore?'

Dumbledore looked towards the minister and blinked solemnly. He snatched a quick breath and walked back over to stand in front of the Minister's desk saying, 'Our relationship with the muggle Prime Minister and, by extension, muggles themselves, is very important. Would you say you agree?'

'Well of course.' the Minister replied, curious as to what Dumbledore was getting at and wondering when the other shoe was going to drop, 'That relationship is extremely important in the need for keeping the wizarding world under wraps. Without that relationship...the wizarding world could be exposed and that would put our way of life at risk.'

'Would you say that it is critical to maintaining the wizarding world?' Dumbledore questioned with a tilt of his head, his eyes staring hard and unwavering at the Minister for Magic over the top of his half-moon spectacles.

The Minister for Magic quickly realised where this was going. He took a deep breath and his eyes narrowed. He had no idea how Dumbledore knew about this but, somehow he did and the Minister now had to deal with this difficult situation. He now had to explain why and that was not going to be easy. He knew, and Dumbledore knew, that Dumbledore was right on this occasion and trying to describe his reasons on the subject would be most uncomfortable. If he was going to have this discussion, a discussion which he couldn't avoid, (he was sure of that), he'd need to even the levels.

'Please sit down Dumbledore.' he said, motioning to the leather green seat in front of his desk.

'No thank you.' Dumbledore responded looking at his watch, observing the stars whizzing around it, 'I shan't be here for long. I have a school to run. Now, would you say that maintaining a relationship built on mutual trust between the muggle Prime Minister and you is crucial in the process of maintaining the wizarding world?' he asked again, reiterating his question from before.

'Would you like a drink-'

'Minister?'

'-or a biscuit.'

'Minister. Do you mean to tell me that you do not believe that your relationship with the muggle Prime Minister matters in the conservation of the wizarding world?' Dumbledore asked, interrupting a very nervous Minister for Magic.

The Minister sighed, finally realising that prolonging the subject any further was useless, His resistance was futile and he conclusively had to submit to the discussion. 'Of course the relationship between the muggle world and the wizarding world is important Dumbledore.'

'Than why, pray tell, have you not warned the muggle Prime Minister about Voldemort?' Dumbledore asked.

'Please don't say his name.' the Minister asked, closing his eyes in recoil at the mention of Lord Voldemort's name. Like many other wizards in the wizarding world, the majority of them, he couldn't stand the name; he could neither speak it nor hear it.

'Why have you kept this from the Prime Minister?' Dumbledore asked, 'He deserves to know the delicate state of our social economy, the war we are fighting. He deserves to know what's happening so he can warn the muggle community.'

'And what exactly is he supposed to tell them?' the Minister asked with a raised voice, finally standing up and walking around to Dumbledore, 'How is he supposed to explain that a wizard in a community the muggle world does not know exists, is gathering a following? Explain that to me Dumbledore.'

'Surely Minister, you know that he is capable of much more than simply gathering a following.' Dumbledore said softly.

'That is all he is doing though.' the Minister replied, 'He will soon realise that there is nothing more he can do and all of this tedious business will be behind us.'

'Do you really believe that Minister?' Dumbledore said, shaking his head, 'If all he is doing is just tedious business than why can't you say his name? Why is half of the wizarding world sick with worry about the future social economic climate? If all he is doing is gathering a following, than why are people missing? Why are people dying? Why are muggles dead at his hands?'

'That is merely speculation Dumbledore.' the Minister shrugged, 'There is no evidence for these accusations-'

'There is plenty of evidence!' Dumbledore raged, 'Two of my students were hospitalised for several weeks after the attacks he put in motion during January. You may not want to accept it minister but Voldemort's power is growing and we will soon be in the middle of a much more dangerous war than the one we are in. Soon it will be too late to prevent this from happening and it will be your fault. We need to put precautions in place now for the safety of the wizarding world and, perhaps more importantly, for the protection of the muggle world. If this doesn't happen soon, you will be as responsible as him for the loss of muggle and magical lives.'

The Minister said nothing. Yes he should have kept the muggle Prime Minister informed about the movements of Voldemort and his collection of followers but he fully believed that Dumbledore was exaggerating the situation. Voldemort and his gatherers would soon fade and no one would think twice about them anymore. It was just a simple matter of waiting out the rough period.

The Minister took a deep breath. 'With all due respect Dumbledore, I am the Minister for Magic not you and I believe that I am doing the right thing in this situation. I would appreciate it if you were to respect my policies rather than challenge them and just accept that someone else knows what is best for the wizarding world. There is no need for any precautions, You-Know-Who's threat will pass and nobody will think none the less about it anymore. Now, if you would please excuse me, I have a lot of work to do.'

'You are putting, every muggle, muggleborn, half blood and protestor at risk.' Dumbledore said.

'I do not believe that.' the Minister replied, 'Now please leave. I have a lot of work to do.'

With one last disappointed look at the young Minister for Magic who thought he knew best, Dumbledore left his office, knowing that things would worsen and the Minister would soon regret not taking action sooner. If the Minister for Magic wouldn't do anything to prevent the inevitable, Dumbledore would have to. He couldn't stand by and watch his world crumble at the hands of a seriously disturbed man. He had to fight back. He had to protect the students at his school and the wizarding community. He had to resist.

* * *

**Thanks for Reading!**

**Galindaba**


	32. Chapter 31

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter Thirty-One! **

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Thirty-One**

By Saturday morning, the gossip about Severus Snape's attack on Avery had died down and everyone was thoroughly worked up and excited about the impending Hogsmeade trip. People had woken up extra early so that they could make the first supervised trip into the village and leave at the last accompanied trip out. They hadn't been to the picturesque town in ages and every student in the school was excited. Even the teachers were looking forward to this Hogsmeade trip. They were all hoping for some peace and quiet whilst the majority of the students disappeared for the day. They were also hoping that the small break would allow the students to return fully ready to focus on their exams. However, as all the professors of the school were thinking this, Sirius Black was trying to focus on sneaking out of the school.

Technically, he wasn't allowed into Hogsmeade. He had been banned from the trips ever since he had sent Severus Snape down to the whomping willow during one of Remus' transformations into Moony. He had also been banned from playing Quidditch but, as the Quidditch season was over, he wasn't particularly worrying about that punishment now. Trying to defy his Hogsmeade grounding was all that was on his mind now.

The previous night, James, Remus, Peter and himself were discussing times, tunnels and places that Sirius could sneak out of undetected. At first, the most obvious suggestion was made; use the tunnel behind the one-eyed crone with the hump. But after last time they had sneaked out of the school, they thought they saw someone watching them so Sirius vetoed the idea. They went through all the secret passage ways which led out of the school until they finally decided how to sneak Sirius out of the school. Oddly enough, it was probably the simplest suggestion that was made and it was made by Peter.

So, when Saturday morning arrived, all four of the marauders were waiting to go to Hogsmeade together, with Sirius underneath James' invisibility cloak. They were waiting in the common room for Lily who they had said they would go with. The only problem was that they were becoming a little bit bored as Lily wasn't up yet. She didn't like getting up and, even though Hestia had said she had woken Lily up before she left to go on her date, she still hadn't come down the steps. They had been waiting for a half an hour.

'Can't we just go?' Sirius asked, becoming bored of being invisible. There's only so much fun you can have with invisibility at a wizarding school.

'No.' James said, 'We said she could come with us. We can't just leave her.' He was leaning on the back of the settee in front of the fire place with his arms folded. He was becoming as bored as Sirius was.

'You're only saying that because you fancy her.' Sirius whined stamping his foot like a spoilt little child who wasn't getting their own way.

'No I'm not.' James sighed, looking over to the girl's staircase, running a hand through his hair and willing Lily to come down running.

'Why can't we just go and get her?' Peter questioned meekly, kneeling up on the settee that James was leant against, 'I thought we'd figured out how to use the staircase.'

'We have.' Remus said, looking up from his charms book, (he had decided to utilise this time and revise the last chapter that they had studied in class), 'But a girl actually has to walk up the staircase with us. We can't go alone.' he explained, looking towards the staircase just as James was.

'Oh.' Peter said.

There was an awkward silence where James continued to watch for Lily, Remus returned to his book, Peter counted the bricks on the wall where the fireplace stood and Sirius made all the annoying noises that he could think of; clucking, clicking, tutting, tapping, stamping, stomping. It continued for another five minutes before James saw Lily come down the stairs.

'Well it's about time!' Sirius said causing Lily to look around, 'We've been waiting for five hours!'

'That's a bit of an exaggeration Sirius.' James smiled as he pushed himself up from the back of the couch.

'Where is he?' Lily asked James, looking around nervously for Sirius.

'Around.' James shrugged.

Suddenly, Lily screamed and, jumping in James' general direction, turned around to the laughing air. It seemed that Sirius had crept up behind had and squeezed her waist to make her jump. He was laughing madly at her reaction, as was James and Remus. Peter was tittering.

Sirius pulled the invisibility cloak off so that Lily could see where he was. She stared at him with her hand on her fast beating heart. She was starting to laugh as well.

'Why did you do that?' she asked him.

'Because it was funny.' Sirius said, putting the invisibility cloak back on, 'Now let's go! You've held us up enough already!'

'What does he mean by that?' Lily asked James as they, as a group with Remus and Peter, exited the common room through the portrait hole.

'Don't worry about it.' James said, holding the portrait hole open for Lily as she stepped out of the common room.

'What do you mean don't worry?' Sirius raged as the group began to walk down to the entrance hall in a line with Peter trailing behind, 'She's made us late.'

'I didn't realise we had scheduled a time.' Lily said, beginning to descend down the steps to the next floor.

Sirius was about to answer her when the staircase decided to switch on them. The group, visible or not was jolted down a couple of steps due to the sudden turn. Lily gripped onto the banister with all her might. This was the only part of Hogwarts she didn't like. Whilst James, Remus, Peter and, presumably, Sirius, didn't mind the moving staircase Lily had always been terrified that she might fall off one of them one day. She knew that there was no chance of that happening now, especially at Hogwarts, but she couldn't help but cling onto her fear from her first year at the magical school.

When the staircase had stopped she immediately ran down the stairs to the next landing just in case they moved again, receiving strange looks from James, Remus and Peter.

'I win?' she shrugged.

'Didn't realise it was a game.' Remus said as they followed Lily off of the stairs.

They walked down a couple more staircases, through a secret passage behind a door pretending to be a wall and through a portrait door all the while being pushed on by Sirius. He kept badgering them to move quicker, worrying aloud that they would miss the last trip out to Hogsmeade and have to find a way to sneak all five of them out of the school. That was a lot easier said than done.

When James, Lily, Remus, Peter and an invisible Sirius reached the entrance hall, slimly making the last supervised excursion out to Hogsmeade that was leaving that day, they found that the leader of the final trip was none other than Professor Slughorn. Lily turned to James to see him and Remus sharing a smug look between them as they spotted Professor Slughorn checking his pocket-watch at the end of the entrance hall. She wondered what it was about and, with a curious look, followed them over to where their potions teacher was stood.

'Oh ho!' Professor Slughorn exclaimed upon seeing them, 'I was beginning to think that nobody was going to turn up for this trip. Seems as if you're the only ones left!' he finished, bobbing up and down on his heels.

'Told you so!' Lily heard whispered into her ear, obviously by Sirius as she could see James and Remus in front of her and she was sure that, even though she couldn't see him, Peter wouldn't even attempt to do something like that. Even by just looking at him you could tell that fact. He was too much of a wimp.

She walked forwards and levelled herself with James, breathing deeply. She looked up at Professor Slughorn and smiled at him with her kind and gracious smile. 'Morning Professor.' She said happily, receiving odd looks from Remus and James who, instead of greeting the Professor, had been devising a simple plan to get rid of him during their trip to Hogsmeade. If they did so, Sirius would be able to take James' invisibility cloak off sooner than planned.

'Well then,' Slughorn sighed, once again checking his little pocket-watch before stuffing it and the attached chain into the inside pocket of his billowing robes, 'shall we?' he said to the four students in front of him. As soon as they had nodded Slughorn moved off with the two sixteen year olds, (Peter and James), and the three seventeen year olds, (Lily, Remus and an invisible Sirius), following him. A couple of them were whispering deviously.

Lily watched James and Remus from where she walked behind them. She had no idea what they were saying. She couldn't hear them and she was no good at lip reading. It didn't stop her trying but she was sure the words she was making out, (we need tree stump chocolate and pip squeak cream), were not pertaining to their conversation. In fact, she didn't believe that those words would ever appear in any conversation. Nevertheless, she continued to watch them in conversation, looking for some clue as to what they were saying, when they suddenly moved from behind Professor Slughorn to either side of him.

Lily walked quicker to see if she could over hear what they were saying. They had just exited the school gates and began to walk down the slope towards the little village that was blossoming quickly into spring, when she finally heard them.

'You know Professor,' Remus said, 'it's a beautiful day isn't it. It's a shame that you have to spend the next fifteen minutes of it walking down to the village with us when you could be having a refreshing butterbeer in the three broomsticks.'

Slughorn laughed loudly. 'Really Mr Lupin, I highly doubt that it will take fifteen minutes to walk down to Hogsmeade. It's right there look.' he bellowed, pointing to the village which was soon approaching at the end of the decline.

'Yes but,' James said, pointing his wand behind him and tripping Peter up and causing him to thud to the floor and skid lightly across the pavement, 'Peter's just a bit clumsy. It'll take a long time to get him there in one piece.'

Lily didn't see James' sleight of hand. If she did, she'd have probably said something. As it was, all she saw was Peter fall beside her. She helped heave him up as she eavesdropped in on the rest of the short conversation.

'Ah.' Slughorn said, 'I see. But, Dumbledore did say that you students had to be escorted.'

'Well, he's a prefect.' James said, jerking his thumb at Remus who smiled innocently, 'he can 'escort' us!' he finished, discreetly putting air quotes around the word escort so that Slughorn wouldn't notice.

'Mmm,' Slughorn murmured, raising his hand to his mouth in thought, 'I suppose that's true. And Miss Evans is a prefect too. That's two prefects…'

They had all come to a complete standstill now. Lily was level with James and Remus, as was Peter and, assumedly, Sirius. The students looked at Slughorn in suspense, wondering what he was going to say. He sighed and it was perfectly clear what the next words out of his mouth were to say. Before he was able to get them out though, Remus interrupted.

'Really Professor.' Remus said, clapping his hand on his Potions masters shoulder, 'There's no need to walk this last stretch with us. We're all sensible here and you have had a great influence on us and you have inspired us to be responsible young adults. Really Professor, we can handle it.'

Professor Slughorn lowered his hand from his face and looked at the young faces which surrounded him. He bobbed up and down on the balls of his feet and took the pocket watch out of his robes again, flicking it open and glancing at the time. He popped it back into his robes and looked at his students again before saying to Remus, 'Well you are quite responsible…and I see you have a handle on everything here…' he finished looking at James pointedly.

'You go have a butterbeer Professor.' Lily said, joining in with the boys plan and receiving a mischievous smile of approvement from James.

'Oh all right.' Professor Slughorn sighed, giving in un-reluctantly and making to move off, 'I could just use a butterbeer.' he ended as he left the students stood where they were and headed off towards the village below.

Sirius waited until Slughorn was a fair distance away before pulling the cloak off of himself and throwing it over to James who caught it without hesitation.

'What do you want me to do with it?' he asked his best friend with a chuckle, unfolding the cloak and letting the full length of it fall to the floor.

'I dunno.' Sirius shrugged, pulling his collar back and forth to air himself, (it was rather hot under the cloak), 'Stick it somewhere?'

'Well I have a few suggestions but you're not gonna like them!' James laughed moving the water-like cloak between his hands and threading it through his fingers.

'I'll take it.' Lily said, taking the cloak from James, their hands brushing slightly. She hesitated slightly at the touch but it went unnoticed by everyone but James, who had also paused, and she proceeded to put the cloak in the bag she had brought along which had her purse, wand and cardigan in in-case she got cold.

After Lily had closed her bag, the group, all fully visible, headed down to Hogsmeade. James and Sirius in front, Peter behind, and Remus walking with Lily in the middle. Lily sighed as she watched James walking in front of her, an action which didn't go unnoticed by the extremely perceptive Remus. He shook his head with raised eyebrows.

'What are they doing?' Lily asked Remus, still looking at James but this time with utter confusion written across her face.

Remus turned to look at his two friends who had just laid themselves out across the floor. It wasn't unusual to him so, unlike Lily, the look on his face wasn't confusion but rather fond amusement.

'Lupin?' Lily asked again. They had come to a standstill once more just to watch the boys who were still just lying there in the middle of the path. 'What are they doing?' she repeated.

'I'd wager…rolling.' Remus nodded, shoving his hands in his pockets. 'What do you think Pete?'

'Don't know what else it could be.' Peter said meekly, looking at his two friends who were now rocking back and forth on the ground.

'Rolling?' Lily questioned, 'What do you mean roll-'

'GO!' she heard from in front of her.

Lily turned to see James and Sirius tumbling down the declining slope. She laughed at them as they went, obviously enjoying themselves thoroughly. She smiled fondly, just as Remus was, at the two childlike boys.

'Do they always do that?' Lily asked Remus.

'No not always.' Remus sighed, 'Sometimes they hop, crawl, jump. Depends on their mood really.'

Lily shook her head and, along with Remus and Peter, trundled down the downwards path to meet James and Sirius at the bottom.

'Well that was fun!' James said, rearranging his glasses and running a hand through his hair, 'Shall we go then?'

The five of them started down the main street of Hogsmeade. It was buzzing and was busier than Lily had ever seen it. The air tingled with excitement and everywhere she looked, Lily could see masses of Hogwarts students flooding out of shops. They were raging with the enthusiasm of their first visit to the village in ages. Everyone had armfuls of shopping bags and they were all chatting happily, great big smiles written across their joyous faces. Lily looked around with delight at the wide cobbled street and everyone in it. She and the marauders walked down the centre of the street until they came to Zonko's joke shop, at which point they left the street and entered the little store.

Lily had never been inside Zonko's joke shop before. She walked in with fascination and bated breath. This tiny little shop was where the marauders had bought, (she hoped), all of the pranking supplies which, until recently, had been the bane of her prefect life. Since she became friends with them she hadn't bothered quite as much, but then again, for some reason, their pranks weren't as cold-hearted as before. This year they had more flavour. Either way, she was still curious about the shop that had made their pranks possible.

Zonko's joke shop was better than she imagined. The petite little store was so animated and colourful that it made her smile in stunned amazement. Everywhere she looked there were moving points of sale and cauldrons full of bouncing products. The room they were in had seven walls and was an odd shape which suited the strange shop. The wall near the front window was dedicated to a vibrant display of filibuster fireworks. Every couple of minutes one of the little rockets would burst off of the shelf and buzz around the shop, the youngest customers attempting to catch it. Lily watched it with her eyes over the heads of the people in the store and smiled.

'Oi! Evans!' Sirius yelled at Lily from across the room near the third wall which was decorated with oddities created from muggle objects like Frisbees and yo-yo's. 'Over here!' he called and beckoned her to where he and the other marauders were stood.

Lily made her way through the crowded shop, most of the customers Hogwarts students, and eventually reached the boys on the other side of the shop.

'Is this what a yo-yo looks like in the muggle world?' he asked her holding out the object in the palm of his hand.

Lily stared at the object without words. She was shocked that this object could even be considered a likeness to a yo-yo. For one it was square and all the yo-yo's she had seen were round. Also, there was a strange spoke sticking out of one side of it which had a rubber triangle on the end of it as if it was a spike. There was also a tiny painted red circle on the wooden square base-frame of the object. Finally, there was no rope. Instead the main frame of the alleged yo-yo was on a candy-striped wooden stick.

She looked up from the object to Sirius. 'In a word…no.' she said, 'But you took muggle studies. Surely you knew that.'

'We didn't do muggle toys.' he replied, putting the yo-yo back on the shelf.

'Then what did you do?' Lily wondered as she picked up the so-called yo-yo that Sirius had just put back onto the shelf.

'Transport mostly.' James said taking the yo-yo off of Lily and examining it in his hands, 'That or the main frame of public sector jobs.'

'The main frame of public sector jobs?' Lily questioned, thinking that she had never heard anything that adult come out of his mouth before. Usually he either came out with cheesy lines, childlike nonsense or just plain gibberish. This was something that actually made sense.

'Yeah.' James continued from Lily's last questioned, 'Lawyers, doctors, police men. That sort of thing.'

'Right.' Lily nodded, taking back the wizard version of a yo-yo from James and looking at it curiously. 'What does it do?' she asked the boys, experts in the field of joke products.

'Here.' Remus said, taking the toy from her. He pulled the spoke with the rubber spike out of the top of the wooden square, extending it out a couple of inches. After that he bent the handle stick thirty degrees. Then he turned the rubber spoke to point at Lily, pressed the red circle and squirted water out of the rubber triangle into her face.

* * *

Severus sat in his detention, bored. He had been sat in Dumbledore's office since eleven o'clock and it was now twelve thirty. The last Hogsmeade trip had gone out half an hour ago whilst he had been sat in the same seat staring at one disappointed headmaster, not talking.

'Mr Snape.' Dumbledore said, 'Do you know why you are here?'

'Because I was told to be.' Severus answered moodily, folding his arms and shifting in his chair uncomfortably.

'You've been sitting there for over an hour now.' Dumbledore said calmly picking up his wand from the side of his great oak desk, 'Maybe you'd prefer a more comfortable chair.'

With his elder-made wand, Dumbledore drew the outline of a soft squashy arm-chair in the air. When he had completed the shape, a purple striped armchair appeared in mid-air. He lowered it to the ground and motioned for Severus to sit on it. Dumbledore kept his hand pointed in the direction of the chair until he saw Severus reluctantly push himself of the hard wooden chair he was on and move to plop himself down on the large, soft armchair. After this had happened, Dumbledore took a small, goblin-made, silver sweet bowl, filled with ice mice, and offered it to the Slytherin boy who looked as if he had just been slapped. The sweets were refused and Dumbledore set the bowl back down on his desk before placing his fingertips together in thought.

Student and headmaster stared at each other. Both were unwavering in their looks. Severus' cold stubborn glare meeting Dumbledore's curious gentile glance. Neither of them said a word. They sat for minutes in silence just, staring.

'Mr Snape,' Dumbledore began again as Severus broke their eye contact and looked down at his knees, 'You do realise you haven't been sent here as a punishment?'

Severus looked up with contempt on his face. His nostrils flared out from his hooked nose and through gritted teeth he said, 'I was sent here for a detention. If that isn't a punishment then I don't know what is.'

'It is true this…encounter has been labelled a detention,' Dumbledore sighed with a nod of his head and straightening a quill on his desk, 'but not by me. I see this more as an opportunity to understand why you did what you did and why.'

Severus scowled and jutted his chin out moodily. He had been asked this question for weeks. Why had he attacked one of his so-called friends? What had provoked him? He had never answered these questions and, even though it was the headmaster of the school and one of the greatest wizards of their time, he was not about to tell Dumbledore either.

'I have all day.' Dumbledore said with a kind smile and twinkling eyes. He stared intently at the boy in front of him. They sat there for another five minutes. Dumbledore ate a few ice mice during the wait. He even threw one to his phoenix who had an odd fondness for the Honeydukes speciality.

Severus sighed and looked at the clock which was hung on the wall between two portraits of dozing past headmasters. The clock had several hands and stars which zoomed around the face. The time was nearly one o'clock and, frustrated, Severus let out a giant exhale of air. At the same time, his belly rumbled in hunger. He was starving. He hadn't eaten this morning as, by the time he had woken up, breakfast was over and he didn't know the way to the kitchens.

Startled by the noise emitting from Severus' stomach, Dumbledore's gaze once again fell upon his student. Once again, he picked up the silver sweet bowl and offered it to Severus.

Severus looked at it in disgust. He recalled the last time he was in this office. The night that he had almost been sent into a werewolf's grasp. He had entered the circular room with the boy he loathed, James Potter, and, instead of James getting into trouble as Severus expected and wanted, he was offered a sweet. Dumbledore obviously had very twisted ideas about punishment.

His belly rumbled again and he looked up. Dumbledore was still offering the ice mice to him and, due to the aching he was experiencing in his gut, Severus took one of the sweets. He bit off the head and savoured the sweet taste, feeling himself fill up slightly as he did. The sweet was soon devoured.

Dumbledore placed the silver bowl back on his desk and waited until Severus had finished the sweet. 'So,' he said, 'are you going to tell me what happened.

Severus stared at his headmaster coldly.

'You won't be able to leave here until you do.' Dumbledore continued.

Realising it would be his only escape, Severus shifted in his seat and sniffed. 'I lost my temper.' he said stiffly.

Dumbledore sighed and stood from his desk. He walked over to a bright and newly feathered Fawkes and stroked the magnificent phoenix. Fawkes nuzzled his head into Dumbledore's hand as he tickled him under his beak. He stood near the beautiful bird for five minutes taking no notice of the boy who as sat in front of his desk. He stayed surrounded in his world of thought; his solitary world, thinking about nothing in particular until he turned around, and looked back at the Slytherin student in his office.

'Mr Snape,' the tall headmaster said as he glided over to his desk to stand in front of the boy, 'how are you finding school at the moment?'

Severus looked at the bearded man in confusion. He hadn't expected this question and didn't really know what to say. Technically, everything about his school life was fine. He was on target in all his subjects receiving E's and O's in them all. The professors in the school, bar Professor Slughorn at the minute due to the behaviour which had landed him here in the first place, liked him. He was a model student. All his work was handed in on time and he was fully prepared for his end of year exams which were coming up shortly. His school life was fine. It was his social life within the school which he detested.

Parts of it he wouldn't change for the world. There were things he was doing and had done which he was proud of. He had stood by what he believed to be right; Voldemort's cause. He had begun the process of joining his ranks, the death eaters and had no regrets. There were, however, parts he would change so that he could be thoroughly happy. First of all, he would be friends with Lily again. He would tell her how he felt about her, properly this time, and she would return his affections. She wouldn't be swooning after who he considered his arch enemy, James Potter, and he and Lily would hate him together, as they had always done. The other thing he would change would be his fellow students, death eaters and so-called friends from Slytherin. He would change it so that they would accept Lily and Bellatrix wouldn't want to kill her. If he could do that, then his social life at school would be suitable for him and maybe even enjoyable.

He knew that none of this would happen though, so he looked to his headmaster who was giving him and intense, curious stare, and said, 'Everything for school is fine.' An honest answer.

'Mmm.' Dumbledore hummed quietly before going for another walk. He walked over to a tall but slim gold cabinet which held rows and rows of crystal phials. He looked inside the cabinet and placed his old, delicate but gentle hand on the handle of the case. He paused for a moment and then turned around and waltzed on over back to his desk all the while being watched by one thoroughly unimpressed Severus Snape.

'You are up to date with all your school work?' Dumbledore interrogated, sitting down.

'Yes.' Severus answered moodily.

'You are prepared for your upcoming end of year exams?' Dumbledore questioned.

'Yes.' Severus replied.

'Is there anything you wish to tell me Mr Snape?' Dumbledore asked, placing his fingertips together and leaning forwards on his desk with a curious and searching expression.

Severus looked down at his knees once more. Was there anything he wanted to tell his headmaster? 'No.' Severus whispered.

'Nothing at all?' Dumbledore reproached.

'No.' Severus said confidently, looking up at the old man, 'I lost my temper in the heat of the moment. I don't know what I did and can't remember so it won't happen again. I've said sorry.'

Dumbledore tilted his head to the left staring at the Slytherin boy. 'I do hope you make good decisions Mr Snape.'

Severus didn't answer. He gave a slight smile to his headmaster, attempting with all his might to employ Occlumency, which he had been reading about in the library, primarily to use against Voldemort so that certain thoughts would stay private. This wasn't the occasion that he had thought he would first use the skill in. He was sure that Dumbledore wouldn't try to read his thoughts, he wasn't an intrusive man, but Severus didn't want to risk it. So with all his might, he blocked his thoughts.

Dumbledore looked at the boy. 'You may go.' he said finally. He watched Severus stand and walk out of the room. He was sure that he distinctively saw Severus sigh in relief as he went.

* * *

Later that evening, when everybody had returned from Hogsmeade, still buzzing with the excitement from the day, Lily met up with Hestia in their dormitory to discuss the day out at Hogsmeade. They were both sat crossed legged on Lily's bed, staring at what she had bought from Hogsmeade earlier that day.

'What is it?' Hestia asked her best friend, poking the odd object with her forefinger so it tipped over onto its side.

Lily laughed and propped the toy back up. 'It's a yo-yo.' she said, using the term extremely loosely.

'What's a yo-yo?' Hestia asked.

Lily smiled mischievously and picked the object up. She did the same thing as Remus had shown her in the shop. She pulled the spoke with the rubber spike out of the top of the wooden square, extending it out a couple of inches. After that she bent the handle stick thirty degrees. Then she turned the rubber spoke to point at Hestia, pressed the red circle and squirted water out of the rubber triangle into her face. She then laughed at her best friend and she wiped the water off of her face, obviously unimpressed.

'And where did you get that?' Hestia asked, making sure that none of the liquid made its way to her hair.

'Zonko's Joke shop.' Lily said succinctly, smiling proudly as she said it.

'Really?' Hestia smiled, holding back a laugh, 'You went into Zonko's?'

'Why so surprised?' Lily fake-gasped, as she picked up the yo-yo and smiled at it fondly, recalling memories from that day.

'You've been hanging out with those boys too much!' Hestia said, shaking her head with the makings of a smile on it. She then leaned into her best friend and whispered dramatically, 'You're becoming one of them!'

Lily rolled her eyes at Hestia's dramatics and placed the wizarding version of a yo-yo on her bedside table next to her letters from home and the bag which she had taken to Hogsmeade with her.

'So how was your day with the marauders then?' Hestia asked, settling herself comfortably so that she could hear the juicy details. She did love a bit of gossip. She had a field day when Severus had attacked Avery in potions.

'It was fun.' Lily began, 'Interesting, but fun.'

'Do go on.' Hestia said in an over-the-top posh voice.

'Well,' Lily went on, 'whilst me, Lupin and Pettigrew walked down to Hogsmeade, James and Black rolled down. We then went to Zonko's, for the first time in my life, and Lupin squirted water in my face with this.' she said, indicating to the yo-yo beside her bed, 'After I had bought it so I could squirt water in your face, you're welcome, we went to some other shops like the Magic Neep to get some owl feed for Sox etcetera, where I was once again taunted about the fact that I thought his owl was his girlfriend.' she grimaced, 'Not going to live that one down. Then we went to the three broomsticks for the rest of the day.'

'And how was that?' Hestia asked.

'Not bad actually.' Lily shrugged, 'I could have done without the first twenty minutes of it.'

'Why?' Hestia questioned, smelling that gossip would follow these words.

'Well, when we got to the pub, I sat next to James-'

'Naturally.' Hestia butted in, wiggling her eyebrows insinuatingly.

Lily smiled bashfully to herself before continuing. 'Anyway, Black then proceeded to chant 'ask her out' for ten minutes and then, 'kiss her' for another ten before James told him to 'can it'. After that it was quite enjoyable.'

'Good.' Hestia replied, pleased that her friend had had a good time but secretly thinking that, if she was in her position, and Sirius Black had been chanting 'kiss her', she would have just kissed James to shut him up. Then maybe something would have developed. But it wasn't in Lily's nature to try and make that bold a move.

'So how was your date?' Lily asked, turning the conversation away from herself and onto her best friend who had, very un-characteristically, started blushing.

'It was nice.' she replied quietly, looking down at her hands and twiddling her thumbs.

Lily waited for more but Hestia just banged her thumbs together absentmindedly, obviously reliving her date in her head. Lily inhaled deeply and drew circles on her quilt with her finger, giving Hestia a few more minutes to stew in her imagination. Finally Lily couldn't take it anymore. She felt awkward sitting there whilst her friend day dreamed. Silence was fine when it was comfortable, but uncomfortable silence was just that, uncomfortable and Lily didn't much care for it. In the end, she coughed loudly to regain Hestia's attention.

Hestia looked up dazed and blinked at her friend in question. There was no look of understanding in her face and she was oblivious to the fact that Lily needed details. That was until Lily told her this is what she wanted.

'Oh.' Hestia said in realisation, 'Well what is it you want to know?' she finished coyly in question. She did like the fact that the attention was on her and she wasn't about to let all of her information go in one speech.

'Well,' Lily began, thinking of what to ask. She knew nothing about Hestia's date or who she went with. So the logical question to begin with was, 'Who did you go out with?'

Hestia bit her lip, savouring the focus that was directed at her. She wanted to milk it for all it was worth so, instead of telling Lily the name of the boy she had gone on a date with, she just said, 'Guess.'

'Gosh Hestia,' Lily sighed, 'how am I meant to guess who this person is if you haven't given me any information. Can you at least tell me what house he's in?'

Hestia thought for a moment, allowing Lily to stew. 'Nope.' she said shortly.

'Please?' Lily moaned. She picked up the yo-yo from her bedside table and aimed it at Hestia. 'I will use this.' she nodded with a quiet, deathly voice.

Hestia just raised an eyebrow at her stubborn friend, all the while thinking that hanging out with the marauders was causing her to act more childlike that usual. It was nice. She was obviously enjoying herself and the small sense of freedom acting this way brought her. But Hestia still wouldn't tell her. She shook her head and saw Lily visibly deflate.

'That's not fair!' Lily whined, bobbing her knees up and down in her crossed legged position, 'Why can't you just tell me?'

'Because.' Hestia said, thinking fast for a valid excuse. She'd rather not say that she was just trying to get the most out of the situation and the attention. It was what she was doing but she didn't want Lily to know that. She looked at her best friend and smiled with a touch of exasperation. 'I won't tell you,' she began, 'because he's the first person I've ever gone out with and I don't want you to scare him off. You know you'll just end up interrogating him.'

Lily sat in shock with a hurt expression coming out in her face. 'I'm just looking out for you.' she said quietly, a puppy dog pout forming on her lips.

Hestia rolled her eyes. 'I know. But I really like him and until I know that he won't be scared off by you-'

'How will you know if I don't try to scare him off?' Lily butted in wiggling her eyebrows, knowing that what she said was true. There was no way that Hestia would find out if this boy could stand Lily's good-intentional threats if she didn't actually make them.

Hestia shook her head and looked down at her thumbs again, realising that this was a real worry of hers and now, she wasn't telling her best friend just because she wanted the attention to last. It was a real concern of hers that this boy may be frightened off. 'Can you just respect that I'm not going to tell you?'

Lily folded her arms and pouted. She tried to stare Hestia down, glaring at her intently with her best grumpy face. It used to work all the time on her sister. It didn't now of course but, if it worked once, maybe it would work now. It didn't. She sat and stared at her best friend for five minutes, all the time pleading with her eyes for the information she so desired. But Hestia was unwavering in her resistance and didn't cave in.

Sighing, Lily said, 'Fine.' and left the subject there.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	33. Chapter 32

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader! Sorry this update has been so long coming. Thank you to all the readers who have stuck with me though and to those who have just started to read. I'm thanking you in this chapter but its gonna take you a while to read it... just know it was meant for you! :) Thank you for the reviews to if you've left one. They really do make my day. :)**

**Anyway, here's chapter Thirty-Two!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Thirty-Two**

After the Hogsmeade trip, the next week went by extremely quickly which, for a certain someone, was exactly what he wanted. It was now six o'clock in the morning on Saturday the twenty-seventh of March and James Potter was wide awake. Just like a small child on Christmas morning, or Sirius every morning there was pancakes, he was bouncing on all of his friend's beds to wake them up. He moved from Remus', to Sirius', to Peter's bed many times before they started to stir. Eventually, it was Remus who woke first.

'What are you doing?' he asked, rubbing his eyes. He sat up and picked up his watch to look at the time. 'Ugh!' he sighed annoyed, 'its six o'clock!' he flopped back down on his bed and attempted to hide his face under the covers. He managed to grip it to his forehead for a few seconds before it was ripped back by James. Groaning, he asked, 'Why are you up so early?' As he waited for an answer, he noticed that he had seemed to have stunned James into a silence.

Scruffy haired and wide eyed, James stared down at his friend who was still laid down in his bed. He didn't think that Remus' tired question should be dignified with an answer. Then again, if Remus really had forgotten and James didn't remind him, his day of celebration may just go unnoticed. That was something he didn't want. It _was_ one of James' favourite days of the year. He sighed and, in a very Sirius-like, dramatic fashion, James whispered, 'It's my birthday', with a tug of mock emotion thick in his voice.

Remus paused and looked up at his friend with an unimpressed expression. 'It's still too early.' he moaned, closing his eyes to try and get back to sleep.

'My birthday began at midnight.' James said solemnly, blinking his hazel eyes behind round rimmed glasses. 'I've already allowed you to sleep for six hours of it. Don't waste my birthday Remus. Merlin wouldn't approve.'

At this Remus sat up again, closed his eyes for a couple of seconds and then opened them up again. He shook his head as if trying to get James' comment to register. With no success, he eventually just questioned, 'Merlin wouldn't approve?'

'That's right. He wouldn't.' James nodded casually before once again working up a puppy-like excited stupor. He bounced on Remus bed, poking his arm at the same time and making for a very annoying visitor. 'So what have you planned for my birthday?' he asked mutedly as if he was expecting a huge surprise. 'Tell me, tell me, tell me!' he finished, bouncing once more.

'Ok.' Remus said, beckoning James in to him with an unenthusiastic jerk of his head. He made a big deal out of it and even looked around the dorm room to make sure that no-one who shouldn't be there was listening. He then turned back to James and whispered, 'This is really exciting right but, for at least two more hours, we have planned…' Remus paused to build up the tension and James' visible excitement, '…sleep.' he finished flopping back down on his bed and pulling his duvet over his face leaving James out nodding his head. 'Now go to bed!' he finished, his voice slightly muffled by his sheets.

James turned around and paced around the dorm room thinking, _well I set myself up for that. _He just couldn't help it though. He did love his birthday. When he was a small boy, his parents had always made a big deal of it. He was so special to them. They had believed that they were too old have children but, by some miracle, Jane Potter fell pregnant with James. It was very unexpected. Still, they were overjoyed and every day since their son was born, especially on his birthday, they had showered him with gifts and told him he was special. He was surrounded with all the material wealth hecould ever desire. This was the probable cause which had led James to become slightly arrogant. However during the course of his last six years at Hogwarts, more so in the last year, James' arrogance had diminished dramatically. His love for his birthday hadn't.

He looked at his friends in turn. Sirius hadn't woken up at all. He was laid with his arms above his head, his head on his side and his mouth open, drooling slightly. James conversation with Remus hadn't seemed to disturb him at all. Peter was curled up in a ball on top of his blanket, his thumb so close to his mouth that James suspected that he had fallen asleep with it in his mouth. He wouldn't have been woken by anything. When he was a sleep he was sound as deadwood. James looked at Remus last. Unlike Sirius and Peter, he was awake but it was obvious he was trying to get back to sleep. He was now attempting to block out the rising sun with his duvet, the only factor now that was intruding on his peaceful slumber. Suddenly, with a disgruntled moan, Remus' duvet flew back from his face and he sat up leaving James with a smug, rhetorical smile.

'Yes?' James asked, his voice lilting with mock question.

Remus looked at James through narrowed eyes and he shook his head. 'Well I can't sleep now.' He swung his legs out of bed and stood up, pointing to Sirius at the same time. 'Get him up. We'll go to the kitchens. They may just bake you a cake.' he continued getting out of bed, still showing some reluctance as he put on his dressing gown and tied it loosely around his middle.

'Awesome.' James smiled, walking over to Sirius bed. He leant against the wall next to his best friend's bed and folded his arms before saying, in an obviously put on loud voice. 'Well, I guess he'll just miss out on the kitchens.

'I'm up.' Sirius mumbled as he sat bolt up-right. He looked around, blinking his eyes fast to clear the sleep away with a dumb smile on his face.

James laughed as he pushed himself up off of the wall. He walked over to Peter's bed and stood next to Remus who had his hand to his chin in thought. Sirius joined them over by the smallest marauder, staying upright only for the promise that he would soon be fed. The three boys, together, looked down at Peter sleeping snugly in his bed like a baby. He looked so peaceful. So, in synchronisation, looked at each other, nodded, grabbed the end of his blanket and, just like a waiter whipping out a tablecloth from underneath some glasses, pulled the blanket out from under Peter causing him to roll off of his bed and onto the floor with a thud.

The three boys cackled with laughter and high-five each other as Peter steadily pulled himself up of the floor with the aid of his bed. He scratched his head and looked at his three chuckling friends. 'What happened?' he asked stupidly.

'It's his birthday.' Remus said in explanation, jerking his thumb to James who was waving like an excited child.

'We're going to the kitchens.' Sirius nodded happily, salivating slightly around the corners of his mouth at the thought of all that food. He licked his lips noisily.

'Oh…ok.' Peter replied softly, standing up fully and following his three friends out of the dormitory in a bit of a daze. His eyes were still drooping slightly but he followed his friends out of the dorm room and down the stairs anyway in fear of being left out.

They didn't bother to keep quiet as they left the common room and made their way down to the kitchens. They didn't even bother to get changed. Not that it mattered though as they didn't manage to wake anybody up. They were all asleep in dorm rooms so, consequently, nobody was about at this time in the morning. The boys enjoyed the freedom though.

Running amok in the empty school, they slid down banisters of moving staircases, swapped some of the ancient portraits around, (much to the distress of the occupants), rearranged a couple of suits of armour so that they were doing handstands and transfigured a couple of buttons on Peters night shirt into wooden sleds and zoomed down the stationary staircases. By the time they had finished with their little games, they had arrived in the entrance hall. To finish their little spree off, they decided to mess around with the hour glasses that kept track of each houses points. After about half an hour of them, (Remus), trying to figure out how the whole thing worked, they split Slytherin's points between the other three houses and hung a modified Hogwarts banner over the place where the Slytherin hour glass was. (It had no symbol for Slytherin on it.)

When they had finished, they carried on down to the portrait of fruit in the bottom corridor of Hogwarts where the kitchen was located. Before they went in, James, the best at transfiguration, returned the buttons from Peter's nightshirt back to normal from the sleds they had created. Afterwards, Remus, with his odd knowledge of stitching spells, sewed them back onto his small friend's night shirt. Sirius, with his patience reaching an end and his stomach grumbling terribly, tickled the pear on the painting of fruit and stepped through the portrait hole into the kitchens. James, Remus and Peter, soon followed.

Straight away, the boys were greeted by several little house elves who welcomed them with an assortment of foods. Sirius grabbed as much as he possibly could and sat down at one of the long tables, digging in immediately. Peter, who even after all this time and all their visits still found house elves a little bit odd, retreated slightly from the crowd making their way towards him. James looked around at the food to see what he fancied for his birthday breakfast. He was just about to choose a rather delicious looking muffin when Remus tapped him in the shoulder and pointed over towards the grand fireplace.

James looked around to see what Remus was referring to when he saw 'Linda?' James smiled in happy surprise. He made his way over to the small house elf that was bouncing with excitement at seeing her young master again, and gripped her hand in welcome.

'Master James.' Linda squeaked with a small bow of the head, 'I is very pleased to see you.'

'Me too! What are you doing here?' James asked her smiling, his hand still holding hers in a friendly grasp. He hadn't seen the little elf since Christmas and he'd missed her. If any other pureblood wizards had been around to hear him say that he would have been extremely unpopular with them. Pureblood wizards didn't approve of such emotions towards the creatures who were supposed to be, in effect, their slaves. But the Potter family, and in particular James, didn't care about such things. They were grateful to have Linda and had no issues displaying their gratitude towards her in public. They didn't care if it was frowned upon by other wizarding families. Or other house elves.

'I has come to give yous your birthday gift master James.' Linda said, looking up at James with an eager smile, ignoring the looks the other elves were shooting at her. Much like James, she didn't care what they thought. It was her family's protocols and she had always lived under these conditions. If this was the way the Potter family saw things, then so did she. She beamed at her youngest master and held out a small gift in her hand. 'It is from your mother.' she said.

James thanked Linda and took the small package out of her hand. He inspected it, shaking it by his ear to see if it rattled. It didn't but he always did this because he loved to try and guess what he had received before looking. He saw no reason to stop this now. The brown paper which his present was wrapped in fell apart as he pulled the string that was tying it together. Inside was a small, unassuming black box, to which he opened carefully, looking shocked at the contents.

'Mistress Potter says it is an exact replica Master James.' Linda squeaked in a hushed voice, allowing her young master to bask in the marvel of his seventeenth birthday present. It was, undoubtedly, the greatest, most meaningful present he would ever receive.

James lifted his present out of the small box, allowing everyone around, marauders and elves alike, to see what he had received. It was a watch. In the wizarding world, on a boys seventeenth birthday, it was tradition that he receive a watch to symbolise the becoming of a man. It was most commonly done in old wizarding families such as James'. If Sirius was still with his family, they too would do the same when it came to his birthday. Usually, especially in those families with money, (not always in those with less), the watch given was specially designed for the person whose present it was meant to be. The watch that James received however, was different. Special.

His brand new watch had twelve golden hands that were designed to look like wands and moved glidingly around the clocks face. Like most wizarding watches, no numbers framed the outside of the watches face. There were however, several little half-moons and a few stars moving sporadically around the edge of the goblin made, silver watch. The thing that made this watch so special was that it was identical to the watch that his father had worn every day for the whole of his life. In all of James' memories of his father, he was always wearing that watch. He wouldn't take that watch off for anyone or anything. It made sense for Mr Potter to be buried with that watch and James had believed that he would never see it again. Until now.

Everything about it was the same. The silver was slightly tarnished and the clasp was stiff as if it hadn't been opened and closed in a long time. One of the moons moving around the clocks edge was cracked just like his fathers had been after he had had a bit of a duel with a black market wizard. Even the third golden hand was sticking slightly so that it moved with considerable effort. To James, despite the visible and obviously intentional flaws, it was perfect. He wouldn't change a thing.

'It's fantastic.' James said plainly. There was nothing else to say. That one word described how much this present meant to him and if his words left any doubt, you could see how much he appreciated this present by the look on his face.

'Can you thank my mum for me please Linda?' James asked the small house elf.

Linda nodded her head, eyes shining. She reached out and clasped one of James' hands in between her two tiny ones. 'Happy birthday master James.' she squeaked finally before stepping back, bowing, and apparating out of the kitchen.

James was watching the spot where she had disappeared from, smoothing the glass of the watch absentmindedly with his thumb. He stood smiling for a couple of seconds before his reverie was broken by Sirius' voice which emanated from next to him.

'I wish we could apparate in school.' he said with his mouthful, bits of crumpet flying in all directions.

'You need to know how to apparate first.' James said walking over to the table where Remus was sat with Peter eating a plate full of toast. 'Last time you tried to do that you left your ear behind.'

'Yeah but how great did that ear look?' Sirius said in odd reminisance about his splinching, 'Just floating there in mid-air.'

Remus, James and Peter looked at Sirius with raised eyebrows. They were all wondering the same thing. Why was Sirius so enamoured by his ear? It was rather odd. They stared at Sirius for a while until he noticed them. 'What?' he asked.

* * *

At about four o'clock that evening, after a long day of studying in the library, Lily returned to the common room to spend her Saturday night with her friends. When she got there, the whole of Gryffindor house was gathered in the room. She wondered what was happening and as she made her way through the throng of students to where Hestia was stood, she noticed a large banner which was strung over the top of the dormitory staircases. It read 'Happy Birthday James'. As soon as she saw it she sighed. She had forgotten it was his birthday. In the past years she had made a point of taking no notice of his birthday, but the one year she had actually wanted to remember it, she had forgotten.

When she had reached Hestia in the crowd of Gryffindor's, she noticed that everyone was looking over towards the huge fire and mantle which occupied most of the far wall. 'What's going on?' she whispered to her best friend, 'What's everyone looking at?'

'You mean who.' Hestia said, looking at Lily and then back to the fire place.

Lily, intrigued by curiosity, also turned her attention to the spot where everyone else was fixated upon. She saw that Sirius was clambering onto the table which most the students did their work on. It seemed he had called for an announcement and had spent a few minutes trying to make himself visible to everyone in the room. Finally he stood tall and Lily gazed at him thoughtfully. What was this about? It didn't take long for her to find out.

Sirius cleared his throat and addressed the house as a whole. With one fist punching into the air, he shouted, 'To the Quidditch pitch!'

Much to Lily's surprise, the common room responded with a cheer of great enthusiasm. She wouldn't have thought that such a small announcement could evoke such a reaction. Apparently it could. Then again, it was James Potter's birthday. If Sirius had yelled, 'to the toilets', the star-struck crowd would have probably screamed for that too.

She shook her head and, as the house piled out of the common room, she made her way over to the table Sirius had just been standing on to carry on with some work. Hestia had left with the crowd. She knew Lily wouldn't come. They had an unwritten agreement about parties. Hestia would go and Lily would study. It satisfied them. There were only two parties Lily had to attend and they were hers and Hestia's, (if they were having one). So she was all prepared to continue with the work she had been doing in the Library that day when she noticed that someone else hadn't gone to the party either.

'Why are you still here?' she asked him curiously, tilting her head to the side and slowing down in her unpacking.

'Why are you?' Remus asked with his hands in his pockets, leaning on the back of the red couch which was in front of the fireplace.

'Quidditch pitch isn't really my scene.' Lily said looking down and checking her books. She was trying to avoid Remus eyes. He looked disappointed in her. She didn't know why. All she knew was that she didn't particularly like it.

'Well, ever think it's not all about you?' Remus asked her, now folding his arms and raising his eyebrows.

Lily looked up in shock, her mouth slightly open and blinking her eyes furiously. 'Excuse me?' she replied in disbelief. Had he really just said that to her?

Remus took a deep breath and shrugged his shoulders. 'It's James' birthday party. It shouldn't matter if the Quidditch pitch isn't 'your scene'.' he started, putting air quotes around his last two words, 'You should be there to wish him well. He'll only turn seventeen once.'

Lily looked at Remus, breathing deeply. She didn't answer him but, instead, began to tap her foot, thinking deeply. That was true. He would only be seventeen once and he did, after all, go to her party to wish her well. It would only be fair that she go to his. She couldn't really believe that she was thinking about this. Technically, a party would be the perfect place for her and James to 'naturally move forwards in their relationship' as Alice put it. Never mind the fact that their relationship didn't actually exist. It was just that she was always so uncomfortable at parties. Really, after saying hello to everybody what more was there to do? Did she really want James to see her like that?

'He'd want you to be there.' Remus said, looking at Lily intently and waiting for her answer.

She lifted her head slightly and bit her lower lip. 'Really?' she sighed, unable to keep a small smile from forming on her face.

Remus finally pushed himself from the back of the sofa and stood face on to Lily. He lowered his head slightly so that he was looking up at her. 'What do you think?' he questioned rhetorically.

Lily was now tapping her fingers on the table. He wanted her there. Did it really matter that she would be uncomfortable? Besides, Hestia would be there to 'help her through it' as it were. She could make it seem like Lily was relaxed and enjoying herself instead of being bored out of her mind as she usually was at parties. She hummed under her breath as she looked at Remus, still stalling. 'I haven't got him a present.' she said with raised eyebrows.

'So?' Remus said with a laugh as if this wasn't relevant whatsoever, 'He didn't get you a present.'

Her eyebrows creasing in the middle, Lily frowned in thought. 'He didn't did he!' she huffed with a shake of her head, 'And I didn't even notice.' she finished.

'Does it really matter?' Remus chuckled.

'Yes.' Lily said huffily, 'I like presents!'

'Well James doesn't care so come on.' he replied, jerking his head in the direction of the common room portrait hole.

'Fine.' Lily said, stalking past Remus towards the exit, 'But he owes me a present.'

The pair walked down to the Quidditch pitch, not exchanging any words what so ever. Lily was always a couple of paces in front of Remus who was casually strolling behind her with his hands in his pockets. It took them about ten minutes to reach the entrance hall at the pace they were travelling at and then another ten minutes to get down to the pitch. When they reached the stadium, Lily paused and waited for Remus to lead her in as she had only ever been in the stands and had no idea how to enter the grounds.

He took her around the back of pitch and through the Gryffindor changing room. She had never been in this room before and didn't particularly want to repeat the experience. It was disgusting and it smelt. She supposed any changing room did. The ones she had at her primary school always smelt. She didn't like those either. The two however, did have similar set ups. There was a line of benches pressed against the far wall with seven hooks above them and a cubby hole above each of them. Each hook had a name stuck on the wall above them. She spotted Hestia's and James' names straight away. Hestia's name was peeling off and James' had doodles all the way around it. Opposite these pegs was a freestanding chalk board which, just like his name, had James' doodles on it.

Remus led her through the tunnel which the Quidditch team usually waited in before entering the pitch. They finally came out on the Quidditch green and Lily couldn't help but smile at the scene in front of her. The pitch had been made over to true Gryffindor standards. The goal posts which were about fifty feet in the air on either sides of the pitch had been coloured red and gold; the Gryffindor colours. Around the sides of the pitch there were several banners which had been magically charmed to change between the Gryffindor lion and the words 'Happy Birthday James'. Then there were a few posters which had pictures of James wearing a golden crown and roaring like a lion. It looked fantastic, but the thing that made Lily smile the most was the people and party itself.

It was a giant picnic. There were several large baskets over spilling with an assortment of foods. They were all sat on red and gold blankets. A long table had rows upon rows of pumpkin juice and butterbeer upon it along the far side of the pitch. Then, finally, at the end of the long table closest to Lily and Remus, was a large birthday cake which too, was Gryffindor themed. The whole of the Gryffindor house, all wearing something red or gold or with a bit of Gryffindor themed face paint on them, were either laughing and joking on the grass or having fun in the air, taking full advantage of the location, style and food that James' party provided.

Remus walked away from Lily and she watched him make his way to James and Sirius. James was doing an odd little jig. Part way through, Sirius stopped him and shook his head. He then proceeded to do the jig himself, obviously showing James corrections. Lily laughed to herself and shook her head. _Idiots, _she thought.

'Lily!' Alice said, running up behind her with Frank, her boyfriend for the past couple of months, in tow, 'What are you doing here? You hate parties!' she finished, hugging Lily as she reached her.

Lily returned the hug and smiled at Frank who gave a one handed wave back to her. The two girls broke apart and Alice held Lily at arm's length waiting for an answer.

'Well I wasn't going to come but then I remembered that I am owed a present.' Lily smiled at a rather confused Alice as she folded her arms.

Starting to nod her head slowly, Alice replied, '…okay…' before bouncing back into a happy stupor to ask insinuatingly 'so how are things going with…?'

'Err…' Lily said, biting her lip and worrying about Frank's presence in this certain conversation. She knew that he and James weren't particularly close and it was true that James already knew how she felt but, she didn't want any more ears on this topic than there already was. Plus, although he was her dorm mate's boyfriend, she didn't know him that well.

Alice seemed to pick up on this as she turned to Frank and said, 'Can you go and get me a butterbeer please? Oh! And a muffin?'

'Sure.' Frank said sweetly to his girlfriend before walking away to fetch her what she had requested.

Alice turned back to Lily, 'Well?'

'Well I wouldn't say things particularly have a status,' Lily shrugged, folding her arms across her chest, 'We're friends.'

'Oh.' Alice said, obviously deflating as the gossip wasn't as good as she thought it would be, 'Well that's boring.'

Lily laughed, 'Sorry my life isn't as interesting as you thought it was.'

'Well we'll soon find out.' Alice said motioning towards James who was on his way over with a lopsided smile spread across his face. Alice then raised her eyebrows at Lily suggestively before walking away to meet Frank near James' birthday cake.

'Hey Evans!' James said as he reached her.

'Evans?' Lily responded with a tilt of her head in question. He hadn't called her that in a while.

'Sorry.' James said smacking himself on the head, 'Just with my birthday and everything. I kind of revert back to my third year self…which you probably don't like.'

'Well I coped with it for five years I don't think a day will make a difference.' Lily smiled, moving a little bit uncomfortably at his constant stare. It was a good thing she supposed. It wasn't the same kind of uncomfortable feeling she got when Severus stared at her. That was more disturbing. The way James stared at her was, she supposed, blush-worthy.

'Still,' James continued on, not noticing Lily shifting, 'I was an idiot.'

Lily nodded, 'Well I'm not denying that!' she said, exhaling as she did.

James laughed. It was true he had been a total prat for the first five years of his Hogwarts life. He really didn't make any case for Lily to be with him at all. He remembered all the times he had asked her out, (which was a lot!), and in each scenario he could see exactly where he went wrong. For one he kept insulting her then best friend. Then cursing her best friend. Then hexing him and insulting him some more. Jinxing him. And then, just for good measure, insulting him again. Not a good move altogether. Also, he swore at some point he stopped just insulting Severus and started to insult Lily as well. Also not a good move. Then there were the tricks he played on her. And the pranks. And making her look silly in front the whole class and embarrassing her. He really didn't help his case which was probably why it was taking so long now. Still, James always thought it was better late than never. He just had to wait for those feelings to bubble to the surface again.

'So,' James said, bobbing on his heels and folding his arms, 'I hear I owe you a present.'

'Yes you do.' Lily nodded with a smirk, 'And as soon as possible. I like presents and I don't like to be kept waiting.'

James nodded his head in thought, a small lopsided smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. He had to tread carefully here. He didn't want to make too bolder move and scare her off. After her running off in the Owlery when he asked her what she wanted to do, he didn't actually know if she still liked him but, still, he wasn't one for not going after things that he wanted.

'Ok. I can either get you a present from Hogsmeade or I can give you one now.' he said, raising his eyebrows in question.

Lily thought for a moment. 'What would you give me now?' she asked.

'Mmm…?' James replied, pretending to think about it but really judging the situation to see if this was a wise move. He decided to go for it, but not the whole shebang. A taster. 'A kiss on the cheek.' he replied.

Lily's stomach flipped. It took all her energy for her to keep a smile from creeping across her face. She tried very hard to relax herself before answering, 'I suppose that will do.' doing her utmost to be nonchalant.

Lily worked to control her breathing as James took her left hand with his right. He stepped forwards towards her and lent in. She took a breath and inhaled what she called 'the smell of James' which sent her stomach soaring. Softly and gently, she felt him place a kiss on her left cheek. He then pulled away, still holding her hand and stood a couple of feet away from her. They shared a long look, both with hints of a smile on their faces. Who knows when that would have naturally ended? The thing that stopped it was Sirius flying up to James on his broom, James broom in hand, and calling to his best friend.

'Oi Prongs!' he yelled from the air.

James turned around, dropping Lily's hand, (her face dropping too and looking up at Sirius in annoyance), and looked towards his flying mate. 'Yeah?' he asked, putting his hand over his eyes so he could see him in the light.

'Come fly with me!' Sirius continued to yell, 'Bet I can beat you in laps!' He threw James broom to him, James catching it with ease and efficiency with no effort at all.

'You wish!' James yelled back. Laughing, he got onto his broom and ran a hand through his already messy hair. He looked at Lily one last time, who smiled at him in return, almost as if she was allowing him to go. He winked at her with a wonky smile and then zoomed off to join Sirius in the sky.

Lily watched him go. She found it hard to contain her joy. It may seem like a small thing to someone else but to her, this was a big step. Things were finally progressing naturally. It was what she had been waiting for to happen and it was what Alice had advised her to do. At the minute, all she wanted to do was jump up and down and do a little victory dance but she stopped herself. It would have been embarrassing. Lily couldn't dance.

'How sweet.' came a voice from beside her.

Slowly, knowing exactly who it was and the smug mickey-taking she would receive from her, turned to face Hestia in exasperation.

'You do realise that everyone here hates you now.' Hestia said, with a look that said she was definitely enjoying herself.

Lily looked confused, 'Really?' she asked, 'Why?'

'They want him he wants you.' she shrugged as if it was obvious, 'You are the envy of every girl…and a few boys.'

Lily gave a single breathless laugh, not believing Hestia at all, but still looking around her to make sure. When she did, she was shocked to see that people were actually glaring at her. A group of girls sat having a picnic. Some near the drinks. Some near the cake. Pretty much every girl in range. She looked back into herself and stared at the ground, going slightly red under the hot gazes she was receiving.

'I wouldn't worry about it.' Hestia said, passing Lily the butterbeer she had brought her, 'It's not like you asked for this attention from him. You denied it for five years, let's face it.'

Lily turned her head to smile at her best friend. 'You know,' she began, 'He's not exactly who I thought I'd be with.'

Hestia looked from side to side in confusion. 'Err… Lily?' she whispered, proceeding cautiously. She didn't know what state of mind Lily was in at the minute. 'Hate to burst your bubble but you're not actually _with _him.'

Lily looked up slowly and turned to Hestia. 'I do know that.' she said.

'Just checking.' Hestia replied, holding her hands up in the air.

'It's just,' Lily began, the thought occurring to her because it was James' birthday, 'I'm older than he is. Isn't that odd? I always thought I'd end up with someone older than me. And he's not.'

'Look at it this way,' Hestia shrugged with a growing smile, 'You'll always be the boss.'

* * *

'Shh.' Sirius hushed his fellow marauders.

'We don't have to be quiet now.' Remus replied at full volume.

'Oh yeah!' Sirius laughed, smacking his forehead with his hand in stupidity.

The four boys had snuck out of Hogwarts, down the passage behind the humpback witch with one eye, out of Honeydukes and into the main street of Hogsmeade, all with the hope of going to the Three Broomsticks for James' first drink as a legal wizard. Much like in the muggle world, there were restrictions as to what age you had to be before being allowed certain drinks. In the wizarding world however, the restriction was lifted when a wizard turned seventeen. Most restrictions in the wizarding world were lifted at this age. So, as James was now legal and ready to roll, they decided to go and get him the drink that every teenage boy in the wizarding world wanted to try; fire whisky.

It was a surprise to many people that the marauders hadn't already tried the coveted drink. Many people thought that they had. It was a common assumption at Hogwarts. They weren't stupid boys. They knew exactly what people expected them to be like; the bad boys who followed no rules at all. But they really weren't like that. Yes it was true that they freely broke the school rules, but when it came to the law, they stuck to it. They didn't want to do anything illegal…besides the animagus thing. But, that was different and the situation, to them, superseded any law in place.

So, tonight, just as they had done on Remus' birthday earlier that month, and Sirius' birthday in the summer, the four boys snuck out to buy the birthday boy his first firewhisky. Truth be told, James was a little bit nervous about tasting the drink after watching Remus' birthday disaster. It could have just been the werewolf in him but, that drink had made him do some crazy stuff. Things Remus wouldn't want to be caught dead doing and as far away from his usual personality as possible. It had made the three other boys laugh so much whilst their friend's drunken rampage continued but the next morning Remus was the moodiest that they had ever seen him. He was even crankier than he was on the lead up to the full moon and that was saying something. It was just a surprise that nobody else had noticed. Sirius' birthday wasn't that bad. He had tried the drink once and didn't quite acquire the fondness for it. He had sworn the other marauders to secrecy about his dislike for the drink as he thought it made him less of a man. He hadn't had a firewhisky since and he didn't want one.

They entered the three broomsticks and waved to an extremely young bar maid by the name of Madam Rosmerta. She waved back, no qualms at all at the fact that it was nearly midnight and four school boys had just casually strolled into her bar. A couple minutes after she had seen them sit down she approached them and took their drink order.

'One firewhisky and three butterbeers please.' James said with a wink.

'Just turned seventeen have we?' Rosmerta asked James as she wrote down what they wanted in a little notebook, 'I'll bring you a goblet of pumpkin juice as well with that fire whisky.' she finished, returning James' cheeky wink and walking away.

'So what's it actually taste like?' James asked Remus seriously. Sirius pretended to barf whilst Peter tuned in to listen as he was still under seventeen with the trace on him. If he had a firewhisky, the ministry would know.

'You'll have to try it.' Remus said, determined not to give anything away.

'I'm gonna try it.' James nodded, 'I just want to know what I'm gonna be trying.'

Remus thought for a minute before saying with deliberate concealment, 'It is a taste you will never forget.'

'Awesome!' James replied, Sirius nodding his head sarcastically in agreement.

Madam Rosmerta soon returned with their drinks. Three butterbeers, one firewhisky and one pumpkin juice. She placed them on the table in front of the boys, who thanked her graciously before leaving them to their drinks.

James picked up the goblet with the drink which seemed to be emitting smoke, up of the table. Peter leant forwards in anticipation, wanting to know exactly how it tasted so that he could look forwards to his turn. He wouldn't be having firewhisky on his birthday. His mother wouldn't let him. He knew she wouldn't. Sirius was blowing bubbles in his butterbeer, not paying attention to what was happening. Remus was the only one out of the three boys who sat back in his seat and relaxed. He knew exactly what was coming. He was able to handle it though thanks to the fact that he was a werewolf. It was why Sirius hadn't been able to handle it either. He wasn't a werewolf and neither was James. And this was going to be funny.

James took the goblet to his mouth and took a sip. He brought it down from his lips and placed it on the table, his tongue moving around his mouth to savour the taste. He nodded his head in agreement. He liked it. Why had he been so nervous? If only he had seen Remus start to count down on his fingers from five, he may have thought differently. Two seconds later, he brought his hands to his throat and was gasping for air. He stuck his tongue out to allow some cool air to touch it but it made no difference. He spluttered to Remus to pass him the pumpkin juice. When it came his way, his grappled for it and gulped it down as if he hadn't had a drink for weeks.

When he had finished, he slammed it down on the table and heard Remus laughing.

'Why didn't you warn me?' he asked him faintly, his mouth burning.

'Now what fun would that be?' Remus laughed, taking the half drunken goblet of firewhisky.

'It's like my mouth is on fire!' James coughed, taking Peter's butterbeer and gulping it down also.

'Really?' Remus said, unimpressed with James' lack of inspiration to make connections, 'I would never have guessed that _fire_whisky tastes like a _fire_ in your mouth.' He finished in a monotone before sipping the remaining drink that James hadn't finished.

'How come you're drinking it?' Sirius asked, drinking his butterbeer and wondering why his friends actually liked the putrid liquid.

'I'm a…' he started before thinking twice about what he was going to say as he was in a public bar, 'Because of my furry little problem, it doesn't affect me as much as it affects you. And I had five on my birthday and it's an acquired taste.'

'Well then,' James said, holding his hand up to madam Rosmerta for another round, 'Let's get acquiring!'

* * *

**Thank you for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	34. Chapter 33

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter Thirty-Three!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Thirty-Three**

It had been five days since James and Remus, aided by Sirius and Peter, had staggered back to the Gryffindor tower in the early hours of Sunday morning; the day after James' birthday. In the end, James had drunk four firewhiskys and Remus had really topped the bill with six. It took them both three days to fully recover from their exploits and even then they couldn't really remember what had happened. They had to ask Sirius many times to explain what had happened as their memories were completely blank. However, Sirius' retellings of their antics weren't really reliable as they changed every time he told the story.

'That didn't happen last time you told the story.' James said with a shake of his head as he put his feet up on the table in charms class.

'No it really did!' Sirius said trying his very hardest to be convincing, 'On the way back you had a ten minute conversation with the door of Zonko's!'

'That does sound like something you would do.' Remus said with a nod, throwing a Bertie Bott's every flavour bean into his mouth, relaxing as, from two days ago, the full moon was over and done with.

'You were worse.' Sirius said turning to Remus with an evil smile on his face, 'You flirted with Madam Rosmerta, but when she said you were too young for her, you threw a huge paddy, picked up one of the barstools and claimed that as your girlfriend.'

Remus sat chewing his sweets, a flicker of a memory coming back. 'Nah I didn't.' he sighed, not wanting to admit this. It was rather embarrassing. It made him want to swear of firewhisky altogether if that's what it did to him. Plus, he could really do without the headache. And it probably wasn't too wise to drink so much a day before the full moon. He knew that it had made him snappier, (literally), with Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs during those long nights.

'Deny it all you want mate.' Sirius heaved, 'It happened.'

'I still don't believe you.' Remus said with a laugh of disbelief, throwing another bean into his mouth, 'Yesterday you told me that I stood atop the bar and started dancing.'

'You did!' Sirius insisted.

Remus stared at him, not believing one word of his tale anymore. Today he had declared a bar stool as his girlfriend, the day before he had danced across the bar and the day before that he had tangoed with Peter. They were just not things that Remus would do usually and he just couldn't believe that a little firewhisky could change him that much. In denial, Remus did the only thing he could; rebuff everything and throw Bertie Bott's every flavour beans at Sirius head.

'Stop that!' James said, catching one of the beans Remus had just skilfully aimed at Sirius head, 'You're wasting perfectly good sweets!' he finished, gobbling down the little bean which tasted like peppermint.

'True.' Remus said, throwing another bean in the air but this time into James' waiting mouth, 'Can't waste these delicious sweets on this numskull!' Remus reached out and ruffled Sirius' hair slightly.

Sirius slapped his hand away and in a protective manoeuvre against his hair being messed up. He never let that happen. In that respect, he and James, his best friend and, practically brother, were exact opposites. Sirius liked his hair just so. It was the only aspect of his heritage that he actually liked. The Black family were mean, deceitful, cruel and for all intents and purposes, evil; but dammit if they didn't have great hair. Thick in volume and jet black. The only downside to this was that Sirius could see that he shared his hair with his cousin Bellatrix. In spite of this though, Sirius always kept it neat and clean. On the other hand James couldn't care less if his hair was neat and tidy or not. In fact he took great pride in his messy hair and often ran his hand through it to mess it up even more, (if that was possible). Remus and Sirius made fun of James for this action but, likewise, James and Remus made fun of Sirius for being a girl when it came to his hair. They were inside jokes which the whole school were in on.

When Sirius had made sure, in the two-way mirror that he and James had found in the Potter mansion that his hair was still intact, he scowled at Remus who was smiling at him in amusement.

'Bertie Bott?' Remus asked, offering Sirius the pack.

'Thanks.' Sirius said, getting the wrong idea and taking the whole thing, making James laugh out loud.

'Can I have one?' Peter asked meekly from beside them.

'No.' Sirius said, holding the pack away from Peter, 'You eat too much already.' he finished, sticking his tongue out at his small, plump friend.

'Ahh just give him one.' James said, taking the packet of beans from Sirius and handing them to Peter, noticing at the same time that Lily had entered the room. He hoped she had seen his 'chivalrous' act. That would make an awesome impression. He winked at her as she passed him and went to sit down with a smile forming on her face.

'Oi!' Sirius said, smacking James over the back of his head, 'I do not appreciate being passed over for a girl.'

'Why not?' James asked, running a hand through his hair in natural reflex, 'You pass us over for girls all the time.'

'Yeah but that's different.' Sirius said, waving the comment away and nodding flirtingly to a couple of Ravenclaw girls who had just entered the room. They giggled giddily at Sirius' affection and took their seats smiling from ear to ear.

'How on earth is that different?' James asked with an exasperated look of question.

'Easy.' Sirius said, flicking his hair back dramatically, 'I am not chasing a dream.'

'All right Sirius. Shut your mouth now.' Remus said, finally returning to his studious self and taking out his wand and charm book ready to start the lesson.

'Yeah.' James said, also taking out his wand and book, 'Or you won't have a mouth to shut.' he threatened with wide-eyed sarcasm.

Sirius laughed. He knew James wasn't serious. He never was when it came to threats against him or his friends. They were always, if you like, friendly threats and always empty. Actually, Sirius would be delighted if James followed through on one of his threats for once but he knew that would never happen. Unless it was a threat against a Slytherin, death eater or Voldemort himself. James looked upon them with vehemence. As did almost everyone else.

James sat up upon noticing the classroom door open, 'Here we go.' He leaned forward on his table as Professor Flitwick entered the room, quiet with anticipation.

The small professor, who was half-goblin, waddled into the room with a pile of books in his hands. He was talking as he entered, but not to the students in the classroom. He was speaking to a quick quotes quill about a third year pupil who had wreaked havoc in his class before them. It was obviously a letter home to the pupil's parents, something which always happened to the marauders. After so many of them though, their parents just ignored them now.

Flitwick reached his desk and, standing on tip-toes, pushed the books onto his tall desk. Many wondered why his desk wasn't tailor made to suit him but nothing ever came of it. So, James, Remus, Sirius and Peter had decided to tailor make Professor Flitwick to suit his desk.

Before Flitwick stood on the pile of books he used to raise himself to look over his desk, he drank the cup of tea that was placed near the edge. He sighed in content when he had finished and clapped his hands together to symbolise readiness to the class. He clambered onto the pile of books and stood up straight.

'All right then class,' he began, 'We are going to continue practicing non-verbal charms. Today I want you to try the summoning charm. If you get it right, it should look like this.' He ended bending down to pick up his wand. Only when he reached down, he was further away from his desk than usual. Looking down at his body, Professor Flitwick suddenly realised that instead of his usual three foot, he was now around five and a half. He blinked a couple of times and looked up at his class, half of which was staring just as stunned as he was, the other half smiling with nodding heads as if in success.

Professor Flitwick narrowed his eyes at the four boys at the back of the room. 'And how long will this last boys?' he asked them with a squeak.

'Just for the day.' Remus said with a yawn as if he was already bored of this.

'Mmm.' Professor Flitwick hummed as if he was annoyed. Truth be told, he found it a rather interesting experience. 'All right class, wands out. Let's start!'

* * *

Professor Pomona Sprout had never been one for relationships. Her first and only love was Herbology and the joy it brought her when she taught her students was indescribable. The greenhouses where she held her classes were her second home and the main castle of Hogwarts was her first. The students in Hufflepuff house were her family, her sons and daughters. The students in Gryffindor and Ravenclaw were like nieces and nephews to her and the Slytherin's were like those distant relatives in your family that you pretend don't exist and try really hard to forget. She loved each and every one of them. Most through choice, some because she was a professor and ethically she wasn't allowed to play favourites. She had never even considered leaving her job to find love.

On April fool's day she was teaching a class of second years, Ravenclaw's and Slytherin's, about the dangers and benefits of mandrakes. They were half way through the class, had just finished re-potting the mandrakes and were now making notes on how to use the mandrake to benefit the wizarding society when the glass door to the green house slammed open, shocking everyone.

Professor Sprout looked up, dirt on her face which had been flung at her by an unhappy mandrake, and saw one of her Gryffindor students, Sirius Black. As it was April fool's day and he was stood in what was obviously trying to be a heroic pose, she could only assume that he was here to wreak havoc. She sighed and clapped the dirt off her hands, reluctantly letting whatever silliness he was about to release to happen. It was the quicker and less painful option, (hopefully).

'Pomona Sprout,' Sirius said in a booming voice and stepping into the room with a swagger, 'I Sirius Black do hereby declare my love for you and propose that we run away together. As our love is forbidden, I believe it is the only logical solution.'

There were giggles from around the room from some of the girls and some snorts of laughter from the boys. Sirius looked around the class and smiled at everyone, knowing in his heart that they all thought he was cool. And if anyone told him otherwise he would die.

'Not so fast!' James said as he appeared in the back of the classroom.

Professor Sprout blinked at James at the end of the green house. There were no doors at the back. The only way in was through the door that Sirius came through. As she didn't see him enter she had to assume that he had been in the greenhouse before her class started. That thought was kind of creepy but she did have to commend his commitment to this slightly lame and familiar charade.

James walked forwards, speaking in a hushed tone. 'Was it all a lie Pomona?' he asked his Herbology Professor, a very dramatic fashion, 'All those days in the greenhouse? Was it only me who believed they were special? You have to tell me Pomona. Do you choose me or this chump with the bad hair do?'

'Hey!' Sirius said, dropping character as James insulted his locks. 'That's not what we agreed to!'

'Sorry.' James replied, also dropping character and turning to his best friend, 'I was just feeling the moment.'

'Well you felt wrong.' Sirius whispered.

James hung his head. He should have known better than to insult Sirius' hair. He was never going to get over this. 'I'll do it again then.' James said with a sigh and a roll of his eyes. 'Pomona,' he said, attempting a smouldering look as he turned to Professor Sprout, 'Do you choose me or this idiot who obviously loves his hair more than you?'

'Neither!' came another voice from the back of the room.

Professor Sprout looked to the back of the room again to see Remus Lupin, the sensible one of the group, the prefect, standing at the back of the room with an odd mandrake shaped hat on. He had been hiding in the green house dressed as a mandrake. That was rather odd. Professor Sprout rolled her eyes and sighed, wondering how long this was going to take.

'She chooses me.' Remus said, jumping up onto the long table that ran the length of the greenhouse. 'We didn't want to hurt your feelings so we didn't tell you. We have planned to run away together tonight but I guess there's no point putting it off any longer.' Remus jumped down onto the floor, the girls behind him marvelling at his athletic stance and other rear features. Remus walked forwards and held out a hand to Professor Sprout. 'Are you ready my dear?' he said with dramatic emphasis and pauses.

Professor Sprout looked at the three boys jokingly vying for her affections and shook her head. Playing along, she said in a monotone, 'Wait. Let me get my suitcase.'

'Pomona please!' Sirius said, falling to his knees in front of Professor Sprout much to the amusement of the Herbology class which was still watching with delight. 'Give me another chance!' Sirius continued with a false voice which suggested crying, 'I can change! I am nothing without you!'

'That's true.' James said with a nod of his head, 'And as hard as this is for me, now I know that he really cares for you and…he really cares for you,' he said, gesturing to his two friends and trying to figure out if his repetition would have confused anyone else but himself, 'I hereby give up any claim I have to you.'

'Claim?' Professor Sprout blinked.

'Don't make this harder than it needs to be, Pomona.' James said hanging his head, placing a placating hand on Professor Sprouts shoulder, 'Life must move on and so must we. Personally, I am moving on to this beautiful young maiden just here.' James finished, jumping onto the table just as Remus had moments before. He walked the length of the table, every girl hoping that the beautiful young maiden was them. They did get a massive shock when they found out who James offered a hand to and pulled up onto the table.

It was Peter in a wig and a dress. The class laughed as the short plump boy was led down the table by James. They laughed even harder when they saw Peter stumble and fall off of the table after James' fluent jump. James helped him up to his feet and rearranged his wig which had fallen over his face.

'I'm sorry Pomona.' James said hanging his head and putting his arm around a very embarrassed Peter. 'I think it's just better this way.'

'Ok.' Professor Sprout said, indulging in their little performance.

'It's only best.' James nodded, 'Now you won't have the pain of letting these two down when you chose me. Now you must choose between them alone.'

Sirius and Remus stepped forwards, one on either side of Professor Sprout. They both dropped to their knees and took on of Professor Sprouts hands in one of their own, the other on their hearts. They mirrored each other in every possible way much to the amusement of the Herbology class. Whilst they were kneeling down, James went to find himself a seat and, as there were none available, he took one from a Ravenclaw girl. She didn't mind however as she soon became the envy of all the other girls as James pulled her back to sit on his lap and wrapped his arms around her waist to hold her in place. He was going to leave her without a seat and she really didn't mind. She was blushing furiously and grinning to all her friends. James didn't notice the effect his simple move had had on her and he continued to watch his friends in front of them.

'Pomona my dear, you must choose me.' Sirius said with urgency, tugging at his Herbology teacher's hand, 'I know that our love is forbidden but you have to give us a chance.'

'No Pomona!' Remus said, tugging Professor Sprout hand towards him along with her attention, 'Deep down you know I am better for you than he is! What could you get from someone who loves his hair more than you?'

'Hey!' Sirius said standing up, 'I don't know what this sudden attack against my hair is all about but can we please stop it? We didn't practice it this!' he pouted folding his arms.

Remus shook his head and stood up, putting his hand on his hips. He lost all focus in his character and talked solely to Sirius. 'Why does it always come back to your hair?' he whispered fiercely.

'Why do you always attack my hair?' Sirius whined silently to Remus who was still shaking his head in exasperation.

'Technically I didn't attack it I just insulted it.' Remus sighed, folding his arms and looking up in despair. He would never understand why Sirius had this odd fixation on his hair.

'Still, it's just a bit too far.' Sirius moaned, pulling at his locks with both hands, just like many of the girls in the Herbology class they had interrupted were doing right now. They would have continued with their little fight about Remus insulting Sirius' hair for ages as Sirius wouldn't have let the topic go easily, if it had not been for Professor Sprout stopping it once and for all. She was realising that they may not leave for a while and she still had some important facts about mandrakes and their uses in society that she needed to tell her class.

'All right.' Professor Sprout said, cutting across what she was sure to be another thrilling statement about Sirius Black's hair, 'Don't mean to spoil your fun,' she continued to groans from her class, 'but I am teaching a lesson here. I choose none of you so please leave and I do believe you have pulled this stunt or similar before.'

James moved the girl of his knee and sat her back down, blushing and giggling to her friends, and walked over to Remus and Sirius being followed by Peter. Remus and Sirius looked at James in confusion, much the same way that he was looking at them. They had a silent conversation before arriving at one question.

'When did we do this before?' James asked Professor Sprout with one eyebrow raised.

'To Professor McGonagall a couple of months ago.' She replied with her hands on her hips.

'Oh yeah!' Remus said in realisation, clicking his fingers at the same time and turning to his three friends, 'You know we did do something similar.'

Sirius and James nodded their heads in agreement. Peter played with the wig he had on which had been causing him to itch like crazy. Why wizards couldn't create a wig that didn't itch was beyond him. They could do everything else, even heal the common cold, but a comfortable wig was obviously just too big of a stretch.

'We have to start writing down what we do.' James said as the group prepared to leave.

'That might be wise.' Sirius replied making his way towards the door, walking beside James with Remus and Peter behind them.

'Sorry folks. Continue with your lesson!' Remus said when he reached the door. He gave a wave to the second years and said, 'Remember, mandrakes are very important!'

'But don't eat them!' James added as he dragged Peter out of the green house after him and Remus.

'Yeah.' Sirius continued, 'They don't taste very good.' he finished, rubbing his stomach before leaving with the rest of the marauders and allowing Professor Sprout to continue with her lesson.

Yes, Professor Pomona Sprout had never been one for relationships and after all this, she was glad for it.

* * *

It was lunch time and the whole of the school was in the great hall stuffing their faces with all they could as, for some unknown reason that nobody could figure out, breakfast hadn't been seen this morning. What they didn't know was James, Remus, Sirius and Peter had somehow convinced Dumbledore to remove the House elves from the kitchen for the morning shift. How they had done that though, even they didn't know. They guessed that Dumbledore was just intrigued as to what they were going to do. This was all to be revealed at lunch.

The marauders sat in their usual place along the Gryffindor table, in the middle. They were all eating the food that had appeared on their table, prepared by the house elves, with ease. They didn't notice Dumbledore watching them, wondering what they had done. Neither did anyone else.

'Did you know that in some places its bad luck to pull an April fool's trick after midday?' Remus said to his friends as he ate a sandwich that was sat on his plate.

'Really?' James questioned, choosing his lunch carefully. He had no idea what he wanted to eat. He didn't want a sandwich. Maybe a sausage roll? He reached out and took one off the mound of them on a platter in the middle of the table. He sniffed it and wrinkled his nose. Maybe not. He put it back and reached out for a pork pie. Maybe that would tickle his fancy.

'…but that mostly happens in muggle towns.' Remus finished, not noticing that James had begun to ignore him to choose his food.

'So are we going to get bad luck?' Peter asked, reaching for the sausage roll that James had sniffed and returned to the plate. He gobbled it down quickly and reached for another, waiting for a reply from Remus.

'Nah we'll be fine.' Remus said, 'Technically this isn't a trick it's just a bit of fun.' he whispered to ensure that no-one overheard them.

'Ok.' Peter replied, fully believing Remus as a wide-eyed school boy would do. He looked at his friend with shining eyes. He wouldn't lie to him. Their friendship group was built on the deepest level of mutual trust.

'You know…' Sirius started to speak, spraying bits of flaky pastry out of his mouth and across the table.

James, Remus and Peter all looked to him, waiting patiently for whatever nonsense he was about to spout out. They looked at him for a steady couple of minutes before he noticed that they were looking at him.

'What?' he asked, his mouth full of Remus' sandwich.

James and Remus looked at each other in joint confusion. They had a silent conversation, ignoring Peter, to determine who was going to ask Sirius what on earth he was on about. Remus lost.

'You said, 'you know'.' he stated, giving Sirius a questioning look which mirrored James' who sat beside him.

Sirius stopped eating, a big feat for him, and leant forwards. He looked side to side to see who was listening before saying, 'What do I know?' with curiosity.

Remus turned to James, who had raised an eyebrow at Sirius, and asked him, 'Why do we hang out with him?'

James sighed and shook his head at a loss. 'He's good for a laugh?' he said, not particularly sure himself. 'Just be thankful that when school is over, you can get away from him. He follows _me_ home.' he finished, picking up another pork pie and wolfing it down.

Remus laughed and returned to his lunch. Beside him, Peter was tittering feebly as a way to fit in, copying Remus in every aspect. In synchronisation, they ate a couple of sandwiches waiting for their April fools fun to start.

It started at the Hufflepuff table after five minutes. Everything was normal then suddenly, a sonic sound burst its way through the hall in the form of a hiccough. It was unlike anything anyone had heard in the great hall before and it had struck silence. Everyone turned to the Hufflepuff table, to the girl who had just hiccoughed, and stared at her for a few seconds until she hiccoughed again. This time, bursting forth from her lips, a single bubble floated up into the air. It travelled up a few feet before popping and sprinkling yellow confetti down onto the girl it had come from. She looked shocked and had her hand to her mouth. People would have begun to laugh and move on if that was it, but it wasn't.

Within seconds, the same thing happened over at the Slytherin table. Three solitary bubbles rose from the echoing hiccoughs three feet above the table belonging to the most hated house in Hogwarts and popped. Then, almost spontaneously in turn, the three bubbles popped, green confetti bursting forth from each one. There was a pause. Tangible and silent. If someone was counting down from five, it would have made it even more anticipated, as five seconds later, the great hall was alive with bangs, pops and explosions galore.

Bubbles rose in the air and a mix of green, red, yellow and blue confetti rained down on each table as they popped. People were hiccoughing bubbles for five minutes before they stopped. They were all in the clear for just a few minutes before half of them started again. They would have been fine if they hadn't taken a sip of their pumpkin juice to clear their throats, but, (as Dumbledore would say) alas, they did. After the third time this happened, the pupils of Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry learnt from their mistakes and stopped drinking the pumpkin juice.

Unfortunately, the teachers didn't learn. They had assumed that, as they hadn't been hiccoughing bubbles, their pumpkin juice hadn't been spiked by the marauders. They were half right. The marauders hadn't spiked their drinks with hiccoughing solution… It was fate really. They had bought too much the other night and this was just a coincidental opportunity that presented itself just in time. After all they weren't breaking any laws. Their professors were allowed to drink firewhisky after all.

* * *

April fool's day was over and had been for three days but some people were still hiccoughing bubbles. Plus, Hagrid was still recovering from all of the spiked pumpkin juice he had drunk. When the teachers had realised that their drinks were spiked, they all stopped drinking, Hagrid however, took it upon himself to drink everybody else's spiked juice. 'Don't want the kids teh drink this stuff' he said in way of explanation. As he was a half giant, it took a lot to give him a hangover, so you could imagine how much he would have needed to drink to become that intoxicated that it took him three days to recover.

The sixth year students however, were starting to forget it as was their third from last apparition lesson and, for the first time, they were going outside to take the class instead of being cooped up in the great hall. They were so excited. Soon, nearly all of them would be qualified to take their apparition test and then they could apparate anywhere they wanted. Some had high aspirations for this skill. They wanted to apparate across seas and oceans to foreign countries. Others were just happy that they would be able to apparate from upstairs to downstairs in their own homes. It didn't get more exciting than that.

Lily and Hestia were upstairs in their dormitory getting ready. Actually, Lily was upstairs waiting for Hestia to get ready. She was trying to pick out a top but just couldn't make up her mind.

'Go with the red one.' Lily said in a monotone, reading a book. She had started reading it as soon as she had finished getting changed and had begun waiting for Hestia. She was now on chapter six.

'Does it clash with my hair though?' Hestia asked, holding the red top up to her and posing to Lily.

Lily didn't even bother to look up from her book. 'You have brown hair Hestia, nothing clashes with it.' She sighed, turning the page in her book over to the start of chapter seven, 'I mean it's not like you have pink hair.'

Hestia stopped in front of the mirror and brought down the red top she had been holding against herself. 'Mmm,' she pondered, 'How do you think I would I look with pink hair?' she asked, leaning forwards into the mirror and tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

'Awful.' Lily said plainly, turning over yet another page in her book. She read quickly.

Hestia turned to her friend slowly with sarcastically narrowed eyes. 'Gee,' she began, 'it's nice to know I have the support of my best friend.'

'Hestia, you will always have my full support as long as you don't dye your hair pink.' Lily said with exasperation.

'All right I get it.' Hestia mumbled as she put on her red top and tossed the other one she had been holding onto her bed, 'There I'm ready. Happy?' she asked with her hands on her hips.

'Is your hair still brown?' she asked with no expression, not even glancing up at Hestia.

'Yes.' Hestia smiled, walking over to Lily and snatching the book off of her, 'Now let's go!' she laughed, putting Lily's book onto her bedside table and pulling her up.

They left their dormitory and met Alice, Emmeline and Frank in the common room; a nice but unexpected surprise. They all walked down to the entrance hall together, being forced to listen to Alice and Frank's tales of their relationship so far. They were sweet until they reached the second floor. Then they just became annoying. Lily was sure it would be different if she was the one telling the stories but, as she wasn't, they just became irritating and it was a welcome relief when they reached the entrance hall.

The whole of the sixth year of Hogwarts was crowded excitedly near the huge double doors which led to the grounds. The level of noise was deafening as it always was when you gathered a group of teenagers, any teenagers, in a room together. They'd all be having their own private conversations and, as others were talking around them, they'd begin to talk louder over the top of the noise. The vicious circle continued until the noise was unbearable.

The girls and Frank made their way to the front of the crowd to stand in front of Professor McGonagall and Wilkie Twycross; their apparition instructor. Wilkie attempted to call for silence across the babbling mass of student three times but was unsuccessful each time. Eventually, at a loss, the wispy wizard turned to McGonagall at a loss. Professor McGonagall simply rolled her eyes at yet another person's inadequacy to control a group of sixteen to seventeen year olds, and cleared her throat. The silence that fell was almost instantaneous with every student turning to face the harsh, Scottish witch.

'Right.' Twycross squeaked, rising up on his tip-toes as he addressed the students, 'Please grab a hoop from the side and spread yourselves out across the grounds in the left courtyard. We will start in ten minutes.'

No sooner had Wilkie Twycross stopped speaking the sixth year students rushed forwards, all determined to grab the best hoop, with the least splinters in it and the best bit of space in the courtyard. Everyone pushed and shoved and, unwittingly, grouped themselves into their houses across the courtyard. The Slytherin's were at the very back, the Hufflepuff's before them, Gryffindor's in front of them and the Ravenclaw's closest to where Wilkie Twycross would be stood to take the class. Unfortunately, this meant that all of the other houses had to make their way through the crowds of Slytherin's before they could settle into a spot.

'Keep walking short stack!' Bellatrix hissed at a Ravenclaw lad as he walked by considering where to place his hoop.

'He's taller than you Bellatrix.' Severus snapped as he tossed his own hoop onto the ground in front of him.

'You can shut up!' she barked at him huffily before turning away from him.

Severus rolled his eyes and turned away from her too, his eyes instantly drawn to a cascade of deep, red hair blowing in the wind freely. He followed Lily with his eyes. She was walking with her friends over towards the group of Gryffindor's about seven or so lines in front of him. She walked with grace and poise and Severus couldn't help but to let his mind wander to a less than respectable place with less than respectable thoughts about her. It was, however, brought crashing back down to earth when he saw that she had walked over to the marauders, the group of boys he absolutely detested, and that the boy he loathed most of all, James Potter, had put his arm around her in welcome. Admittedly, five seconds later he had removed it but still, even though he had no right, it was still the longest five seconds of his life.

'Why do we have to take these lessons?' Bellatrix ranted to Avery and Severus.

'Because we need to apparate.' Avery replied folding his arms and looking around him moodily, hating everyone and everything.

'But why can't he teach us?' Bellatrix whispered, her eyes lighting up in a way they had never done before as she spoke of their dark master. 'Why do we have to be taught by that sorry excuse for a wizard?' she continued, indicating with disgust at Wilkie Twycross who was now making his way across the sea of students.

'Do you really think he has the time?' Severus asked her with a sneer, 'He has better things, more important things to do than teach us how to apparate.'

'He would make time for his loyal subjects.' Bellatrix insisted through harsh, gritted teeth.

'Not for this.' Severus replied, not really paying attention to her anymore so, when she came at him, it was a bit of a shock.

'How dare you!?' she raged, being held back from Severus by Avery. She was attracting a few stares so Avery shoved her backwards and went to stand just in front of Severus in a way of caution.

Severus however, walked forwards to Bellatrix and grabbed her arm roughly so she couldn't move. He then leant forwards to whisper in her ear with a menacing tone. 'Do you really think the Dark Lord has time to teach us how to apparate? He has more important things to do. We have to learn from this idiot because it is the only option available to us. The apparition test is something that the Dark Lord takes seriously. He won't send us out for assignments if we don't have it. Would you really want him to be the one to come and bail you out when you've splinched yourself because you didn't pay attention to the class and you didn't pass your test? You would disgrace yourself in front of him and put him at risk or, what's worse, you could even just disgrace him. So, if you don't want this to happen, I suggest you shut your mouth and get on with the damn class!' he finished, his voice rising from a whisper at the end to usual volume. When he had finished speaking, he threw her arm back to her, unbalancing her slightly and walking away.

He stood in front of his hoop with a scowl plastered across his face. He didn't have the time or patience for her. She had been getting on his last nerve for weeks. All he wanted to do now was learn to apparate so that he could leave this school and the memories he had tried so hard to forget.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	35. Chapter 34

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter Thirty-Four!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Thirty-Four**

Lily was sat in the library revising for the upcoming exams. They were nearing the end of April in just a few days which meant that there was only one and a bit months until their end of year exams were upon them. For Lily, this meant only one thing; study, study, study! She had set up camp in the library with all of her text books, an endless supply of quills, parchment and ink, along with all of the notes she had taken in class over the past year and a snack box hidden under the table. (You weren't technically allowed to eat in the library) Everything was neatly organised across one desk which she was hogging to herself. She would have been well away and ready to knuckle down and study if she had not seen a rather odd sight a few tables away.

She attempted to ignore it and carry on studying. She opened her ancient runes text book and began to summarise chapter seven. _In the study of ancient runes, numbers one to nine are commonly represented by animals or magical creatures, _she wrote neatly across a fresh piece of parchment before she needed to top up the ink in her quill. It was the one of the things she didn't particularly care for in the wizarding world. Their quills ran out of ink so quickly unlike muggle pens which could keep writing for ages, (as long you bought the right one of course). Unfortunately though, Lily didn't have a pen from the muggle world and so she had to make do with refilling her ink after every sentence.

She was able to continue with her studies for five minutes more, (suspecting that she could have continued for longer if she'd had a muggle pen), before she became distracted again. She tried to resist but couldn't help but keep glancing over to the odd sight a few tables away in the library. She shook her head and put her head in her hands trying to fight the temptation. She sat in this position for only a few seconds before she could take it no more. Her curiosity had once again gotten the better of her again and she just had to find out what was going on.

Standing up, Lily walked over to the odd sight, three tables away from her and confronted it, saying, 'You have holes in your socks.'

James looked up to see Lily standing over him with raised eyebrows. He looked at his feet. 'So I do.' he said, not particularly caring.

Lily sighed. What was he doing? He was in the library for goodness sakes and, sitting upside down on one of the chairs with his feet in the air, wasn't really acceptable behaviour. It was distracting her from her studies. She had no idea if it was distracting anyone else but it was bothering her. Especially as he had holes in his socks. 'What exactly are you doing?' she asked his feet as he hadn't bothered to turn the right way up yet.

'Thinking.' James said simply, wriggling his toes.

Lily had no idea how the way he was sitting, (if you could call it that), wasn't hurting him by now. It looked most uncomfortable. His head was lolling off of the chair along with part of his back so that it was arched over the edge. Strangely, his face hadn't gone red from the blood that was sure to be rushing to his head. He was then at a ninety degree angle with his back and legs. Lily was sure that the wooden chair should have started to hurt him by now.

'Why are you thinking upside down?' Lily asked him with a quizzical expression.

'Isn't that kind of obvious?' James replied with an odd upside down shrug.

Lily looked around the library to see if anybody else was as confused by James location and position. Some of the girls in the library were curious but, as Lily was there didn't dare go to investigate. Instead they stared wistfully at James' feet whilst glaring intensely at Lily for talking to them. Lily shook her head in confusion at this and blinked. 'No.' she said to James' feet.

'Well,' James began with a sigh at having to explain his situation, 'by thinking upside down, all my thoughts end up in my head.'

'As appose to your kneecaps?' Lily asked sarcastically at a bit of a loss, a smile spreading across her face.

James turned his head to look at Lily with a look of exasperation written across his face. 'Mock all you like, it works.' he said.

'I'm sure it does.' Lily said indulgently, patting James on his feet. She sat down on the seat next to him, still curious about what James was doing. Her studying wasn't going to move forwards until she found out. 'So what exactly are you thinking about?' she asked him, using the term thinking loosely as she wasn't sure that anyone who decided to think upside down so their thoughts would end up in their head, was all quite there. She tried to ignore the glares she was receiving.

'What to do.' James said succinctly, humming wonderingly and taking his hand up to his chin, stroking it in thought.

'Here's an idea; study.' Lily said as if it was obvious and to her it was. Plus, if he started to study it would leave her curiosity satisfied and she would no longer be distracted by what he was doing. Or what he wasn't doing.

James looked at Lily and blinked once before laughing out loud as if her idea was too hilarious to bear. 'Don't be silly.' he smiled, his laughing causing him to be shushed by Madam Pince.

Lily smiled and laughed breathlessly, being infected by James' laughter. She shook her head and licked her lips with wide eyes and raised eyebrows. She should have known better really. James didn't study. It was kind of annoying really. In past years, when she had despised and loathed him, this was one particular aspect of him that really bothered her. Now they were friends, it still really bothered her. Whereas she kept on top of her studies, homework and always turned up to class and did the work they were set, James did not and he still reached levels that could rival hers. It wasn't like she _desperately _needed to study she just wanted to give herself the best possible chance of succeeding in the wizarding world. It was hard enough being muggleborn, she didn't want to leave employers any margin to reject her. Technically, she could do the same thing as James and not bother with her revision, but Lily took pride in her school work and didn't want to leave any room for error. James on the other hand, didn't care.

'So,' Lily began, thinking that if she could solve James' boredom problem she could probably get back to work without being distracted, 'do you know what you want to do.'

James thought for a moment before saying, 'Quidditch.'

Lily nodded her head. She saw a simple solution here. 'Then go play Quidditch.' she said.

'It's not that simple.' James replied, finally turning the right way up with ease and sitting properly to face Lily like a normal person, placing his arm around the back of her chair, 'I can't play Quidditch on my own. The smallest game I could possibly play would be two-aside and as Remus doesn't play Quidditch, that only leaves me and Sirius.'

Lily thought for a moment. 'Well, what about Pettigrew?' she suggested.

James just laughed again in response as he had done for her suggestion to study.

Lily waited for him to finish, drawing circles on the desk with her finger as she did. 'Ok.' she said eventually as a way to shut him up. It was clear that he wasn't going to stop laughing by himself anytime soon. 'Well I'm sure Hestia would play with you.' Lily shrugged, going for one last contribution and hoping that it wouldn't receive the laughing response she had previously gotten.

'That's an idea.' James said with a slight smile and a nod. 'We just need a fourth.' he continued as he looked around the library for anyone who might be interested.

Lily followed his gaze as he stopped on several people. Some of them she thought were real contenders. He had hand-picked them for the recently victorious Gryffindor Quidditch team so Lily believed that he wouldn't mind playing with them. However, he simply looked at them thoughtfully and moved on, passing them over quickly. Lily sat for five minutes in silence whilst following James' selection process. She began to think that he was never going to choose someone and return to his upside down thinking pose when she saw him nod his head. She looked up with a smile believing that she would now be able to continue with her studies. Then she saw who he was nodding at, who he had chosen; Gwenog Jones. Her smile dropped.

Now Lily had no real problem with Gwenog Jones. She was a nice girl a year above them whom she knew was going to pursue a career in professional Quidditch. In that respect, she was the perfect choice for this two-aside game that James wanted to play to cure his boredom, but, as soon as James' gaze landed on her, alarm bells went off in Lily's head. A small green monster started to growl in her stomach and her memory flashed back to that one Quidditch match, before she had even realised that she liked James, and he and Gwenog Jones had shared what Lily had dubbed a long 'smiling session'. From this, Lily suspected that Gwenog quite liked James in the same way that she did and as long as she was to pursue a career in Quidditch, she was sure that James wouldn't be too opposed to her either. They had more in common than she did with him.

Through her thoughts, she hadn't noticed James stand up and begin to make his way over to Gwenog, the only person she considered to pose a threat to any future relationship she and James might possibly have, no matter how slim of a chance that may be. As soon as she had realised he had left, she got to her feet and rushed in in front of him to try and convince him otherwise. When she stopped him, she put her hands on his chest but upon him looking down at them with raised eyebrows, she removed them slowly not noticing that he had smiled as she did so.

'What, err, what are you doing?' she asked him, attempting to be casual but failing miserably as she folded her arms, her hand tingling.

'Isn't that kind of obvious?' James said, 'I'm asking Gwenog to come and play with us. She's good at Quidditch and I'm sure Jones, your Jones, not that Jones, wouldn't mind playing with her.' he finished as he side stepped around Lily and continued on his way towards Gwenog.

Lily looked down, once again not realising he had gone and said, 'That's true, she would.' She then looked up to see that he had left and looked around in desperation realising that her chances of stopping James asking Gwenog to play were disappearing until they weren't even minimal anymore. Sighing Lily turned around and followed him. She knew it was crazy to be so paranoid. At least if she was there with him she would know what was said and wouldn't make herself crazy wondering.

When she approached them, they were already in mid conversation. Gwenog was brushing her cheek with the quill she'd been using for her studies and James was leaning on her table saying, '…just a friendly game. You and Jones, the other Jones, not you Jones but Jones from my team, against me and Sirius. What do you say?'

Lily watched Gwenog's face for a reaction. She was pondering it for a long time, all the while still brushing her cheek with her quill. Lily was sure that as Gwenog and James looked into each other's eyes that she was trying to flirt silently. It made the little green monster in Lily's stomach very annoyed and impatient. _Just answer! _Lily shouted in her head, hoping in some small corner of her mind that Gwenog Jones would say no. She didn't.

'Ok.' Gwenog shrugged, standing up and gathering her things together, 'I think I can take twenty minutes out of my schedule to beat you at Quidditch one more time.'

'Err…I think you'll find I beat you last time!' James smiled standing up straight and looking at Gwenog with an extremely cocky expression, similar to the one of his previous years.

'All right then. Ten minutes.' Gwenog replied placing a hand on James' shoulder, 'Then we'll correct that.' she whispered into his ear, patting his shoulder twice and walking away.

There was a moment of silence as Lily and James looked at each other. James smiled and raised his eyebrows once. Lily didn't smile. Lily was thinking fast and before James could say anything to her she said, 'Better go get Hestia. See you in ten minutes!' and ran out of the library being sternly told of by Madam Pince on her way for running.

She had left behind her all of her meticulously organised study materials. Her books, notes, quills, spare pieces of parchment and her hidden snack box had all been left in the library along with an extremely flummoxed James. But at the minute she wasn't particularly thinking about any of these things. She just needed to get to Hestia. She sped down the corridors at breakneck speed and whipped up a couple of staircases, not even considering that they could possibly move, (luckily for her they didn't), and up to the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. After shouting the password to a disgruntled Fat Lady, she dashed into the main room, saw Hestia wasn't there and hurried up to their dormitory to find Hestia painting her nails.

'Hestia!' she said, stating the obvious upon seeing her friend, panting as she had just run the length of about three floors and a couple of staircases on her journey up to the Gryffindor tower.

'Yeees?' Hestia asked, not looking up or even taking notice of Lily's breathlessness.

'I need you to do me a favour.' she said, walking further into the room and flopping down next to Hestia on her bed.

'Anything.' Hestia replied.

'Go play Quidditch with James and Black.' Lily said.

'Anything but that.' she answered, not looking up at her best friend or even messing up her nail polish as Lily sat on her bed. She was a pro at painting her nails.

'What?' Lily sighed at a loss, 'But you love Quidditch.'

'But I hate Black.' Hestia retaliated, finally glancing at Lily for the first time since she entered the room. 'Why do you want me to play Quidditch with them?' she asked curiously, putting the lid on her nail varnish and putting it on her bedside table. She then began to blow across her nails to dry them.

'Well because I was in the library and that's a really nice colour.' Lily said, deterring from what she was originally going to say upon noticing Hestia's freshly painted nails. She took a long hard look at the nail varnish with confusion written over her face. Any nail polish that Hestia owned, Lily had bought her from the muggle world. Now Lily's memory was fantastic but she couldn't for the life of her remember buying Hestia this one. 'Did I get you that?' Lily asked, pointing a finger at the bottle on the table.

'Technically yes but I changed the colour.' Hestia answered, beginning to blow across the nails on her other hand. 'You were saying?' she reminded Lily, wanting to know what had gotten her so worked up. Lily was weird when she was worked up. She often went off on tangents and tended to ramble. She tended to ramble a lot.

'Right yeah!' Lily said, shaking her head slightly as she tried to remember what she was saying. She spoke very fast without taking a breath. 'So I was in the library and James was upside down so I asked him, 'why are you upside down?' and he said because he was thinking and his thoughts were in his head and he had holes in his socks and-'

'Point Lily?' Hestia asked as Lily began to ramble, making no sense at all.

'Right. Point.' Lily nodded, looking at her watch and realising that they had only five minutes to get to the Quidditch pitch. 'Well, he was bored and I suggested that he go and play Quidditch with Black and you, but he still needed a fourth, so he spotted Gwenog Jones and asked her, and I swear that she likes him and now I need you to go and play Quidditch with them to make sure that nothing happens.'

'So,' Hestia said, sitting up carefully to make sure that her freshly painted nails weren't ruined, 'I'll be playing with Gwenog Jones? On her team? Wow Lily, you should have led with that.'

Lily deflated a bit, a sad expression creeping slowly across her face. 'Is that what you're taking from this.' she whined to Hestia with a puppy dog pout.

'No of course not.' Hestia said, standing up off her bed and grabbing her broom from the wall next to her bedside table. 'You are worried that Gwenog Jones likes Potter and Potter might return her affections and you want me to spy on them. None of that's true however. Gwenog Jones doesn't like Potter and Potter obviously likes you and you…well you're just a little bit paranoid. But, if it will calm your jealousy, I'll spy on them for you.' Hestia said nonchalantly as she gathered together her Quidditch gear, finally leaving the room after her last sentence.

Lily sat on Hestia bed for a couple of seconds. 'I am not jealous!' she said, standing up as well and following Hestia out of the room, 'I'm possibly paranoid, but I'm not jealous!'

* * *

Severus was sat at one of the many dark, heavy tables in the Slytherin common room. He was reading his potions book and adding his own annotations. They were mostly little tips and tricks which would speed up the process of the brewing. He had written things such as 'stir anti-clockwise every seven stirs' or 'crush instead of cut the bean'. Apart from that, he scribbled down spells that he had invented himself in the margins. There were a few that he had invented in previous years such as _levicorpus _which he created in his fourth year. He kind of regretted that one because as soon as it became publically known its most common use was against him. But at the minute, he was recording his most recent creation; _sectumsempra._

It was the spell he used a few months back on Avery during their potions class. However, when he had first cast it, it was a non-verbal mess. He had been working on it ever since, trying to replicate the damage he had done. He had been testing out different combinations of what he believed was his original wording, (he couldn't be certain as he could hardly remember), and had constantly come up blank. Nothing was happening to the pumpkins he had been using as test subjects. He had been hiding them a little ways into the forbidden forest for safe keeping. Unfortunately he hadn't counted on crows finding them and so, he had to move on to new test subjects. As the crows were already there, he decided to use them.

For weeks he had tried to curse the poor little black birds without causing so much as a scratch of damage on their wings. Then a couple of days ago, he had made a giant leap forwards. Yes, originally, it had been a non-verbal spell but it had also been a spur of the moment mess of words. However, when he tried the spell out loud it was twice as effective and the crow in front of him was soon covered in deep cuts, bleeding to death. He had finally perfected the spell he had accidentally made and was now so proud of. He believed that it would come in handy over the summer.

He didn't want to spend another year waiting to become a fully-fledged death eater with the brand upon his arm. He wanted to have it all now. He hated waiting. It was the worst part, so the sooner he got it over and done with, (and by it he meant disposing of someone with either impure magical blood or plain muggle blood), the sooner his dark dreams would be possible. He had decided to use his own spell, untraceable by the ministry and, best of all, not unforgivably illegal. He planned to dispose of a muggle. With the wounds that his spell caused, it wouldn't be obvious that it was linked to magic. They could all be reasonably linked to a muggle attack. Plus, as he lived in a muggle area, it would be easy to locate a vulnerable target. He was going to do it as soon as he arrived home for the summer. That was his plan in its entirety and, sickeningly, he couldn't wait.

He had just finished scrawling his new spell, proudly in the margins of his book when Avery, Mulciber and Wilkes came to sit near him, bearing the Daily Prophet proudly in their hands.

'Have you seen?' Avery whispered excitedly as soon as he and his three fellow Slytherin's reached Severus at the large table he was sat at. He shoved the paper in font of Severus' nose, pointing to the article on page four.

Severus skimmed over the title and the words below. He threw it forwards on to the table after he had read it, unimpressed. 'And?' he asked.

'Don't you get it?' Avery said, sitting down in the open chair next to Severus. He leant forwards onto the table. Wilkes and Mulciber followed his lead.

'What?' Severus said through tight lips, closing his book so none of his fellow Slytherin's could see the secrets he had scribbled down. He looked at them impatiently for an answer, no expression that suggested that he was even remotely pleased to see them even though they were the only thing he had which could be put under the heading of 'friend'.

'This means he's stopped recruiting.' Wilkes said, pulling the paper towards him in a bored fashion.

Severus wondered if Wilkes even wanted to be a death eater. He took everything so casually and never seemed enthralled with the idea. 'How does this,' Severus began, snatching the paper off of him and pointing to the article in question, 'show that the Dark Lord has stopped recruiting?'

'Well,' Mulciber said, now putting his two cents in to ensure that he wasn't left out of this conversation, 'before, any attacks that happened were all for the purpose of finding people who supported his cause and wanted play their part. The Hogsmeade attack, he wanted the shop owners and possibly other students. The St Mungo's attack, he was trying to reach the ward where the werewolves are kept and some of the healers. He's been out finding giants and vampires and any other magical beings that wanted to help the cause. But now,' Mulciber paused, an evil smile spreading across his face, 'now we start getting down to the real business.'

'Exactly!' Avery exclaimed in a hushed tone, a malicious smile on his face, the mirror image of Mulciber on his right.

'So now,' Severus started, gulping before he said his next sentence, 'now we start disposing of dirty blood. The mudbloods?'

'Precisely.' Mulciber smiled.

'Of course,' Wilkes said, adding his own part to the conversation in his uninterested manner that the group of Slytherin's he hung around with had become so used too, 'he won't stop recruiting. He'll still be gathering up those who want to help. Those who he believes have potential or are too valuable to kill. It just won't be his main priority now. Now he'll try and instate what should be in the law already. Thin the herd as it were. Lessen the crowd. Minimise the-'

'I get it!' Severus snapped, cutting Wilkes' monotone off. He was bugging him now.

'Fine.' Wilkes retorted, still no expression seeping through his voice.

'The point is things are happening.' Avery said maliciously, a smile creeping across his evil face, his eyes darkening 'For real.'

* * *

Later that evening, James and Lily were down in the dungeons finally finishing the Felix Felicis Potion that they had been set to make earlier that year. They were sat in silence as they made it, Lily making no attempt to create a conversation and James too unsure as to why Lily looked mad to create one either. So, for the first time since they had started their regular potion making sessions, they were only doing the work they were set instead of talking.

James looked at Lily curiously. She was carefully grating a unicorn horn and was frowning as she did so. Technically, she was the only one making any real contribution to the potion at this precise moment in time. James was just sat watching her. He couldn't actually tell if Lily was mad at him or at something else. Usually, in past years when she was mad at him, she'd call him names and glare at him a lot. She was doing nothing of the sort now, but as their relationship had advanced from Lily tolerating James and James annoying Lily to her wits end, to an actual state of friendship, James wondered whether her tactics had changed too. Maybe now, instead of making it obvious she was mad at him, she had decided to take a less direct approach and just ignore him. James didn't know which was worse. Knowing or wondering what he had done to upset her.

Leaning forwards in his chair, James thought through the day and all of his interactions with Lily to see if he could remember doing anything to annoy her. Nothing sprang to mind. They had been fine this morning in the library. James could think of nothing he had done then which would have upset her. After that he went off to play Quidditch with Sirius, Hestia and Gwenog Jones, not seeing Lily until they both arrived in the dungeons fifteen minutes ago. There wasn't really a lot of room there to irritate someone, not that it wasn't possible for James. He tried to assess the situation reasoning that the only possible way to know for sure would be to start talking to her and see if anything cropped up. He waited until Lily finished grating the unicorn horn before attempting any means of communication.

Lily put down the small hand held grater and scooped up the shavings, placing them in her brass scales to measure out half an ounce. She then took the little measuring tray full of the shavings and dropped them into the potion which was bubbling away at a steady two-hundred degrees. The moment the tiny little particles of dust hit the surface, the potion bubbled and steamed the liquid inside turning a nice, sparkling gold. In fifteen minutes, after it had finished brewing, their potion would finally be complete, meaning that they could pack up and leave which Lily would have done all too gladly if James hadn't started talking.

'Did you get a lot of studying done today then?' he said, staring at Lily with an intense and unwavering gaze.

Lily took a deep breath, her mouth partly open in a dumbfounded state. She'd have expected him to ask why she hadn't spoken to him since they arrived in the dungeons. She hadn't predicted that he would start a perfectly normal conversation. 'A bit.' she nodded, trying with all her might to stop asking him her next question as she knew it would lead on to what Hestia called her 'jealousy' coming out. It didn't work. 'I heard you enjoyed your Quidditch game?' she questioned, picking up the large potions book they had been using from the restricted section in the library, cursing herself internally for not being able to control herself bringing the subject up.

'Yeah it was awesome.' James said, relieved that they had returned to their usual selves. Obviously Lily wasn't mad at him. He had no idea what she was mad about or if she was even mad at all he was just glad it wasn't at him so he continued on as normal. 'I mean, me and Sirius lost but that's to be expected. Gwenog's an amazing player and Jones is good too. I mean, that is why I put her on the Quidditch team every year. She isn't half bad.'

'Well,' Lily began sarcastically, 'I'm sure that Hestia will be thrilled to know that you think she isn't 'half bad'.'

'I'm sorry?' James asked. Maybe he was wrong. Perhaps she was mad at him. He couldn't tell anymore. He was confused.

'Doesn't matter.' Lily replied, still cursing herself for pursuing this feeling. Nothing good could possibly result from this conversation but she just couldn't help herself. She had to know if there was anything more to what Hestia had witnessed at the end of their 'friendly' Quidditch game.

'Okay…' James said unsure now and thinking it might be a wise idea to leave it. If she wanted to tell him, she would. He hoped.

'So who are you going to play Quidditch with when Gwenog Jones leaves?' Lily questioned bluntly, giving up completely on packing all her stuff away and focusing all her attention on James instead.

'Well…err…anyone who wants to play really...' James said, speaking slowly, taken aback by Lily's directness. If he wasn't confused before he definitely was now. Maybe he should just ask if she was ok. 'Are you ok?' he asked.

'Fine, fine.' Lily said in a higher pitched voice than usual, obviously not fine as she was about to move forwards to her main point. The thing that had been bugging her since Hestia told her that afternoon. 'So,' she began with a deep breath, 'I hear you got rather cosy with Gwenog Jones at your little match earlier.'

'Well I gave her a hug at the end of the match and…' James shrugged and then pausing. Something had just occurred to him that he hadn't thought of before. His confused frown suddenly relaxed into realisation. He leant forwards a bit more and thought for a moment about whether this was a wise idea before asking Lily, 'Are you jealous?'

Lily's heart began to beat faster. She didn't answer but instead pursed her lip. Maybe she was jealous. She had believed that it was paranoia but, James was the second person to say she that was jealous. Perhaps that was true. She looked down and closed her eyes, wishing that she had never started this conversation. She felt humiliated. She was about to tell James to forget everything she had said, to discard it all like rubbish, when she felt his hand take hers on the table. If her heart was racing before it was nothing compared to the loud beating it doing now. She opened her eyes and saw James gazing directly into them, a smile on his face.

'You don't have to be jealous you know.' he said, squeezing her hand slightly, 'I don't like Gwenog that way. But I do like you. Very much.'

Lily's breathing became slightly erratic as James leaned in closer to her. She knew exactly what was happening but couldn't bring herself to believe it. She froze. She was scared. She didn't move closer to him. If anything she withdrew slightly. But, credit to him, he didn't stop. He hesitated but carried on forwards, placing his hand on her cheek to hold her where she was. She took a breath and the intoxicating smell of James, beech wood, made her stomach flip. She felt the warmth emanating from him he was so close now. Lily closed her eyes in waiting. She felt his warm breath mingle with hers. Their lips almost touched when…

'Dear me, things are getting bad.'

James and Lily sprang apart like shrapnel at the sound of their potions professor's voice coming from the door which had squeaked open.

'Ah Miss Evans, Mr Potter.' Slughorn said as he saw the two teenagers who were now sat quite far apart, both with shocked and extremely uncomfortable expressions written across their faces at what had almost happened, 'I see that you're working on that Felix Felicis potion I set you!' he continued happily, not realising that he had interrupted what could have been the turning point in his students relationship, 'Let's have a look see!' he said, walking over to them and peering into the cauldron at the potion they were brewing, 'Ah yes. Looks as if you're finished. Well done. Plus it seems to have calmed you down Mr Potter.'

'I'm sorry?' James asked, the first to speak from him and Lily whom he didn't look at through embarrassment.

'No more little pranks on your teachers.' Slughorn mumbled as he busied himself opening his paper to continue reading his article, 'At least not half as many.'

'No sir.' James smiled, indulging in what Slughorn obviously thought was his own achievement. Really, Remus had been nagging Sirius and James to stop messing around so often, (not all the time as Remus did enjoy a good prank himself), so that he could focus on his studies for the end of year exams that were fast approaching. James and Sirius wouldn't stop joking for just anyone.

'Anyway.' Slughorn continued, 'If you'd like to leave it here I'll put it in a couple of phials for you.'

'Err, Professor?' Lily said, not looking at James the same way he hadn't looked at her and all for the same reason; embarrassment. 'What things are getting bad?' she continued, knowing the answer but needing to hear it to believe it.

'The attacks.' Slughorn said grievously, 'Of course the ministry is trying to cover things up somewhat now. Don't want the wizarding world to go off on a tizzy now do they. But I know someone at the Daily Prophet see. Recommended him for the job myself and he always keeps me informed. It seems that they are no longer just attacking wizards. Says here a muggle street in Darwen, Lancashire was attacked. All it says here actually. But I've been told that three muggles are dead, twelve seriously injured along with one witch. Only witch in the area apparently. Of course, she's been reported but not those poor muggles...' Slughorn read, shaking his head despairingly.

'What street?' James asked, his eyes wide in alert.

'Yes says here, 'seriously injured witch, identity not yet known due to serious cuts and lacerations to the face'.' Slughorn muttered to himself mostly, ignoring James' question completely and continuing to read his article, 'They should know who she is soon though, after the potions take effect. Being treated by a Healer…Helbert Spleen. I used to teach him you know! Never thought he'd be a Healer though. Always believed he'd make a good advice columnist. Tried to put him in touch with the chap from the Daily Prophet on more than one occasion but he's just not interested is Helbert. Still, gives me good advice should I need it along with free treatment.'

'Doesn't Madam Pomfrey supply that facility?' Lily asked with a timid shrug.

'Oh yes, yes!' Slughorn answered in an absentminded reply to one of his favourite student's questions.

James sighed with impatience. Sure, Professor Slughorn would answer Lily's question but not his. It was probably because James never accepted any of Slughorn's 'Slug Club' invitations and Lily did. He always wondered when that little fact would return to bite him in the butt. And Professor Slughorn really had chosen the most inappropriate time to take his revenge. He just assumed that at some point Slughorn would get the message and stop inviting him. Evidently not and now Slughorn was doing all he could to avoid answering James' question. However, James was probably just being melodramatic through his sudden nervous state. Really, all of James' assumptions could all just be put down to the worry that had been building up inside of him since he heard the attacked town was Darwen, Lancashire. To confirm his suspicions though, he needed the street name. Now.

'What street?' he asked again, this time through extremely impatient gritted teeth, hoping against all hope that he was wrong.

'Mmm, let's see.' Slughorn pondered as he read through the article again trying to find the streets name. 'Ah here it is!' he exclaimed, 'Dorset Avenue.'

No sooner had Professor Slughorn said the streets name had James sprang out of his chair and dashed out of the room. Lily watched him go. What had happened? Who did he know on that street? Was it his mother? Lily knew that is father had died which would mean that his mother would be alone in the house. That would fit with the article. 'Only witch in the area'. Everything was whirring around her mind and there was so much that she wanted to talk to him about now. Does he know the witch in the article? Was it his mother? Were they going to talk about the fact that he almost kissed her? It didn't look like she would know the answers to any of these questions now. James had gone.

* * *

**Thanks for reading**

**Galindaba**


	36. Chapter 35

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter Thirty-Five!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Thirty-Five**

James ran through the school, desperate to reach the great hall where he was sure his friends would still be eating their dinner. He agilely avoided the Slytherin students who were heading in the opposite direction to him, presumably down to their common room. Usually, he'd have pulled a silly face at the older Slytherin students in return to the nasty glares that they were throwing at him, but he was in too much of a worrying rush. He dashed up a small spiral staircase which was hidden behind a portrait and led straight out to the entrance hall, a short cut he constantly used. Within no time, James was in the entrance hall, in sight of the great hall where he was positive his friends were. Keeping in with the pace of his journey, James ran into the busy hall, the sudden noise of overlapping conversations bursting through his ears. It didn't stop him however, he was determined to reach his friends as quickly as possible and that's exactly what he did.

He skidded up to the table and, in a lowered voice, so that no-one around them could hear, he said, 'We need to go see Dumbledore now!'

'What? Why?' Remus asked, putting down his fork to look at James confusedly. 'Aren't you supposed to be making that potion with Evans?' he continued.

'Yes but that's not important.' James said dismissively waving the subject away with his hand as he quickly sat down next to Sirius, frustrated that his friends weren't realising the urgency of the situation. 'Look, there's been an article in the paper about an attack. Now usually I wouldn't think anything more than sympathy for the people who were attacked but this time was different.'

'Get to the point.' Sirius said, annoyed that his dinner was being interrupted, not that it stopped him from stuffing his face with every available piece of food that was surrounding him.

'I'm getting there!' James said through gritted teeth before continuing, attempting this time to control his urgency in an attempt to break his suspicions gently to his friends, 'Well, I wouldn't have thought anything of it until I heard that the attack was on Dorset Street. In Darwen, Lancashire.' he took a deep breath, 'I think it's your mum Peter.'

Peter lowered his fork in shock, his mouth opening slightly and his eyes widening. He shook his head slightly as if to organise the thought in his mind. He wasn't the only one in shock though. Remus swallowed gravely and looked at Peter with sympathy, placing a hand on his shoulder in support. Sirius even stopped eating, worried for Peter.

James sighed. 'Look, I'm not even sure it's her. There was no name in the paper.' he said solemnly, 'It's just that the paper said that she was the only witch in a muggle area. That describes your mum Peter.'

Peter gulped and nodded, his bottom lip beginning to tremor with worry.

'We need to go see Dumbledore now.' James said, reiterating his original statement.

There was a brief moment's pause where the group silently agreed. Then, with sudden fast movements that shocked the students who were surrounding them, the four boys jumped up and sped out of the great hall. They ran upstairs as fast as they could, all determined to reach the third floor, where the headmasters office was located. Half way through their journey however, Peter began to slow down and run out of breath. He was the least fit out of the four of them. His stamina nowhere near reached the heights of James, Sirius and Remus and he was lagging behind. Not letting him stop, James grabbed his wrist and dragged him the rest of the way until they all eventually skidded to a halt in front of the large stone gargoyle that guarded the entrance to Dumbledore's office.

Once they were there though, they realised that their plan, their plan to go and ask Dumbledore to allow them to visit St Mungo's to see if the injured woman in the paper was Peter's mother, had a major flaw in it; they didn't know the password to get into his office. They all looked at each other in exasperation. What were they going to do now? There was no other way to gain access to the Headmasters tower. Or so they thought.

'Say 'emergency'.' Lily said, coming up behind them.

'Emergency.' Sirius practically yelled at the stone gargoyle which immediately sprang to life and moved to the side, revealing a moving spiral staircase which led its way up to Dumbledore's office.

'Brilliant.' James said, 'Thanks.' he continued with a fleeting look at Lily. He didn't have the time to look at her properly or even talk to her about the fact that he had tried to kiss her down in the potions room. He wanted too but nothing, not even the girl that he had liked for several years, could qualify for him to be distracted. His friend needed him and that was all that mattered at the minute.

The four boys made their way quickly to the still moving staircase as Lily shouted out behind them, (mostly to James whom she desperately wanted to talk too), 'Wait! What's wrong?' but she was too late. James had gone. He was the first one up the stairs.

Peter was the only one to actually hear Lily's words but he ignored them. Half of his brain was worrying about his mother whilst the other half of his brain was concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other as he moved up the turning staircase. He had no time to answer her. He was too busy following his friends, led by James, to the door of Dumbledore's office. When he looked up, Peter noticed that James was already at the door which meant that they were one step closer to finding out if the woman in the paper was indeed his mum.

Not even bothering to knock when he approached the headmaster's door, James barged in and walked straight over to Dumbledore's desk saying, 'We need to go to St Mungo's.'

'And hello to you too Mr Potter.' Dumbledore said continuing to write in a big, black, leather bound book with an eagle feather quill. He finished his sentence and closed the book to look up at the four worried and anxious boys. 'I assume your desire to visit St Mungo's is for a legitimate reason and not just a way to avoid your pre-exam studies.' he carried on.

'We think the injured woman in the paper is Peter's mum.' Sirius said for his friend who could only nod in agreement. Sure most the time Sirius couldn't stand Peter. His tolerance level for him was low at best but all of that went away in situations like this. When it came down to it, no matter how forced upon him the friendship between him and Peter was, they were friends and that meant that Sirius would stick by him through thick and thin.

Dumbledore placed his fingertips together in thought, looking over his half-moon glasses at each of the boys in turn. 'Ahh,' he said, 'I see.' He was very calm in his mannerisms and, after a brief moments pause, he opened his desk draw and took out two spare pieces of parchment. 'It's going to take a few minutes for the ministry to make allowances and connect my office to the floo network so I suggest you wait here.' he said gently as he began to write once more with his elegant eagle feather quill.

'Won't it take longer than a few minutes to send an owl though sir?' Remus asked his headmaster, genuinely intrigued but unable to hide the impatience coming through in his voice.

'By owl yes, but I am sending these with Fawkes.' Dumbledore said, gracefully standing up and walking with a slow pace over to his magnificent phoenix. 'I am also sending a letter to your mother Mr Potter so she can meet you at St Mungo's and escort you to whom you presume is Peter's mother. Is that okay?' he asked James who just nodded. It's not like it would be an inconvenience. His mother would be at St Mungo's anyway, working. Plus, it would give a chance for James to see how she was doing. It must be hard for her without his dad.

As Dumbledore sent Fawkes out of the large window that covered one of the small walls in his oddly shaped office, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter watched as the fiery bird quickly disappeared over the horizon. When the bird had gone, James flopped himself down onto the only chair in front of Dumbledore's desk. However, he soon thought twice about it and stood up to offer the seat to Peter whom he thought must be so worried. Peter wasn't going to take the seat up until Remus pushed him towards it. When Peter was finally seated, James leant on Dumbledore's great desk and Remus and Sirius occupied themselves by looking over Dumbledore's various knickknacks. His office was like a treasure trove full of oddities. It was deathly silent. Neither the marauders nor Dumbledore spoke.

The silence didn't ensue long though as Fawkes returned in less than ten minutes. As soon as the phoenix flew into the office, Dumbledore stood up and walked over to a crowded stack of shelves hung up on the wall next to the wall with the window. He took, from the third shelf up, a heavy stone urn and took it over to his desk. He then took off the lid and offered the contents, floo powder, around to the four boys who had immediately lined up in front of him.

As the boys took the powder, Dumbledore said, 'Please inform me of when you wish to return as soon as you know. I shall inform your professors. There is no rush to return, especially in the case of you Mr Pettigrew, however, not returning at all would be unwise as you would miss your end of year exams and I am sure you wouldn't want that.' he said, chuckling a little bit at his last whimsical sentence.

'Thank you sir.' James said for the four of them.

Dumbledore nodded and watched the boys leave his office through his grand fire place, disappearing in a haze of green fire.

The four boys whirred through the floo system. Having said their destination as they left, all they needed to do was spot the grate where Mrs Potter would hopefully be standing to await their arrival. They whirled and twirled through the network of connected fireplaces, all of them used to the sensation as they all came from wizarding families, pure blood for James and Sirius and half-blood for Remus and Peter, they were able to finish the journey without any feelings of dizziness or sickness. It was a quick journey and when they arrived at the wizarding hospital, Jane Potter was there waiting for them.

'James!' she said as she spotted her son, she rushed over to him and squeezed him in a tight hug.

'Hey mum.' James said, hugging his mum in return.

As Jane released her son she moved onto his friends who had also just appeared in the grate. 'Remus.' she said in greeting to him.

'Mrs Potter.' Remus said to James' mother, politely returning her hug. It was how she always greeted the boys when she saw them so he was used to it, sort of. (Remus had only really seen Mrs Potter around five times since he had known James)

'Peter.' Jane continued, moving down the line of boys, embracing him as well.

'Mrs Potter.' muttered a very timid and uncomfortable Peter.

'Sirius.' Jane finished finally, holding her arms out for Sirius, her adoptive son.

'Jane!' Sirius said enthusiastically, mirroring Jane's actions and embracing her in a tight hug, very similar to the way she had hugged her real son. He loved Jane Potter and he had no issues in showing it. He was often jealous of James for having such a great mother. Sirius' own mother was what he referred to as, an 'old bat'.

'Now,' Jane said as she released Sirius and stood back so that she could see all of the boys at once, 'before I take you to identify this woman,' she began solemnly, addressing Peter in specific, her joyous greetings now over and done with and her mind snapping back into Healer mode, 'I must warn you that it is quite a gruesome sight.'

'I'll stay here.' Sirius gulped, his face gone a little bit white just at the word gruesome. He was a wimp really when it came to blood.

'What do you mean gruesome?' James asked his mum with a quizzical expression, pushing his glasses up his nose in an intellectual way.

'It looks as though she has been…mauled by an animal.' Jane continued.

'I'll stay here too.' Remus said unable to help but think that the 'animal' could be a werewolf. He knew that Voldemort wanted werewolves on his side so it wasn't a very far-fetched assumption to believe that they could be involved in the most recent attack. He felt the need to justify himself and his sudden decision to stay with Sirius to Jane though as she looked at him with raised eyebrows. With Jane Potter not knowing that he was a werewolf though, he couldn't tell his friends the real reason as he would have done if they were alone. Instead he said, 'Shouldn't really leave Sirius on his own. Who knows what could happen.'

Jane Potter nodded her head and lead James and Peter away from Sirius and Remus who stayed where they were. When Jane, James and Peter had turned a corner, Sirius and Remus were finally able to drink in where they were and, where they weren't.

Sirius was overjoyed. He was out of school and for a legitimate reason. He didn't care that he was in a hospital. The wandering healers bustling about the main floor where they were standing didn't bother him. The magical maladies, the inflated heads, badly splinched wizards and laughably stuck together witches didn't bother him either. He didn't know them personally so their injuries were no issue for him. Seeing Peter's mother in a 'gruesome' state however would just be too much to handle, even if he had only met her when she picked Peter up at the end of the school year on platform nine and three quarters, he still knew her. And blood on people he knew he didn't like.

Remus on the other hand, didn't want to be in the hospital for the same reasons he didn't want to see who they thought was Peter's mother. This place was the home to many people like him. When he was younger, before his parents were able to afford to magically reinforce their basement through the ministry's defence department, he had to spend his transformations in a magically enhanced locked room on the first floor. Every month he had needed to spend three days and three nights in a place where people looked down on him for an infliction he couldn't control nor had any desire to have. It was a form of mental torture and, if it wasn't for his loyal friendship and wish to support Peter, he wouldn't have been able to make it into the hospital at all. And even if he was unable to take that last step and see Peter up to the room, the gesture that he had made it this far should be enough because usually, he wouldn't have come near St Mungo's with a barge pole.

Sirius turned to Remus and blurted out, 'I'm not a wuss.' referring to his not wanting to see Peter's mum because of the gruesomeness.

Remus turned to Sirius and simply said, 'Yeah you are.' nodding his head. 'Let's go find a drink.'

'Ok.' Sirius replied with a grumble as he begrudgingly followed Remus over to the main reception desk.

As they went, a short wizard wearing a dress passed them by with large boils growing all over his legs. He looked as if he had been stung over forty times by a poisonous bee but, in reality, it was probably just the work of a simple stinging hex. It did however get Remus and Sirius laughing as he ran by screaming, 'You'll never take me alive' at the same time as five healers chased him down the corridor in an attempt to restrain his so that they could administer the potion which would heal his wounds.

'That's the sort of thing you'd do.' Remus said nudging Sirius in the ribs with his elbow, a cheeky smile growing on his face as he turned to the witch behind the counter.

'Hey! I'm not that-'

'Shh, shh!' Remus cut Sirius off with the wave of his finger before addressing the lady at the desk with a charming grin, 'Is there a place to get a good drink around here?' he asked her, leaning forwards on the desk.

'There's a visitor's tea room on the fifth floor.' the witch said in a nasal monotone, not looking up at either Remus or Sirius, despite their close proximity to her. She was reading Witch Weekly instead as it was apparently more interesting than the two handsome young boys who had just approached her.

'Yeah…' Remus said, unconvinced, 'I've tried the drinks from the tea room and…well to be perfectly honest my dog,' (he jerked his head in Sirius' direction, unnoticed by the obviously bored witch behind the information desk), 'could do a better job. So let's give this another go. Is there a place to get a _good _drink around here?'

Within two seconds it became blatantly obvious that the witch had taken absolutely no notice of Remus or his sarcastic tone as she simply repeated, 'There's a visitors tea room on the fifth floor.'

Remus absentmindedly patted on the desk and gritted a smile as he said, 'Thanks for your help!'

They were, (and by 'they', it was really just Remus), about to leave when Sirius leant on the desk, pulled his best 'sexy' face and said flirtingly, 'Would you, like to join us?'

'Get away from my desk.' the witch said, still not looking up but rather flicking through her magazine and pointing away from her desk as an instruction to Sirius.

'Are you su-'

'Now.' she continued, cutting Sirius off before he had a chance to finish his question.

Sirius nodded his head slowly and, just like Remus had done previously, absentmindedly tapped his hand on the desk, pausing. He was about to say something else but thought better of it and turned around to walk over to Remus who was standing near the lift with raised eyebrows. Sirius stopped next to him as they waited for the lift to arrive. 'She wanted me.' he said, trying to convince himself more than anyone else.

'Clearly.' Remus replied putting his hands in his pockets and bobbing up and down on his heels, holding back a mocking smile.

'It's just,' Sirius began, folding his arms dejectedly, 'I'm obviously too much for her to handle.'

'You're too much for anyone to handle mate.' Remus chuckled. He stopped though when he turned to look at Sirius and saw his 'evil' look.

Thankfully for Remus, Sirius' 'evil' look, (which was, at best, a slight frown and flickering narrowed eyes.), didn't last long as the lift finally arrived in front of them.

A group of healers stepped of the lift and Remus and Sirius stepped in. They held onto the hanging rails hung from the top of the lift. As soon as the grate door slid shut, the lift jolted jerkily and flew backwards. It then dropped down, almost like a free form vertical fall, for about ten feet which caused Remus and Sirius to jump slightly as they dropped. The lift then moved left, right, left, up, right, right again, up, down, diagonally right and then up, until it finally arrived on the fifth floor with a harsh bump.

They stepped out of the lift and Sirius' first words, which made Remus roll his eyes, were 'Awesome, student healers.'

'You're a pig.' Remus said to him as they made their way over to an available table near a lighted window which, from the outside, would appear as a boarded up, glassless hole in a derelict building. From where Remus and Sirius were however, the window was clear glass and they could see the bustling London street below.

'No Moony, I'm a dog.' Sirius replied cheekily as he sat down, glancing over his shoulder at the girls behind him. They were in a tight group stood around a tall table, gossiping and drinking pumpkin juice. Sirius stood up and took off his Hogwarts robe, (which he and all the marauders were still in as they had literally just rushed to the hospital from school), and smoothed down his hair. 'Wish me luck!' he said to Remus before he swaggered away to the girls a few tables away.

Remus watched as his overconfident friend shredded his school boy persona and went after a group of student healers well out of his league. Well, at least his age range. He strolled over to them with a definite wiggle in his hips, a failed attempt to make himself look desirable and older than he actually was. With a slightly bemused smile, Remus saw Sirius lean on the tall table that the healers were gathered around. Remus watched carefully as Sirius said his opening line to the young ladies which surrounded him. It was a quick jump from that one line, the contents of which Remus had no idea, to each of the student healers, one after another, threw their pumpkin juices in his face. As Sirius paused at the table he was at, watching the young student healers walk away from the table, leaving him soaked in pumpkin juice and shock, Remus let a small chuckle at Sirius' humiliation escape him. He wouldn't let Sirius see him laugh. Why embarrass him further?

When Sirius turned around to walk back to the table, Remus put his fist over his mouth to attempt to smother his laughter so Sirius couldn't see him. When he had finally muffled his laughter, regaining control, Sirius had reached the table. Remus took down his hand. 'Strike out?' he asked rhetorically.

Moodily, and thoroughly soaked in pumpkin juice, Sirius simply answered, 'Yep.'

* * *

'Now, Peter,' Jane Potter said as she, Peter and her son reached the room in which the only magical victim of Voldemort's last attack resided, 'You have to prepare yourself. This woman may be your mother but it might be extremely difficult to identify her.'

Peter nodded meekly and took a deep breath. As a show of support, James put his hand on Peter shoulder and patted it gently. Peter looked up at him and gave a timid and scared smile. He then turned to Jane Potter and nodded, a signal that he was ready to take in whatever gruesome sight awaited him.

Jane opened the door and led Peter and James to the end bed which was enclosed by a curtain, ensuring that none of the other patient in the ward could see the woman beyond the curtain. Peter took another deep breath and swallowed nervously as Jane opened the curtain slightly to grant them entrance. Peter, followed by James, walked through the open slit and stepped forwards to view the woman in the bed. Nothing could have prepared them for what they saw.

One of the woman's eyes was missing, completely gone, and where it should have been, instead was a large crater cutting deep into her face. Her other eye was swollen to three times its usual size, meaning she couldn't see at all. Half of her nose had disappeared and what was left of it was tinged with a gooey orange residue. Her bottom lip was also swollen and her top lip was nowhere to be seen. She had deep cuts and lacerations all over her face, overlapping her other wounds. These scars were framed with purple and black bruising's so that the only natural and unharmed skin that you could see was just underneath her left ear. Her other ear, was mangled and looked as if it had started to be gnawed off. Above that, atop her head, her hair was riddled with blood, or at least what was left of it was. Half of it was missing or falling out onto the white pillow which was growing in a red stain. Obviously they hadn't been able to control the bleeding, only slow it down. It was an unsightly bloody mess.

'That's her.' Peter said, his eyes cold and unwavering, a fixed stare on the body of the woman whom he claimed to be his mother.

'Are you sure?' James asked carefully. He didn't mean to be sceptical, after all, it was he who originally thought that the woman could possibly be Peter's mother, but now they were here, it was hard to tell. She looked nothing like the woman James had seen pick Peter up from platform nine and three quarters at the end of the school year.

'Yes.' Peter whispered faintly, walking over to sit in the chair by his mother's bedside. He took her hand as he sat down, stoking it softly with his thumb, 'It's her. I can tell.'

Jane nodded her head and put an arm around her sons back. 'We'll leave you in peace for a few minutes.' she said sweetly, leading her son away from his friend's distress. 'Call if you need anything.'

'Thank you Mrs Potter.' Peter mumbled as James and his mother left him in privacy.

Jane led James out into the corridor, her main goal to give Peter a moment alone with his mother but, also, and underlying desire to spend some time with her own son whom she had not seen since Christmas. Since her husband, James' father, had passed away she had been worried about how her son was coping. 'How are you?' she asked James, her healers persona disappearing and the all too infrequent mother personality shining through.

James shrugged. 'I'm fine.' he replied, knowing exactly what she was referring too. He wasn't lying. He was fine. Apart from his years before Hogwarts, James had never really spent a lot of time with his dad and, as a result, didn't know the person he was. He missed his father figure but it wasn't like he was gone. He lived on in James' memory and the thought of him had kept James strong. He hadn't cried. He never did.

Jane, with an unbearably strong mother's intuition, sensed that James didn't want to talk about what she desired and so, she changed the subject to a less painful one. 'How's school?' she asked him.

James chuckled and ran a hand through his hair. 'Still there.' he replied, putting his hands in his pockets which were hidden deep in the folds of his school robes.

'You know what I mean James.' Jane said, putting her hands on her hips and looking at her son through raised eyebrows.

James sighed. 'Don't know what to tell you mum.' he said with a shrug, 'School's school. I go to classes, I eat, I sleep and anything else I do I'm sure you already know about.'

Jane couldn't help but smile at all of the owls she had received from Hogwarts detailing the various pranks and stunts that James and his small band of friends had committed throughout the school years. She had a stack of reports a mile high which all contained descriptions of James' indescrepencies at the famed magical school and, even though some of the pranks they had pulled were amusing to her, she couldn't help but wish her son would take a more active role in the academic part of the school system.

'I had hoped you'd be a prefect.' Jane said, following her line of thought perfectly. James however, was thoroughly confused.

'That was a bit out of the blue.' James laughed, pushing his glasses up his nose again and looking around him at his surroundings. They were in a long white corridor with lots doors leading off of it and many healers wandering in and out and of them.

'You're so smart. Couldn't you have channelled your energy into your school work instead of your childish antics?' Jane asked him with a desperate pleading look.

'Ah Mum,' James said waving his hand to wave away her comment, 'where's the fun in that? I get good grades anyway.'

'I'm not saying that you don't sweetheart.' Jane sighed, looking down and shaking her head, 'I just wish that you…your dad was a prefect.'

James nodded his head slowly. 'Yeah.' he said in acknowledgement of the fact. 'What's that got to do with me?'

'Don't you want to be an auror too?' Jane questioned him, knowing of his old dream to have the same career as his father. She didn't know if it was still his ambition.

'Well yeah but Dad didn't get to be an auror because he was a prefect.' James replied, 'He was an auror because he passed his N.E.W.T's. And I'm not too worried about that. I test well.'

'I'm never going to convince you to focus on your studies am I?' she said, recognising defeat.

James smiled his crooked smile which tugged at the corners of his mouth. 'You could try.' he said cockily. 'I wouldn't recommend it though. You'd probably loose.'

'Don't I always against you?' Jane said in exasperation to her nodding son. She opened her arms, 'Now give me a hug.'

'No.' James answered straight away, shaking his head once.

'Give me a hug.'

'No.'

'Come on. Just one hug for your mummy.'

'Mum, we're in public.'

'James!' Jane said sternly, raising her eyebrows at her son, sending a subliminal message through her eyes which forced a very reluctant James to hug his mother.

Jane held James very tightly in a motherly hug which James resisted at first but soon gave into. He patted his mum on the back before he pulled away from her with a tense smile on his face.

'Miss Potter.' someone said to Jane as they came up behind James, running frantically.

'Mrs. Mrs Potter. I'm still married.' Jane said under her breath so no one but James, who looked at her sadly, could hear.

'We need you on the fourth floor.' the healer panted as she reached Jane, 'Mr Connorsy is mooing again and no one can control him.'

'Alright. I'm coming.' Jane said to the healer who turned and walked away, taking her extremely obvious cue to leave, 'Now, about Peter's mother.' she said, turning to James and taking on her healer persona once again. 'Until the healer who is treating her can identify the assortment of spells that hit her and can rule out the possibility that she was attacked by an animal of sorts, her healing process will be slow. I understand if you want to stay around until she has made a decent recovery or has at least started recovering but you have to promise me that you and your friends will continue to study for your end of year exams.'

'Well Remus will.' James joked until he saw his mother's stern face, 'I will too.'

'Good.' Jane said taking James' shoulders and looking up at him, 'You can stay at the house. Just promise me you won't blow it up.'

'Nah.' James sighed, taking his mother's hands off of his shoulders and holding them in his own for a few short seconds before dropping them, 'I only do that to toilets.'

'Well try not to do anything to the toilets this time.' Jane continued, pointing her finger at James, 'I don't know what you did to your en-suite loo over Christmas but I've only just been able to stop it from dancing.'

James laughed with a proud nod of his head at the memory. That was a fun day.

'Now I've got to go.' she said, leaning in and giving him a kiss on the cheek, 'I'll see you later sweetheart.'

'Bye mum.' James said as he watched his mother bustle down the corridor and out of sight through one of the many large white doors which ran along it.

When she had gone, James turned around and walked through the large double doors which held the room where Peter and his mum were. He strolled passed the other patients in the room until he reached the curtain that they were enclosed in. He prepared himself again and opened the curtains a little bit, just enough for him to walk through. Even though he had braced himself before hand, the sight of Peter's mother still came as a shock to him. He shook his head to shake the shock away, and walked over to Peter, leaning against the wall next to Mrs Pettigrew's bed, legs crossed and arms folded, his usual pose. He looked down at his small friend and saw the sadness in his eyes. 'You alright mate?' he asked him concernedly.

'Can we go?' Peter asked him, not looking at James but rather continuing to stare at his mother's face.

'Sure.' James said, pushing himself forwards off of the wall, 'We'll go and find Remus and Sirius, they're probably in the visitors tea room, then we'll head out, ok?'

Peter nodded and stood up. He and James walked over to the curtain which surrounded Mrs Pettigrew's bed. Peter turned to look at her one last time before he left, followed out of the curtain by James.

The pair walked out into the long white corridor and walked the length of it before they came to the grate which the lift sat behind. When the grate opened, the boys got in. James held onto the hanging hand rails from the top and Peter, too short to reach these, held on to the hand rail which ran along the side of the lift. The lift jolted backwards and, for a lift that only needed to journey up one floor, it took a long route. Much like the elevators in the Ministry of Magic, the lift jolted backwards and went up, down, forwards, backwards, left, right, right again, until it reached the fifth floor of the wizarding hospital.

James and Peter spotted Sirius and Remus in the corner of the large visitor's tea room. As they walked over to them, they saw Remus looking at his watch and Sirius looking and abnormally odd shade of pink.

'What are you doing?' James asked Remus when they approached the table.

'Seeing how long Sirius can hold his breath.' Remus said, not looking up from his watch on which he was counting the seconds which past.

James looked between the two and then, with no hint of hesitation, squeezed Sirius' nose between his thumb and fore finger, until Sirius' eyes bulged and he let out the breath he had been holding for almost two minutes.

'What you playing at?' Sirius asked James who was smirking down at him, 'I was on my way to a new record!'

'I'm sure you'll live.' James chuckled, pushing Sirius' head in a brotherly fashion.

'So,' Remus began, cutting Sirius off before he even had a chance to retaliate to James' last comment, 'Was it your mum Peter?'

Peter nodded solemnly, not finding it in himself to answer with words. He didn't' trust himself to speak at all as he didn't actually know how he felt about his mother, for all intents and purposes, being in a coma-like state. There was, of course, the devoted son part of him which obviously felt for his mum and couldn't wait for her to get better. That part of him just wanted his mum back. However, his relationship with his mother had always been a bit rocky. When he was a baby, his dad had died. Now he didn't know anything about him apart from the fact that he had always been ill. He had been a sickly man and Peter's mum had a constant worry that Peter would become the same. From this assumption, Mrs Pettigrew had babied her son, driving him to the extent of utter rage. The part of Peter that contained this anger, however horrible the thought was, wished his mother would just stay the way she was to enable him some much needed independence. His feelings upon the subject were mixed and he didn't know which side he preferred to feel.

'How did you know?' Sirius asked Peter who had been in silent thought for a couple of minutes.

'She was wearing a ring that she says my dad gave her.' Peter mumbled, fidgeting nervously.

'So what are we going to do now?' Remus asked, needing this question addressing desperately as he was worried about the end of year exams that were fast approaching. He was probably the only one who was worried about this but he didn't care. He still needed to know.

'Well,' James said clapping his hands together, being the only one who really knew what was going to happen next, 'We can stay at mine until Peter's mum recovers or starts to recover, depending on how long that is. Dumbledore says we can go back to school when we're ready so no real rush there. As long as we 'study' for the end of year exams we can just go back to Hogwarts when we're ready really.' he finished, air-quoting the word 'study' as the group knew that, out of the four of them, Remus would be the only one to actually revise. Peter would attempt too and, if they were at James', James and Sirius would play the childhood game, hide and seek. (In the Potter mansion, nobody won that game, they just got lost inside James' huge home. Since their first year at Hogwarts, or at least their first summer away from Hogwarts, Sirius and James were both determined to win.)

'Awesome.' Sirius said happily.

There was then a tense, lingering silence which followed. Remus, Sirius and James were all shooting worried glances at Peter who was just staring blankly at the table in front of him. It went on for at least a minute and by the end of this extraordinarily long minute, the other three marauders could no longer take the uncomfortable silence.

'I hear there's a guy on the second floor mooing.' James said.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	37. Chapter 36

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter Thirty-Six!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Thirty-Six**

A great snake slithered through the trees and bushes which covered the forest. It was a long, dark green snake with a diamond pattern spreading the length of its huge body. It wound its way through all diversions and distractions which crossed its path, determined to reach its destination and its master. As it slid through piles of leaves and glided over broken branches and roots of trees, a dark red, wet trail was left behind it. Blood was dripping from its venomous fangs, only visible when the creature took a snap at rodents scurrying by. She had just killed.

Soon, a small shack was visible through the trees and the monstrously long snake could sense her master's presence. Her pace quickened and the cold blooded reptile slinked its way through trees and their roots, until she finally reached the open door of the run down shed.

At a sudden change in texture, Nagini slithered from the natural woods, the dirt paths, into a beautifully decorated high ceilinged room with cool marble floors. It was easier to move once she was inside, her long body coiling effortlessly across the solid floors of the run down shack which was so different to the outside. She moved silently under the long table which seated many death eaters until she reached the feet of her master. Gently, she wound up his legs and moved so that she was draped around his neck.

'_Is it done Nagini?' _Voldemort asked the great snake in parseltongue, stroking her large head as if she was nothing more than a harmless dog.

The snake hissed back at him in response, informing him that the muggles who had come camping in their forest had been taken care off.

'_Well done.' _Voldemort congratulated the snake.

The snake unwound itself from Voldemort's neck and slithered down the table, intent on returning to her prize in the woods. As she went, all the eyes of the death eaters followed her down the table, all extremely aware of their throats and sitting back in their chairs, as far away from the snake as possible. There was not one of them in the room who could say that they were perfectly comfortable when that snake was in the room or when the snake was conversing with Voldemort in parseltongue. If anyone did, they were lying.

'My loyal subjects,' Voldemort said softly, standing up and swiftly gliding around the table slowly, 'It has come to my attention that one of you in here, has lied to me. One of you in here, is not who you claim to be.'

The death eaters in the room gulped, all terrified about who had been lying, all starting to doubt themselves. Nobody looked at anybody else. Instead, they all looked down at the table. They were all silent as Voldemort circled around them leisurely, stopping every now and again behind some of his followers and making them extremely nervous about their future. Voldemort knew this and used it to his advantage.

'You see,' he continued, 'I am trying to build an empire based on the pureness on magical blood. A blood type so special, that it deserves preservation. And who better to preserve this oh so special blood, than a collection of wizards from a pure magical decent. With a noble birth right. But I now discover, that the group I have collected here, is not.'

Still nobody spoke. Nobody looked up. Nobody dared. The silence was tense and Voldemort's pauses didn't help.

'Does anyone have anything,' Voldemort began through tight lips, 'to confess?'

Again, nobody said a work. The self-proclaimed 'brave' death eaters, who were willing to risk their lives to end another's, were not bold enough to face Voldemort or look him in the eye.

Voldemort walked up behind the death eater who was sat near the door on the left side. The rest of the table, still with their heads down, looked over to the selected death eater who was now staring straight ahead. His face was expressionless as Voldemort hovered threateningly over him.

'Mulligan?' Voldemort whispered. His voice was deathly quiet but everyone could still hear him as they were all totally silent. You could hear a pin drop. 'Is there something you wish to tell me?'

The death eater gulped and began to breathe erratically, knowing that whatever Voldemort was going to do to him, it wouldn't be pleasant. Not at all.

'Is there something you would like to share with the entire group?' Voldemort hissed, now walking around so that he was facing Mulligan head on. He looked down at him with disdain.

'My Lord?' Mulligan asked, playing as though he had no idea what Voldemort was talking about.

'Would you like to share with the entire group what your blood status is?' Voldemort said loudly walking back round to his throne-like seat but not sitting down.

Mulligan took a deep breath and, without taking his eyes off of Voldemort, said, 'Half-blood.'

'And you, _love_, both of your parents. The blood traitor and the muggle.' Voldemort stated, making fun of love. Especially love for such despicable people in his eyes. If Mulligan had spoken to him when he first became a death eater, as Severus Snape had done, if he had been willing to delete his filthy parents, perhaps things would have been different. Perhaps Mulligan's destiny would not be as concrete as it was.

'They're my parents, my Lord.' Mulligan said in response.

'Indeed.' Voldemort said slowly, turning his wand over in his hands threateningly. There was a pause as Voldemort raised his wand. 'Avada kedavra.' he yelled as he threw the forbidden killing curse at one of the men who had sworn allegiance to him. Obviously, nobody was safe.

'_Nagini. _Voldemort hissed in parseltongue to his pet snake who slithered in from outside, fresh blood covering her head in splats one more.

The death eater crowd looked over to the snake. They sat and watched in disgusted silence as Nagini dragged Mulligans lifeless body of off its chair and began to attack it, ripping off one of his motionless hands and devouring it in one bite. The blood, half-blood, from the bloody stump spilt out onto the floor, mixing with the venom from Nagini's deadly fangs. Slowly, Nagini continued to demolish the corpse. During the course of Voldemort's meeting, it would slowly become nothing more than a rotting carcass. Mulligan would be unrecognisable by the end.

'Now that the unpleasant business has been taken care off, does anyone have any updates?' he asked his followers who now turned to face him, eager to please. All was forgotten about Mulligan and the events that had just happened.

'My Lord,' the death eater closest to him said as Voldemort sat down in his throne, 'We successfully destroyed the muggle street you requested.'

'Good.' Voldemort replied. He had his own reasons for destroying that street. Reasons he wouldn't reveal to anyone as they involved his past and the orphanage that he had been forced to live at during his childhood. He had discovered one of the other orphans he knew, an older boy who was constantly informing the people who ran the orphanage about his misdeeds, lived on Dorset Street in Darwen. He vowed to make everyone who lived in that orphanage pay for his miserable childhood and it all started with that boy. Now that he was gone, he would move on to the woman who punished him.

'The next street I want you to destroy is Spiceball Park Road in Banbury. Specifically Chamberlaine Court. A retirement home.' Voldemort said. He glanced at two of his death eaters, silently instructing them to take on the job. They nodded, stood up and with a loud crack, disapparated out of the little shack.

'My Lord.' the death eater who had been sitting opposite Mulligan said, capturing Voldemort's attention, 'We were able to successfully place the Ministers assistant under the imperious curse.'

'Did he give you any new information?' Voldemort asked, tilting his head up and looking down at the death eater.

'It seems that the Minister of Magic is taking no precautions to protect the mudbloods and blood traitors my Lord.' the death eater said, bowing his head in respect. 'Apparently we are not being taken seriously my lord.'

Voldemort's nostrils in his snake like nose flared. He did not respond well to not being taken seriously. 'Well then,' he breathed through gritted teeth, 'we will just need to send the Minister a little message. Have his assistant…deliver it…'

* * *

Lily was sat on her bed crossed legged. It was Wednesday afternoon and, as James and his friends still weren't back from wherever they had gone, (it had been five weeks and still nobody knew where they had disappeared too.), Lily was alone. However, it wasn't as if she had nothing to do. Her end of year exams started in a few weeks and she was cramming in all the revision she possibly could. What she didn't count on was a letter from her mother about the arrangements for Petunia's wedding. It had come at the most opportune time and for the past half hour, she had been rereading it over and over again until she knew it word for word.

_Dear Lily,_

_Hello sweetheart! How are you? I hope school is good and you are doing well. It's been lonely here without you and your father is driving me crazy but, that is to be expected as we are both stressing out about the arrangements for Petunia's wedding._

_She's decided she definitely wants a winter wedding and she has set the date for the 19__th__ of December. That angered your dad as he had booked a holiday for the four of us over Christmas. It would have been our last one together as a family; just the four of us. That's not going to happen now as Petunia was adamant on the 19__th__ and she just wouldn't choose another date. So not only has your father got to fork out for this ridiculously large wedding that she has insisted she wants, he has lost the deposit that he had put down on the holiday. Suffice to say, he is not a happy bunny at the minute._

_The church alone cost him £500 and then on top of that, Petunia is insistent on filling the church with orchids and hiring a string quartet to play at the ceremony. Then there's the reception and she has invited nearly two hundred people and that's not including Vernon's guest list! Your father is attempting to persuade her to cut it down because the menu she wants costs £30 a head. Then there's the flowers for that as well and, surprise, surprise, she wants to fill that room with orchids too. Between that, the band and the venue, it looks like this wedding is going to bankrupt us! I hope you aren't planning on getting married anytime soon!_

_Her future husband, the one she is always cooing about, hasn't even offered to contribute with the cost for this upscale wedding that his fiancée is so desperate to have. I know that it's tradition to have the father of the bride pay but Vernon and his family have more money than us and the wedding that Petunia would like is more suited to their class._

_Unfortunately sweetheart, Petunia still hasn't changed her mind and you are not allowed to the wedding. I keep trying to talk her round but every time I open the subject she walks out on me and goes to see Vernon. She's not making it easy on me, especially as I have to be the one to tell you. I really am sorry darling and I will keep trying to get her to allow you to come but, at the minute, it doesn't look like it's going to happen._

_Sorry that this letter has been so filled with news of your sister and that I've had to end on an upsetting note but I must sign off now because Dorothy is here to pick up her dog. Don't worry about Petunia's wedding. You'll be home soon and when you are I'm sure she__'ll come around._

_Good luck in your exams sweetheart!_

_Love Mum_

Lily sighed and folded up the letter. She felt numb as she didn't know what else to feel. She didn't have long to address her undecided emotions as Alice stormed into the room and slammed the door shut behind her.

'Alice?' Lily asked curiously, standing up from her own bed and walking over to sit on the side of hers, 'Are you alright? Aren't you meant to be in divination?'

'I left. You know,' Alice began in an annoyed rant, 'I always knew she valued divination and, I agree it is sometimes right but then again, anytime it is right it's probably just either a coincidence or someone who has heard there future and then goes out and makes it happen for themselves, but I never thought that she would take a clump of wet tealeaves over my word. I am a pretty good judge of character and I'd know if he was and he definitely isn't. But she won't accept that and will only believe what her stupid tea cups tell her. Talk about having a closed mind!'

'Err…you lost me.' Lily said shaking her head and blinking her eyes fast in an attempt to take in and sort through the jumble of information that she had just been given. 'What's happened?'

'I've fallen out with Emmeline.' Alice said moodily.

'Ok.' Lily said slowly, 'Why?'

'Well,' Alice began, calming down and starting to go through her story slowly so that it made sense, 'we were sat in divination and we were reading tea leaves. So we drink our tea and swap cups to read the leaves. Hers say some random stuff about future success and then she tells me that mine says that Frank is cheating on me.'

'Frank?' Lily said, taken aback at the absurd idea, 'Really? He wouldn't cheat on you. Did she read it wrong?'

'Well that's exactly what I said to her.' Alice shrugged, 'I said that Frank wouldn't cheat on me and she must have read it wrong. Maybe it was someone else's boyfriend who was cheating on them because it definitely wasn't Frank. Then we got into a huge fight and…to be perfectly honest I can't really remember everything that was said but it was huge. Really bad. Then I stormed out of the class.'

'Do you think you'll make up?' Lily asked Alice in concern. It would be a real shame if they didn't. They had been close friends since about half way through their second year.

'I don't know.' Alice sighed, 'I don't want to talk about this anymore lets change the subject.' She took a deep breath and forced a smile before turning to Lily kindly and asking, 'So how are you? How are things with James?'

Lily laughed. 'Err, non-existent.' she smiled with a questioning tone. 'I did what you said and tried to see where it went naturally but all that's led to is hugs and an almost kiss.'

'Then you're in!' Alice said as if it was a forgone conclusion.

Lily frowned in confusion. Where on earth had she gotten that from? 'Yeah, err…no. No I'm not. The hugs were as friends and the kiss never happened.'

'Well what happened after the kiss?' Alice asked, moving her legs so the she was sat crossed legged and leaning forwards into Lily's story. It was just the distraction she needed to forget about her fight with Emmeline and the insecurities that she was now having about Franks thanks to her supposed best friend. Some friend.

'Nothing,' Lily shrugged, 'I think I might have put him off. I wasn't exactly…leaning into it. I tried to talk to him but he left. As in left school. They all went didn't they and they've not been here for five weeks now. The whole of May has passed since then. There's no point in talking about it now. He's probably forgotten about it by now anyway.' She looked down and started drawing little circles on Alice's bed sheets, her own insecurities starting to show.

'Well,' Alice began, 'I heard that they're all coming back today. You should talk to him. I promise you he's not forgotten.'

Lily sighed and shrugged, looking up at the ceiling. 'Yeah maybe...'

* * *

Running as a stag through the forbidden forest, Prongs was pleased to be back at Hogwarts. It was the second full moon since Wormtail's mum was attacked. They had spent the first in the grounds around Potter Mansion but had found it extremely hard to keep him under control, especially when there were the other animals that the Potter's owned to consider. They had decided after that last unbearably long full moon cycle, that they would return to Hogwarts for the next one. They found that it was clearly easier to control Moony's werewolf instincts and mannerisms when they had the option of dragging him down the whomping willow to the shrieking shack. Luckily for Padfoot, (who would have been the one to drag him down the passage way), nothing threatening had happened during their time with Moony. There was a small incident earlier where Moony had found a dead crow crawling with worms and maggots, but all of the blood had dried and it was a small rotting skeleton when he had found it. All he could do was sniff it and run away as there was nothing for him there.

Padfoot looked up and bounced over to Prongs, warning him that the sun would be rising soon and that they needed to get Moony back into the Shrieking shack. Prongs scuffed his hooves not really wanting the extraordinarily pleasant full moon excursion they had been having to end. But, unfortunately, they were coming into summer which meant longer days and shorter nights, ergo, shorter full moons.

Padfoot and Prongs corralled around Moony who whimpered, not wanting to go back to the run down shack and not wanting to be alone for the last couple of hours of his transformation. He unwillingly went with them and, as soon as Wormtail had scurried up to the tree trunk of the flailing tree, touched the knot at the base with his tiny paws and frozen the whomping willows limbs, Moony reluctantly followed Wormtail down the tunnel. Padfoot followed Moony down the passage to ensure that he wouldn't turn back. Prongs didn't go down the tunnel. (He was a much larger animal than Padfoot and Moony due to his antlers and when he could manage to squeeze through the tunnel it took him much longer to fit through so it was just much easier if he stayed where he was)

He waited for around ten minutes whilst Padfoot and Wormtail settled Moony into the shrieking shack again. When they emerged from the whomping willows hidden passage it had started to rain. It was warm muggy rain, a summer rainfall in its entirety which soaked them almost instantly. They all waited until the entrance had sealed itself before transforming back into their human selves and rushing into the dry castle. When they got there, they paused. Sirius took the time to stretch his back, Peter scratched his bum and, James being James, ran a hand through his already tousled hair. They then grinned at each other thinking about their enjoyable excursion and mad dash into Hogwarts. Muffling their laughter, the three boys made their way up to the Gryffindor common room, a place that they hadn't been to in over a month.

When they got there, nothing had changed. The Fat Lady was just as surly as ever and when they entered the common room, things were just as messy as they were when they had left. There were still scarlet tapestries hanging down from the walls depicting pictures of ancient wizards and witches and magical creatures. The notice board was still clammed full of school notices, adverts, posters and the date of the last apparation lesson for the sixth years along with the date of the exam for those who were of age to take it. There were lots of odd shaped tables that were used for studying, covered in half written essays, broken quills, old text books, spare pieces of parchments and empty ink bottles. The fireplace was still large and inviting and the circular room was still filled with squashy armchairs and sofas. The only difference was that one of those sofas had a Lily Evans fast asleep on it.

'What she doing here?' Sirius asked James in a quiet hiss, gesturing to Lily on the sofa.

'How am I supposed to know?' James whispered back urgently, 'Just…go quietly. Maybe she won't wake up.'

The three boys began to creep past Lily extremely quietly, overemphasising all off their movements as they went. They were almost home free when Peter, being the clumsy little boy he was, banged into a table and knocked several empty ink bottles onto the floor smashing as soon as they hit the hard ground.

James and Sirius turned to Peter quickly with outraged expressions on their faces.

'Oops.' Peter said, closing his eyes. He didn't need to open them to know that he had woken Lily up.

'What's going on?' Lily said as she sat up, rubbing her eyes. She blinked a couple of times, noticing James was there. It's what she had been waiting for. She had stayed all evening in the common room just so that she could talk to James about their last potion making session as Alice had advised her to do. What she didn't realise was that she had had to wait all night as well. 'What time is it?'

'Err…5 o'clock.' Sirius said, taking James' wrist looking at his watch.

James was in not state to look at his own watch as he was staring at Lily, looking as if he had just been caught out. In reality, he was just a little bit shocked. He hadn't seen her since he had tried to kiss her and then ran out on her. He hadn't spoken to her since then and the more he thought over it in that moment the more he believed that he had acted like a jerk and an inappropriate jerk at that. Especially as he hadn't given his actions a second thought since they had happened. He hadn't even told his friends who he usually shared everything with.

'What you doing up at this time Evans?' Sirius asked, trying to be casual and make it seem like she was the one who was doing something out of the ordinary, not them.

'I was waiting to talk to James.' Lily said turning to James who just took on an even more shocked expression. She looked him up and down in confusion. 'Why are you wet?' she asked curiously, 'Why are you returning at this time? Have you been outside? What have you been do-'

But Lily couldn't finish her final question as by that time, Sirius had taken out his wand and, in a sudden fluster, placed a full-body bind on her so that she fell off of the sofa where she was sat.

'Padfoot!' James said in a high pitched voice, hitting Sirius on the arm. 'What did you do that for?'

'I panicked!' Sirius shrugged, also speaking in a high pitched voice and putting his wand away.

'Well there was no need to curse her!' James replied, walking around the sofa to pick Lily up of the floor, 'Help me!' he yelled quietly to Sirius and Peter who immediately went round to help their friend pick the frozen Gryffindor girl up off of the floor.

'Jeez she's heavy!' Sirius puffed as they heaved Lily's stone like body up onto the couch she had just fallen off of.

'Well what do you expect?' James wheezed, when they sat Lily back on to the sofa, 'You just put her in a full body bind.' he continued as he stood up straight, took out his wand and dried Sirius', Peters' and his own clothes.

'Well what do we do now?' Sirius asked James as he breathed heavily.

'Take her back to her dormitory?' Peter suggested timidly.

'We would Wormy but she actually needs to stand on the step we're standing on otherwise the stairs turn into a slide don't they?' James said kindly to Peter.

'That's so unfair.' Sirius moped, 'I don't see why the founders had to do that. Us boys are trustworthy.'

'We are.' James said nodding his head, 'You're not. Everyone knows exactly what you'd be doing if you could get up those stairs!'

'Hey-'

'And what are you all doing out of bed at this time?' Professor McGonagall asked the three boys appearing in the portrait hole. She had been on her way to an urgent and spontaneous meeting in Dumbledore's office when she heard voices inside the common room. As all of her students were supposed to be in bed, she had to go in and see what was going on. Not to her surprise, it was James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew; three out of four of the most mischief making students in her house and in the school. They had barely been back a day and they were already being disruptive.

'Well…' Sirius started, 'James?' he continued, not being able to come up with any story and passing the excuse over to his best friend.

'We heard a noise in the common room and so we came to check it out and found her…' he motioned to Lily, '…frozen.' he lied, trying his hardest to make it believable.

'And why are you still in your school robes?' McGonagall questioned.

'We were extremely tired after we got back to Hogwarts and just fell asleep in our robes.' James said, not missing a beat and getting into the swing of his untruths.

'And why is your hair wet?' McGonagall continued to interrogate.

James paused, his chain of lies breaking down. 'It's not wet it's…greasy…' he stuttered, raising his eyebrows in uncertainty.

'Excuse me.' Sirius said as soon as he heard James say that their hair was greasy. He immediately turned around and marched up the staircase which led to the boy's dormitories, presumably to wash his hair.

James closed his eyes and shook his head in exasperation. Typical Sirius.

Professor McGonagall looked at the three students left in the Gryffindor common room. James Potter was looking extremely tired and frustrated. Peter Pettigrew looked very nervous and looked as though he was about to wet himself. Finally, Lily Evans who was frozen and needed taking care of with the reversal spell. Knowing that Dumbledore was waiting for her, McGonagall decided that she didn't have the time to deal with them and that she was going to cut them some slack.

'Alright then boys, off to bed and I'll fix Miss Evans.' McGonagall sighed, taking her wand out of her dressing gown.

'Thanks miss!' James said grabbing Peter elbow and dragging him up the spiral staircase to their dormitory. He couldn't believe they had gotten away with that.

* * *

'But surely things aren't as bad as they seem?' Professor McGonagall implored of Dumbledore. As soon as she had arrived in Dumbledore's office, surprised to see that Professors Sprout, Flitwick and Slughorn had also been summoned to his office, all thoughts of her mischief making Gryffindor students out of mind. He had just explained to his staff what he believed was happening in the outside world and what their former student, Tom Riddle, was up too. She just couldn't believe it.

Dumbledore, who was stood in the corner of his office next to a spindly glass table which held his stone pensieve, traced his finger along the runes which ran around the rim. 'Things are worse than they seem.' he replied gravely. His voice portrayed the seriousness of the situation he was attempting to explain. However, it was hard for the other adults in the room to see this as he strolled over to his desk and offered his staff a pear drop each. Everyone refused and Dumbledore walked over to stroke his magnificent phoenix.

'But really Dumbledore,' Slughorn said, 'if thing were really that bad surely the Ministry would say something. I know men in the Ministers office and they always keep me up to date on the goings on of the wizarding world. Even the less publicly known.'

'Not this.' Dumbledore muttered as he rubbed the head of Fawkes. The fiery bird squawked with pleasure, the way a cat would meow if you rubbed its belly. He smiled fondly at his bird and held his finger in front of its beak and allowed the great beast to nip it affectionately.

'Well maybe the Minister of Magic's office isn't the ideal place to learn the true extent of the situation.' Professor Flitwick squeaked to Slughorn from where he sat on the seat in front of Dumbledore's desk.

'No, no. You're quite right.' Slughorn agreed, nodding his head in concurrence, 'The best place to find this stuff out is from the auror office. I know a few of the men in there and they haven't mentioned things being this bad.'

'Perhaps they don't reveal everything to you Horace.' Professor Sprout said in exasperation, shaking her head at the man who believed that he held a huge stake of importance in the wizarding world.

'Perhaps not.' Slughorn muttered, 'But surely the Daily Prophet has a duty to tell the wizarding world the economic social situation at present and furthermore-.'

'They won't if they're being censored.' Flitwick said, his high pitched voice cutting through Slughorn's booming one and leaving the room in a tangible silence. Flitwick's comment wasn't untrue. If things in the wizarding world had reached the peak of danger and the ever mounting threat was still climbing, then the Ministry would have limited the information the Daily prophet could release to the public to ensure that spirits and morale wouldn't decline. Without this information. Nobody knew how bad things were getting in the wizarding world. But obviously, Dumbledore did.

He turned around and went to sit behind his desk calmly, placing his elbows on the table and his fingertips together in thought. He peered over the lenses of his half-moon spectacles and looked around at his staff. Each one the head of a noble house at Hogwarts. Each teacher responsible for a set of the future wizarding generation for most of the year and, in some cases, most of their lives. Each one had been trusted to mould the student's young minds, to help them see wrong and right and hopefully guide them in making the best decisions. These were the people he trusted most in the world, aside from Hagrid and a few of his close friends, and these were the people he needed to turn to when the world was in peril. But he wouldn't force them to help. He wouldn't force anyone to put their life at risk. If he did that, he would be no better than Tom Riddle or the Minister.

He wondered what they'd think to his proposal. He looked at Professor McGonagall. Minerva McGonagall. She was wearing a tartan dressing gown which wasn't surprising as he had called them out to his office in the early hours of the morning. (It was the only time he could think off to call this meeting without prying ears listening in) She was looking at Dumbledore too. Curious as to why he had asked them all to meet him at this time. It was written all over his face and was quite clear to Dumbledore. He was sure she would agree to help at once. Especially if it would help protect the future generation of wizards, the children she was nurturing now, and their children's children. She may be strict, but Minerva McGonagall was a soft hearted and caring witch. One of the best Dumbledore had ever known.

Looking at Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout, he knew that they would possibly do the same. Filius Flitwick and Pomona Sprout. Flitwick was sat on the chair in front of his desk looking extremely small due to his goblin heritage. He was wearing an old fashioned blue striped night shirt with an old fashioned night cap. He stared intently at Dumbledore just as Professor Sprout was. She moved swiftly over to the chair next to Flitwick, her mustard coloured dressing gown, which had soil caked into the fabric, aired out slightly behind her as she went. She heaved a sigh and she and Flitwick shared a curious look as Dumbledore moved his gaze over to Slughorn.

He was the only one Dumbledore wasn't all too sure about. He taught Tom Riddle, the man who now went by the name of Voldemort. He was one of his all-time favourite pupils and it wasn't really surprising. Horace Slughorn was drawn to talent and success and he couldn't resist a good sob story. Someone exceeding the expectations set for them due to their social or personal circumstances. When he had found out that Tom Riddle had grown up in a muggle environment, in an orphanage without a mother or father to speak of and no knowledge of the wizarding world, when he found out that Tom Riddle had extraordinary talents, he had to collect him. Attempting to persuade Slughorn to go against one of his favourite students wouldn't be easy. He'd never join Voldemort's side, but openly defying him would be extremely difficult for him to do.

Dumbledore inhaled deeply and popped a pear drop into his mouth. He had kept them stewing long enough having not said a word for more than five minutes now. He needed to tell them what was going on in the wizarding world. He needed to tell them what he believed was happening and what he knew the Minister for Magic was not doing to protect their world.

'Voldemort is gathering an army.' Dumbledore said bluntly, laying his hands to rest on his desk, 'He has been doing for quite some time now, and it has become clear to me that he is succeeding. There are more people than we thought that are willing to fight for his cause. I believe, as the Ministry is covering up how the situation is progressing and are unwilling to admit the terrible extent of the situation, the only course of action is to create a resistance to stop Voldemort and his death eaters. Now, there is no pressure for you to join this resistance and I won't think any less of you if you decide against it.'

Without hesitating, Professor McGonagall agreed straight away. 'Well of course.' she said with a nod of her head.

'Grand idea.' Flitwick squeaked as if Dumbledore had suggested they nip out to the three broomsticks for a round of butterbeers.

Professor Sprout was also in agreement. She only said one world, 'Absolutely.'

Simultaneously, everyone in the room looked at Professor Slughorn who was looking at his feet. He looked up at the other members of staff. 'Well…obviously I think it's a good idea.' he said.

'But?' Professor Sprout interjected, predicting that the word was going to crop up soon.

'But I just…' he began.

Dumbledore held up a hand to stop Slughorn mid-sentence.

'Don't worry Horace.' he smiled kindly, 'No one here will think any less of you. I only ask that you say nothing about this. You cannot speak a word to anybody about this meeting.'

'Well of course I won't.' Slughorn replied, shaking his head at the preposterous idea, 'Let me explain why-'

'There's no need.' Dumbledore said gently. He turned away from Professor Slughorn, who was looking slightly guilty and embarrassed, and turned towards his other three members of his head staff. He smiled at them gently too, in the same way he had been previously smiling at Slughorn.

'I wish you not to take this decision lightly.' he began in all seriousness, 'By joining this resistance you will be putting yourself in constant danger, not to mention those close to you. We will be openly defying Voldemort and, at times, the Ministry of Magic and the Minister himself. You see, the Ministry does not want to accept how delicate this situation is. They would much rather overlook the suspicious deaths and disappearances too keep the morale of the wizarding world up. They will continue to overlook these things until it is too late to stop them. That is why I propose we start this counter action. It is the only way to stop Voldemort and return the world from disarray.'

'We understand.' Professor McGonagall said for herself, Professor Sprout and Professor Flitwick.

'As it is, not much can be done until the students return home at the end of the school year.' Dumbledore sighed, popping yet another pear drop into his mouth, 'As unfortunate as it is, nothing can be properly organized until the summer holidays. It is a shame since I would like to get started straight away, but I guess the time will allow me to find other willing volunteers to help defeat Voldemort. This is why, I am not forcing you to answer now, and the answers you have given I will not take as your final decisions. Please take this time to think things through and make a fully informed decision.'

'Very well.' Professor McGonagall said, once again, answering for all members of staff Dumbledore's grand office.

'This resistance,' Flitwick squeaked, 'does it have a name.

Dumbledore stood fluently and gracefully and glided back over to his magnificent, fiery coloured bird. 'It does.' he said, 'The Order of the Phoenix.'

* * *

**Thank you for reading**

**Galindaba**


	38. Chapter 37

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter Thirty-Seven!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Thirty-Seven**

The sixth year students had just had their final apparation lesson with Wilkie Twycross and wouldn't be seeing him again until those eligible took their test the following week. The week after that their end of year exams would start and they wouldn't have a real break until the end of the school year in five and a half weeks. So, taking probably their last opportunity to mess about, James, Sirius Remus and Peter decided to head to the fourth floor and pull a little prank.

They were hidden in plain sight and yet, the first and second years they were tricking didn't seem to notice them until they actually walked into their prank. Remus was sat leaning against the wall with his forearms resting on his knees. Peter was trying to imitate him but failed, gave up and sat crossed legged instead. Sirius was bouncing around, not being able to stay in one position as their victims walked into their trap and James was stood leaning against the wall in his usual position watching the fun from there.

They laughed as a small group of second years walked into their trap. What they had done was combine the strongest shield charms they could muster and cast them across the hallway. This created had a solid invisible wall of sorts, straight across the corridor. The fun came to the marauders watching the unsuspecting lower years walk into it. It was their childish nature coming out to play before they had to pack it away and focus on their end of year exams. Or at least, it was their childish nature coming out before they attempted to pack it away and try to focus on their end of year exams. They wouldn't ever really stop being immature but sometimes they had to pretend that they could.

A group of first years walked headfirst into the invisible wall and the marauders once more, laughed at their infortune. They weren't laughing long though as a voice of authority that matched Remus' spoke next to them and would most likely tell them to stop.

'What are you doing?' Lily asked the marauders with folded arms and a look of curiosity and exasperation at yet another prank of the marauders.

'Standing.' James said.

'Spinning.' Sirius said.

'Thinking.' Remus said.

'Sitting.' Peter said.

'Breathing.' James said.

'Speaking.' Remus said.

'Blinking.' Peter said.

'Eating.' Sirius said.

'You're not eating.' James stated to Sirius with one raised eyebrow.

'Oh yeah.' Sirius replied, actually looking rather upset that, at that precise moment, he wasn't eating. It was rather odd that he wasn't. Sirius would eat all day if he could.

'Are you done?' Lily sighed rolling her eyes. She didn't really want to deal with their silliness at the minute. All she really wanted was to have a serious conversation with James. It was all she seemed to want to do these days and the repetitiveness was even starting to bug her and yet, she was the one repeating the actions.

'Yeah.' Remus said, turning his head to watch a couple of second years walk into the invisible wall. 'Heh, heh.' he chuckled softly to himself, 'Classic.'

'What? What?' Sirius asked, stopping his spinning to look back and forth between Remus and the invisible wall, 'What did I miss?'

'You wouldn't have missed anything if you hadn't been too busy spinning.' Remus said, widening his eyes in a sarcastic fashion.

Sirius narrowed his eyes jokingly in response as Peter laughed.

'Well you seem to be having fun.' Lily said indulgently to the boys before turning to James, 'Can I talk to you please?' she asked him.

Sirius and Remus looked at each other curiously before looking back to James and Lily. James looked extremely reluctant to talk to her and, in truth, he was. He had heard Sirius use that tone of voice with some of the girls he had gone out with and it always ended the same way; Sirius broke up with them. Now he and Lily weren't actually together so there was nothing to break up but still, that tone of voice didn't sound like anything good would follow. He had a sneaking suspicion that she wanted to talk about what happened when they had finished their Felix Felicis potion for Slughorn. That topic combined with her tone of voice didn't make for a conversation that would make him happy. In fact, he believed that if he went to talk to her, she would say something along the line of 'we should just be friends' which would effectively break his heart as she was really all he wanted. After all, when he had tried to kiss her she didn't exactly react the way he would have wanted her too. In fact she had pulled away and now she was doing it again.

Not wanting this to happen, James just said, 'You're talking now.'

'In private?' Lily said with a questioning lilt.

'Ohh…' Sirius and Remus began before being silenced with a harsh look from Lily.

James glanced down at his friends, really unwilling to go and hear the words he was all too sure were coming. He closed his eyes and exhaled deeply. 'Can it wait?' he asked her.

'Can I just talk to you please?' Lily replied becoming impatient.

James grimaced and ran a hand through his hair. 'Alright.' he said, following her further down the corridor and out of earshot of his friends. He didn't want this to happen and so, resolute on this, he decided not to go through the humiliation, determined to nip things in the bud before they started. He wouldn't let himself or his pride be wounded. James Potter had a big ego.

As soon as they were around the corner of the corridor, out of sight of the other marauders and their invisible wall, Lily turned to face James to talk to him and tell him that she wanted them to be together and she didn't regret what had almost happened in the potions room and she kind of wished that they had kissed. She wanted to tell him that they had been stuck in this awkward phase for too long now and, although it was her fault initially, she wanted to do something about it now and perhaps go on an official date.

She took a deep breath and began, 'I wanted to talk to you about what happened when we finished our potion and I just want to say that-'

'I know what you're going to say.' James said, cutting her off.

'You do?' Lily asked, excitement building in her stomach. This was it.

'Yeah.' James sighed grievously, 'You're going to say that I over-stepped and that we should just remain friends because it's working and we shouldn't ruin that and…I agree. I like the fact that we're friends now and I don't want to ruin that so, don't worry, I won't try anything like that again. Ok?'

'Uh-huh.' Lily said in shock, not actually being able to reply. That wasn't what she was going to say at all. Was that how he felt? All she was sure of now was that she was a little bit embarrassed. Evidently, she was in a much different place than he was.

'Don't worry then.' James said, 'We're still friends.' he finished before turning around and walking back to his friends. That was painful enough, he didn't want to increase anything and he didn't want her to see his pain. If she did, she'd know that he was lying. He wanted to be more then friends. He just thought it was a shame that she didn't.

Lily watched him walk away. Not for the first time, neither one of them had any idea that the other felt the same way. If they had, things would have probably been a lot simpler. At least you'd think they would be. At the minute though, Lily just stood in shock. She was sure that he would have felt the same way. After all, he was the one who initiated their almost kiss in the first place. But a lot can change in a month. You never can tell with some people.

'Has he upset you?' came a voice from behind Lily.

She turned around slowly to face the last person she really wanted to see in the world; her ex-best friend and all-round, proverbial pain in the arse. Severus Snape.

'I thought we'd established that we weren't friends anymore.' Lily said to him moodily, not having any patience to tolerate him at the minute. 'It's been a whole year. How have you not got the message?'

'Just because you aren't my friend anymore…' Severus stopped thinking better of his next words, 'You said you'd never be his friend.' he spat at her angrily, reminding her of words she had spoken several years ago.

'Yeah, well, things change.' Lily replied quickly in an attempt to end this unwanted conversation as soon as she possibly could, 'I thought I'd always be your friend.'

'I know.' Severus said, glancing down in regret for a second before looking back up, staring intensely into Lily's vivid emerald eyes and stepping closer to her.

When Severus stepped closer to her she stepped backwards, not wanting to be that close to him. She took in a deep breath and held it for a few seconds raising her eyebrows in a warning to Severus. She knew what he was capable of now. She had seen him ruthlessly attack one of his fellow Slytherin's and leave him bleeding on the floor. She had seen him cruelly taunt the younger years with the spell he had invented and had so often been used on him by James Potter. She didn't know what happened to the sweet boy that she had been friends with before Hogwarts, but he was no longer the boy she saw before him and she didn't really want to be anywhere near him.

'You said that Potter was an irresponsible, arrogant, big-headed toe-rag!' Severus hissed to Lily in an attempt to remind her of the type of person James actually was, 'You said he was the last person in the world you could like or even be friends with.'

'I know.' Lily said, 'I don't suffer from memory loss. I know what I said. And truth be told, James probably is _still_ all of those things. But I'd rather be friends with someone like that than someone like you. You, a…vindictive...evil, little…wanna-be death eater who obviously has _no_ respect for personal boundaries.' she continued, stepping backwards once again from Severus who had just taken another step towards her.

'I'm not like that.' Severus insisted through gritted teeth, his fists clenched down by his sides, 'I'm not like that. I'm not vindictive and I'm not evil.'

'Yes you are!' Lily said with a half laugh, not believing that he was trying to deny what she had said. It was all true.

'I'll never be as bad as Potter.' Severus said, sneering at James' name.

'Oh you are way worse than he is or will ever be!' Lily exclaimed in truth, 'James Potter is a much better person than you are and a _much _better friend to me than you ever were. He doesn't call me a you-know-what. You can disbelieve it all you want but that won't stop it being true.'

Severus breathed heavily not liking what she had just said. 'Have you forgotten what he did to me over the years? The way he hexed, cursed and jinxed me and everyone else in sight.'

'He's not like that anymore-'

'No one changes that quickly!' Severus spat at her.

Lily turned her head away from him, not particularly wanting to be reminded about that side of James' personality. She breathed deeply. It was true that James had hexed, cursed and jinxed everyone he could, especially Severus. But he hadn't done that this year. He had changed. She knew he had. And she liked who he was now. She wasn't about to let Severus make her feel badly about it.

Severus watched her turn her face away. He was about to say more on this subject but he had a feeling that it would only make things worse. If he tried again to make her believe that he was a better person than James Potter, if he tried to remind her of the git that tortured him for the first five years of Hogwarts and press upon her the fact that he hadn't changed as she thought he had, then she may hurt him more. Plus, apart from a gut feeling, he had no proof that he hadn't changed. He hadn't hexed him this year. So Severus said nothing more on this subject. He thought better of it. 'Has he upset you?' he revised, returning to his original question.

Lily sighed and folded her arms before forcing herself to face him again. 'No.' she said defiantly. She then walked away from him coming completely to the end of her tether of patience for him.

Severus breathed heavily, his eyes brows lowering and creating dark shadows over his evil eyes. His sallow cheeks were pinched in and his lips had almost disappeared completely. She was lying. He could tell. He had loved her since the moment he first laid eyes on her all those years ago and he couldn't bear the thought of her being hurt, especially by Potter. He had to do something about it.

* * *

Sirius was still spinning, Remus was still telling him to stop and Peter was still sitting crossed legged watching their invisible wall when James returned from talking to Lily. He looked extremely deflated when he came back, an unmistakable air of despair in his eyes, the usual mischievous glint that highlighted them gone. He came to a standstill next to his friends and ran a hand through his hair.

'I'm gonna go to the Quidditch pitch.' James said to them bluntly, no hint of an invitation for them to join him.

They knew by his tone of voice that he didn't want them to come with him and they all respected that. Even Sirius. It didn't stop them being concerned though and Remus had to ask, 'Are you alright mate?'

'Yeah. Just…' James started but never finished.

'What happened Prongs?' Sirius asked James, finally stopping spinning out of worry for his best friend. 'What'd Evans say to you?'

'Nothing much.' James replied truthfully. 'Just about the potion that we made.' he shrugged, 'I'm going to the Quidditch pitch.'

'Alright then.' Remus said for the group, 'See you later.'

'See ya.' James said depressively as he walked away from his friends and the second year students that had just banged into their invisible wall.

He walked through the school slowly, his hands shoved deep into his pockets and his mind whirring. He felt extremely empty. Just over a month ago, he had hope. He had believed that Lily felt the same way about him that he felt about her. At one point it was a fact and she had even told him. He had already been told by Hestia Jones but Lily had still told him the same thing. At that moment he thought it was inevitable that they would end up together. Then he had found out that Lily had thought that he already had a girlfriend. So he had explained to her that he wasn't in a relationship and asked her what she wanted to do and she had replied, 'I'm sorry'. But even at that point, James still didn't lose hope. He still believed that they had something and he had evidence for it. They flirted a lot and hugged and he had genuinely thought that she had become jealous when she had heard about him hugging Gwenog Jones. Obviously, he was wrong. He had misread the signs but he just couldn't understand how.

He mooched sluggishly down three flights of stairs and stood still on one moving staircase before he reached the entrance hall. He strolled through the great doors which served as the entrance to the grand castle. As he walked through it a group of girls giggled as he past them. He smiled at them and they blushed furiously. Sometimes, he just thought that it might be simpler for him if he just chose one of those girls to go out with. He was sure that they would jump at the chance as they and many other groups of girls were always following him around. He wasn't stupid. He knew what people thought of him. But James had never liked any of those girls; mostly because they liked him and, in his eyes, they were all the same. Lily however, was the complete opposite. She was different and, for several years, couldn't stand James. That's why he had first been attracted to her and it didn't hurt that she was a beautiful person and very attractive. Deep red hair and emerald green eyes. Then as he got to know her he liked her even more and he made it well known. He kind of regretted that now. Now he knew that all they would ever be was friends.

When James reached the Quidditch pitch, he didn't fetch his broom to fly. Instead he made his way into the Gryffindor section of the spectator's stand, a place he only went when Gryffindor wasn't playing and the other house teams were. Now he just liked the solitude that it provided. Nobody else was there and it gave him time to sort through his own mind. As it wasn't raining it was all he could get. He walked into the middle of the Gryffindor stand and sat down in the middle of the long bench which provided the only source of seating in the stands. He flopped down and looked up to the sky. June was really kicking in now and the sky above him was a beautiful clear blue. There were still a few clouds hovering around in the sky but those that were, were a bright white.

Still looking above him, James saw a small brown speck coming towards him. He squinted through his glasses and tried to focus on the flying dot, attempting to make out what it was. It was only when the brown speck came closer to him that he realised that it was his rufus legged owl; Sox. James smiled as she flew down and settled on the bench to the right of him. He held out his hand to her and she nipped him affectionately, hooting slightly as she did so. James smiled down at his little owl. He had a feeling that Sirius had sent her to try and cheer him up. It was a nice thing to do but James knew that Sirius had only done it because he didn't want him to be alone. Sirius always believed that if you were sad, you should never be by yourself. 'It will just make you sadder' he'd say.

James tickled Sox' head. Her feathers were extremely soft and her eyes closed slowly as her stroked her. It was a sign of liking. It was sweet.

'What did you do to her?' came a voice from James' right hand side.

James looked up and saw Severus Snape walking cautiously towards him with his wand outstretched. James wasn't alarmed as others would be in his situation. He knew he could take Severus if he wanted too. However, instead of taking his wand out and provoking a duel with the Slytherin half-wit, James just rolled his eyes in exasperation and looked away from Severus and out onto the Quidditch pitch. 'You know Snivellus,' James sighed, 'you're going to haveto stop stalking me or I'm going to have to say to you what I say to all the other little girls who follow me around.' he looked back to Severus with raised eyebrows, 'Stop it. It's creepy.'

'What did you do to her?' Severus asked again through gritted teeth, twisting his wrist round and angling his wand to James' face.

James looked at Severus' wand with exhausted derision. He looked at it as though it was nothing more than a toy and could do him no harm. Instead of answering him, he went back to stroking Sox.

Severus asked his question one more time, taking a step towards James as he did so. 'What did you do to her?'

'Hey she came of her own accord!' James said, 'And she's my owl anyway. Why do you care?'

'Not her!' Severus sneered, looking at the small owl as though she was diseased, 'Lily.'

'Lily?' James asked standing up and moving Sox over to the side railings which kept the spectators safe from falling down into the pitch.

'Yes Lily!' Severus spat in reply, 'What did you do to her?'

James turned to look at Severus with a curious look. He had just realised something. 'You like her don't you?' he questioned, attempting not to laugh at what he believed was a ridiculous idea. He could never see Lily, beautiful and kind, with Severus Snape, greasy haired, hooked nosed and an evil wanna-be death eater. It was an insane notion. 'Look mate,' James started, trying to hold back his mocking smile, 'If she won't go out with me, she _definitely_ won't go out with you.'

Breathing deeply, Severus took another step towards James and raised his wand arm higher. 'What makes you so sure?' he hissed.

James laughed as if Severus was crazy for even asking this question. He shook his head. 'Well,' he started, 'for one…' James motioned down at his body, toned and handsome, tall and smart, which was the complete opposite of Severus', hunched and sickly thin, slightly shorter and scruffy. He nodded approvingly at himself with a smirk. 'And for another…' he continued, motioning at Severus with a look of disgust and a shake of his head.

Again, Severus took another step towards James. What he had said wasn't untrue. In way of looks, James beat Severus down pat. James was a very good looking lad. He was tall and handsome, with alluringly cool messy hair and glinting hazel brown eyes behind round glasses. He had a face full of laughter and wasn't ever without a good-natured smile for anyone who passed him by. And he was toned and muscular. Severus on the other hand was in opposition to James. He had greasy black hair which hung in curtains over his face and hard black eyes which looked dead inside. He had a hooked nose and a constant sneer for everyone, even those he was supposed to be friends with. And he was shorter than James with hunched shoulders. He looked out of place.

Severus exhaled furiously, his nostrils flaring as he looked at James with a malicious sneer of jealousy. He watched him pet his annoying little owl with his index finger. It kept hooting with joy. Annoying joy. Annoying Severus to the point where he just couldn't take that annoying bird anymore. Even animals seemed to like Potter better than him. Stupid little bird which kept hooting. Hooting. Annoying. Hooting.

Severus couldn't stand it anymore. 'Sectumsempra!' he yelled, throwing the curse he had invented at the innocent little owl.

As soon as James heard the words come out of Severus' mouth, he looked up at him and saw his wand pointed at Sox. He saw it in slow motion and, with a need to protect his beloved little owl, he threw his arm in front of her, scaring her in the process so she flew away, and taking the spell on his arm in place of her. Straight away, James' arms began to bleed frantically; just as Avery's whole body had done when Severus had placed this curse on him. It hurt. James had a pretty good threshold for pain but this really hurt and, for probably only around the third or fourth time in his life, James swore.

'Ah crap!' he said, shaking his arm and then, when the full extent of the pain set in, his robes becoming drenched in blood, he changed his words. 'Ah shit! This hurts! What the bloody heck do you think you're playing at?' he shouted at Severus, gripping his arm hard to try and stop the bleeding.

'WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!' Severus shouted in return, now pointing his wand at James' chest, his hand shaking in complete anger.

'Look,' James started, fumbling in his robes for his wand with the arm that wasn't dripping in blood right now, 'I don't know what you're talking about and to be perfectly honest, I don't care, cause it's probably all in your head, so before I go and get Slughorn to sort this mess out, I'm gonna say this again; stop following me, it's creepy.' He found his wand, 'Accio broom.' he said, casting the spell into mid-air.

When he had finally, put his wand back in his robes, he saw his broom zooming along towards him. Not saying anything else to Severus who, in his opinion, was not worth the time of day, and using his one good arm, James swung himself agilely over the railing, into the Quidditch pitch and dropped a good ten feet onto his broom.

He flew away from the Quidditch pitch and towards the grand castle that was Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As he went he heard Severus shout out to him one more time, 'WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?' but he just ignored him as his arm was in excruciating pain and he just needed to concentrate on flying to Slughorn's office in the dungeons without passing out from blood loss.

As he flew over the head of some of the students of Hogwarts, he caught their attention and, unfortunately, he also caught Professor McGonagall's.

'Mr Potter!' she said sternly, looking up to him and not noticing his bloody arm, (he was hiding it very well), 'No brooms in the school.'

'Sorry Professor!' James shouted as he passed her, making no attempt to stop and get off of his broom.

'Mr Potter, if you don't come down from there I'll have no choice but to give you detention.' she said, putting her hands on her hips and giving him an ultimatum.

'Fair enough!' James yelled back to her as he flew away, 'See you in detention then.' It was just another detention to him. He didn't care. Right now, all he wanted to do was get his arm healed by the one person whom he knew could do it; Professor Slughorn.

* * *

'So you're just going to be friends?'

'Yep.'

'And you're ok with that?'

'Yep.'

'Liar!'

'I'm not lying.' Lily said as she pulled her huge Hogwarts trunk from under her four poster bed, 'It's what he wants and it's what I want too.'

'You are such a liar!' Hestia said in disbelief. She was sat crossed legged on Lily's bed, watching her pull out her trunk to start packing five and a half weeks before they were actually due to leave Hogwarts for the summer. (It would take Lily that long to pack things 'properly'.)

'Will you stop calling me that please?' Lily said, annoyed.

'Well it's true!' Hestia said, 'I don't get you two at all. You like him, he likes you-'

'He doesn't'

'-why can't you just _be_ together?' Hestia continued, talking over Lily. She grabbed Lily's pillow and hugged it to her chest, staring down at Lily. 'And I don't care what he said or what you think, he does still like you and I just don't see how you can keep dancing around the inevitable!'

'It's not inevitable Hestia.' Lily sighed. 'Can you pass me that book please?' she asked Hestia.

Hestia looked behind her and noticed Lily's book on her bedside table. She picked it up and handed it to he and Lily put it in the little box she kept in her trunk full of her favourite books from home. Inside it she had 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', 'The Go-Between', Erich Segal's 'Love Story' and about eight other books which added considerable weight to her luggage.

'It's just obviously not in the cards for us and I'd appreciate it if you wold just accept it.' Lily said, squashing the book Hestia had handed her into her box. 'I mean it was just a crush anyway. And I don't see why you care so much because it's not even your problem. Anyway, don't you have a boyfriend?'

'Yeees.' Hestia said, extending her vowels.

'And are you ever going to tell me who it is?' Lily asked her. She had finally fit the book in her little box and closed the lid putting it in the top left corner of her trunk. She then changed her mind and moved it down into the bottom left corner. Changing her mind again, she took the box out completely and started to pack away the shoes she wasn't going to use in the upcoming weeks. She was an extremely strange packer.

'Maybe if we're still together after the summer holidays.' Hestia said, passing Lily some flat blue shoes that were the other side of her bed. There was something in her tone that suggested maybe things weren't quite all that peachy. As if there was a chance they wouldn't be together by then.

'Thanks.' Lily said, taking the shoes and putting them in the corner of her trunk on top of her spare-spare pair of school shoes. 'Well you know what they say; absence makes the heart grow fonder!'

'Does that apply to you and James Potter?' Hestia asked suggestively.

'Noooo.' Lily replied, elongating her vowels just as Hestia had done before, 'And I thought we'd moved past this. It's getting tedious.'

'Tell me about it.' Hestia said, 'I have to listen to you pretending to swap and change your mind saying you like him, you're over it, you like him again. Seriously,' Hestia continued handing Lily another pair of shoes, 'It's like an on-and-off-again relationship with no relationship!'

'So you're not going to tell me who you're dating then?' Lily said, returning to her chosen topic of conversation with her best friend. She was fed up of what Hestia wanted to talk about.

Hestia thought about it for a moment before deciding that she would tell her. 'Alright.' she said with a smile, moving forwards on Lily's bed and leaning forwards excitedly. 'He's a Hufflepuff and he's really sweet.'

'Well that's a given being from Hufflepuff.' Lily said, rolling her eyes and unpacking the shoes she had just packed away neatly in her trunk. 'What's his name?' she continued.

'Matthew Davies.' Hestia grinned shyly, 'He's the beater on their Quidditch team. For our first date he took me to the Quidditch shop in Hogsmeade and bought me a broom grooming kit. Well…kind of. We went halves.'

'That's still sweet.' Lily said with a questioning tone. She wasn't too sure of what Hestia wanted from her. At the beginning of her first date story, Hestia had seemed very gooey and misty-eyed but by the end something had changed. Lily couldn't quite put her finger on it. All she knew is she didn't want to know what her best friend would be like if the romantic in her was crushed.

'Yeah. Anyway.' Hestia continued, bouncing back and smiling again as she absentmindedly watched Lily repack her book box into her trunk, 'The best thing is, he's a seventh year.'

Lily stopped packing and looked up. She blinked a couple of times in annoyed shock and slowly shook her head at her best friend.

'What?' she asked, 'He's a seventh year? So you weren't going to introduce me to him until after the summer holidays in case the relationship wouldn't last all the while knowing that when we came back from the summer holidays you wouldn't actually be able to introduce us as he would have left the school already?'

Hestia thought for a second. She nodded. 'Yeah!'

* * *

Remus, Sirius and Peter had been sat in the common room for two hours now. Remus had been studying and attempting to get Sirius to do the same. He didn't succeed. Sirius, instead of studying for their exams which were hovering over them like an impending black cloud, sat attempting to balance a teaspoon on his nose.

Remus tried to ignore him. If Sirius wasn't going to study then that was his decision, but Remus was determined not to let him distract him from his studies. He actually cared about getting a good mark in the end of year exams. They were a good indicator of what they could achieve in their N.E.W.T's the following year. Even if Sirius didn't want to have a rough guideline of what he might get, Remus did and Peter did too. (He was sat studying next to Sirius) Unfortunately for Remus, the annoyance of Sirius in his peripheral vision was too much to handle and he had to stop.

'Will you please stop doing that?' Remus begged Sirius, turning his care of magical creature's book over in annoyance, 'It's very distracting!'

'Good!' Sirius said. As soon as he spoke though, he regretted it as his spoon fell off of his nose. 'Ah man!'

'You're such a child.' Remus muttered under his breath, turning his care of magical creature's book over again to carry on studying.

They were quiet again for a few more minutes. Sirius once again placed his teaspoon on his nose, going cross-eyed as he looked at it, concentrating with all his might on balancing the tiny metal object as long as he could. Remus continued to read his book, every so often writing notes on the section he was studying and every so often throwing an annoyed glance at Sirius accompanied with a throaty sigh. Peter also continued to read his care of magical creature's book. However, unlike Remus, he wasn't throwing dirty looks at Sirius. Instead, he was peering over Remus' notes looking extremely confused, upset and rather pathetic.

'I've forgotten everything!' he whimpered to Remus, putting his head in his hands.

'Didn't know you knew anything Wormy!' Sirius mocked, his spoon falling off of his nose again as he spoke. 'Ah man!' he said, picking the spoon back up and, for the third time that evening, rebalanced the spoon on his nose.

'Ignore him.' Remus said, taking Peter's book away from him and closing it, 'I bet you know more than you think you do. I'll test you. What's a Crup?'

'A wizard bred dog.' Sirius said, answering for Peter, the teaspoon falling off of his nose one more time.

'Let him answer!' Remus reprimanded, looking at Sirius with wide warning eyes.

Sirius didn't answer him. He didn't like being told off by Remus. So, instead of answering, Sirius scowled at Remus through narrowed eyes and, extremely accurately, threw his spoon at his head.

Remus wasn't fazed when it hit him and went on to ask Peter another question about the subject that only they shared. 'What's a…Porlock?'

Peter paused. His eyes darted back and forth, left to right, his little mind working hard to try and find the answer. Little lines started to form between his eyebrows as no answer came to him.

'We did this on Thursday.' Remus said with one raised eyebrow, not believing that this was taking Peter so long.

Still nothing came to Peter and he looked at Remus, pleading for the answer.

'A horse guardian.' Remus stated, sighing and shaking his head.

'I knew that!' Sirius boasted.

Remus fumbled around on the floor for the spoon Sirius had just thrown at him. When he found it, he lobbed it back at Sirius, hitting him on the shoulder. Sirius just laughed at the childishness, happy that he was two for two on some Care of Magical Creature's questions, a subject he had never taken in his life. It felt good to know things and never learn them. It was what he did every year at Hogwarts and his main reason for vowing not to study. Why should he study when he knew the stuff anyway?

'Alright.' Remus breathed, calming himself down as the combined efforts of coping with Sirius, trying to help Peter study and studying himself was getting him rather stressed. 'Let's try something simple.' he said to Peter, 'What creatures are combined to make a Hippogriff?'

Peter didn't answer.

'Sirius is right! You know nothing!' Remus said, frustrated. He threw Peter's book back to him and tried once more to get on with his own studying but something else distracted him. Something he wasn't expecting.

The portrait hole swung open and James walked in quickly, walking straight past his friends who noticed him, but whom he did not notice. His school robe was folded over his shoulder and the sleeve of his white shirt on his left arm was torn and rolled halfway up his forearm. He was attempting to roll it down when Sirius, Remus and Peter saw it.

The three boys looked at each other with curiosity and suspicion as James disappeared up the spiral staircase to the boy's dormitories.

Remus was the first to voice their witness. 'Was that…blood?' he asked.

The group paused for two seconds before making a mad scramble to get up and see what was up with James. Why had he disappeared earlier looking thoroughly depressed? And why had he returned with blood all over his shirt?

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	39. Chapter 38

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter Thirty-Eight!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Thirty-Eight**

Lily bounced through the large gates which served as the main entrance to Hogwarts. She was extremely excited. All her hard work had paid off and she had done it. She had passed. She wondered how many others had passed their apparation tests. She knew that Hestia hadn't as she hadn't taken hers yet. She wasn't seventeen and, until she was, she wasn't allowed to take the apparation test that they had been taking lessons for since they returned to Hogwarts from the Christmas holidays. She would have to wait until the summer holidays when her birthday was. Then she could go to the Ministry of Magic and take her test there. Unfortunately for her, in Lily's opinion, that meant that she wasn't able to experience the feel of community as the rest of the sixth years took their test in Hogsmeade.

That sense of community was what made the test fun for her. All the mishaps that happened when the group she was in had taken the test. Like when Alice, who was walking back to the school with Frank, had been told to apparate into the three broomsticks and had ended up apparating on to the roof of the pub instead. Luckily for her, Frank, as the dutiful boyfriend, had distracted the examiner long enough for her to disapparate off of the roof and into the bar. However, Franks 'distraction' took a lot longer than planned, to the point where Alice had to walk out of the three broomsticks to see what was happening. You see, the only way Frank could think of to distract the examiner was to disapparate and splinch himself and quite painfully so. He left behind his left ear, both his big toes and six fingers. Luckily for him, he had already taken his test and passed so the only consequence of his actions was a few aching, reattached body parts.

Through all that excitement though, Lily still wanted to know how her other friends did. She wanted to know how Emmeline had gotten on. Things were a bit strange with them at the minute since Emmeline and Alice's fall out. It really had nothing to do with Lily or Hestia, but somehow they had been dragged into the middle of it as, for the past week, Alice had been hanging out with them instead of Emmeline. Alice hadn't been back to a divination lesson since their fall out either, too suspect that Emmeline would see more of what she believed, was Franks 'disloyalties'. Even if what she saw was just a load of false blobs which were nothing to do with Alice, Lily still liked Emmeline and believed that she was entitled to her own opinions and she wanted to know how she had done in her apparation test.

As she started towards the school though, she saw some of her other friends. Others she knew had taken their tests before her. They were under their usual beech tree laughing in their care free manner. Their school robes were hung over one of the branches of the tree, (as they had been told they had to wear their school clothes to take the test in) and they were just sat in the white school shirts and deep grey trousers that almost all of the students at Hogwarts wore under their robes. (Lily wore a deep grey pleated skirt and a white open neck shirt under her school robes) She made a start towards them and, as she got closer, she saw that they were each sat with a jar of jam and a spoon. Still, she would ask about that afterwards. Right now she wanted to know how the marauders had gotten on in their apparation tests.

'Hey.' she said to them as she sat down next to James, her red hair flying out and flowing down as she sat. 'So how did you all do?' she asked with a curious, happy and questioning tone.

'We all passed.' James said nonchalantly with a shrug.

'Yay!' Lily said, suddenly hugging James much to his surprise, 'Well done!'

'Err…thanks.' James said his shock showing clear on his face. He hugged her back and after a few seconds, withdrew from her with a confused smile as Sirius was making insinuating faces at him behind Lily's back.

'Where's my hug?' Sirius said to Lily, pulling a fake puppy dog face at her.

'You are joking right?' Lily asked with a polite 'are you kidding me?' smile.

'No.' Sirius said seriously whilst James, Peter and Remus sniggered into their jam. 'Why won't you hug me? Don't you like me?'

Lily paused and thought for a second. 'Not as much as him.' she said pointing at James who raised his eyebrows. He was confused.

'Come on Evans!' Sirius whined, opening his arms wide, 'Give me a hug!'

'No.' Lily said simply.

'Why not?' Sirius asked innocently.

'Well,' she began, looking him up and down with a bit of a repulsed look, 'for one, you're covered in jam. Why are you all eating jam?' she asked, looking around at all four of the marauders, frowning in question.

'Sirius had a bad stomach.' Remus said in way of explanation.

Lily nodded her head slowly as she once again looked around at the group of boys. They all seemed extremely contented with their jam jars, each with an individual spoon. Peter wasn't actually eating his as quick as the other three and, by the look of his face as he took a rare spoonful, Lily suspected that he didn't actually like jam. He was just eating it so that he wasn't left out. Remus was eating his casually and seemed to be the only normal one out of the four. Sirius was making a right meal out of his. He had jam all around his mouth, some on his nose and some on the white school shirt he was wearing with the sleeves rolled up. Finally, Lily turned to James, her heart rate speeding up as she did so. He wasn't messy at all but, like Sirius, the sleeves on his brilliant white shirt were casually rolled up. However, unlike Sirius, there were no jam stains. He was eating his jam weirdly but Lily kind of liked it. He was using the back of the spoon instead of the side specifically designed for the purpose of eating food with. They were all sat crossed legged on the grass apart from James who was leant against the beech tree, his legs bent up with his elbows leaning on his knees. Perhaps that was why he smelt of beech wood.

She snapped herself out of her staring and blinked her eyes a couple of times. 'Well I'm going to see how Emmeline got on.' she said, standing up and smoothing down her skirt. 'Well done on your tests.' she continued, smiling down at James.

'You too.' he replied politely, giving her a confused smile, 'Bye.'

'Bye.' she answered and walked away.

James watched her go thoughtfully before shaking his thoughts out of his head and returning to his jam.

'Thought she just wanted to be friends?' Remus asked James who just shrugged.

'She does.' James said noncommittally, licking the jam off of the back of his spoon.

Remus inhaled with raised eyebrows. He dug back into his jam. 'Could've fooled me.' he muttered.

* * *

Before the students of Hogwarts knew it their end of year exams had arrived. People were really stressing out and some of them just went stir crazy. Especially those taking major exams such as O.W.L's or N.E.W.T's. You could often find a fifth year or seventh year student talking to themselves in the toilets or crying after believing their exam had gone badly. One student this year from Ravenclaw, who was taking her History of Magic exam, had even ran out of the great hall half way through the test as she had believed that she had confused the names of two historic wizards and was just going to nip and ask them who was who.

Some people in the school however, weren't too fussed about their end of year exams. James Potter and Sirius Black in particular didn't give two hoots. They had missed their Herbology exam as they had decided that painting all the mirrors in Hogwarts black was a much better use of their time. Since Herbology was their first exam though, Remus had since been instructed to drag them to every exam thereafter, ensuring they didn't miss anymore. This wasn't fun for James, Sirius or Remus.

'Come on!' Remus said, pulling one of Sirius' arms as he was using the other to hold onto their dormitory's door frame, refusing to go down to their Charms exam.

'I don't want too!' Sirius said as he gripped even tighter to the door frame, determined that he would not be dragged down to the Charms classroom and be submitted to a test he didn't want to take.

'What's the big deal?' Remus asked through gritted teeth giving one last tug before giving up, out of breath after ten solid minutes of pulling Sirius' arm. 'It's not even a proper test like situation. All we have to do is go to our normal lesson.' he said, leaning against the wall opposite the dormitory door to recover.

'But it's still a test and I don't like tests.' Sirius moaned still gripping the doorframe intensely for a few seconds before realising that Remus was no longer pulling him. He attempted to nonchalantly let go of the door and lean on the door frame without Remus noticing but it didn't work; Remus saw him and raised his eyebrows.

'You took the apparation test.' Remus pointed out folding his arms and waiting with mock baited breath to see how Sirius would respond.

'Yeah but I had to take that test.' Sirius said, 'It benefited me. Just like the O.W.L's did and the N.E.W.T's will next year. They are the only tests that I have to take.'

Remus couldn't answer him. He shook his head in exasperation and rolled his eyes, his eyelids blinking down quickly. What he said wasn't untrue. The apparation test, the O.W.L's and the N.E.W.T's were technically the only tests that would benefit him directly and give him a good standing out in the real wizarding world. Remus just couldn't understand how Sirius could approach the end of year tests which were a great indicator in how much they had learnt that year with such a casual flippancy.

After thinking about his response for a few moments, Remus opened his mouth to talk when James came out of the dormitory. He walked straight past Remus and Sirius with a quick urgency whilst pulling on his school robes over his shirt and trousers and sorting the collar on his shirt out underneath it.

'And where are you going?' Remus asked, giving up on Sirius and following James down the stairs.

'Owlery.' James said simply, jumping down the last three steps into the common room.

'We have a Charms test.' Remus said as he trailed after James into the common room, shoving his hands deep in his pockets and clenching them. He was getting quite annoyed by this now. Sometimes he wished that he wasn't viewed as the responsible one. The prefect. If he wasn't viewed as this by almost everyone in the school, most importantly the teachers, then maybe Professor McGonagall wouldn't have charged him with ensuring that James and Sirius took the end of year exams.

'And?' James said in response to Remus' statement, turning around to him and shrugging. 'I need to go to the Owlery. I don't know where Sox is. I haven't seen her since…the 5th. Not last Sunday, Sunday before.'

'Ah yes!' Remus said, folding his arms and looking as though he was extremely disappointed in James and was about to scold him, 'The day you came back to the common room covered in blood.'

James sighed and hung his head back, looking up to the ceiling. 'I wasn't _covered_ in blood, it was just my arm.'

'And you still don't want to tell us how that happened?' Sirius asked. He had followed James and Remus down the stairs because he didn't like the fact that Remus' attention had so fickly switched from him to James.

James inhaled deeply. 'Don't we have a Charms exam to get to?' he asked changing the subject. He would have to go and try to find Sox later. He was sure she was ok wherever she was. She was a very tough bird. She may only be small but she could take care of herself. She did do her own hunting.

Remus frowned. 'Hmmm.' he hummed with narrowed eyes. He wasn't best pleased that James was avoiding this subject. Something had happened and it was odd that James hadn't shared it with any of them. Their secrets, (such as the illegal Animagi secret), was what bound them together as a group. It was what made the marauders who they were and it was made their friendship strong and admired. But James keeping this one secret, no matter what it was or how big or small it was, made Remus and Sirius have suspicions which brought a previously unseen level of mistrust to their group.

'Look it was nothing bad I promise.' James said, sensing that they hadn't dropped the subject. 'But we do have a Charms exam to get to right?' he continued, looking extremely miserable when he mentioned their exam.

'Yeah alright.' Remus said, turning around, 'Sirius lets…' Remus stopped and looked around the common room. Sirius had gone. 'Sirius? Ugh. Prongs can you help me look for-' he started, but when he turned back round to face James, he was gone too. He sighed, shook his head and licked his lips. 'What a charmed life I lead.' he said.

* * *

Lily sat in her Ancient Runes exam, almost pulling her hair out as she stared at the symbols on the board which they were meant to be translating. She had done two so far and couldn't for the life of her figure out what the others meant. Her mind couldn't focus on the task she was meant to be doing. All she could think of was the fact that she had three exams left after this one and that the school year would be completely over very shortly. She'd be able to see her parents again whom she hadn't seen since Christmas. She never really got homesick but she did miss her parents. She was sure all the kids at Hogwarts did.

Shaking her head of these thoughts, Lily attempted to get back to translating the runes on the board in front of the class but she couldn't help her mind drifting off elsewhere. There were so many things that she needed to do before she was ready to go home. She had to finish packing for one. She had started weeks ago but, Lily being Lily, had packed and unpacked so many times that she might as well have never started. It seemed every time she would try and pack away her belongings, she found that she needed something that she had packed away. Any sensible person would just stop packing until the day or so before leaving. Not Lily. It wasn't that she wasn't sensible, it was just that she liked to have everything packed away in a certain way.

She tried to stop thinking about all of the packing, or repacking, she had left to do and once again, tried to focus on the Ancient Runes that Professor Babbling had magically drawn on the board. She looked at the third one in the sequence. It didn't look like anything like any of the runes she had studied. She would tell her professor that she believed there was a chance she had made a mistake but she didn't want to risk being given a detention by her yet again. She didn't know what it was about her this year but her Ancient Runes professor had taken a sudden and, in Lily's opinion, a severe disliking for her. Suddenly, Lily, who had never had a detention through her first five years at Hogwarts, had ended up with three, all from the same subject. It was no match for the one hundred and forty three detentions that the marauders had collectively accumulated this year, but for Lily, it was three too many.

Try as she might, her mind started to wonder again. She had made the leap from Ancient Runes, to detention, to the marauders, and now she was thinking about James. This was the worse topic for her to be thinking about during an exam. She'd never be able to get back to translating the runes now. She was stuck. She didn't know what she was going to do about James. They were leaving for the summer holidays soon and she wouldn't see him for around six weeks. Last year and the years that preceded that, she wouldn't have minded at all. She wouldn't have relished in the fact that she would not be seeing him for so long. She would have revelled in six long Potter free weeks when she didn't have to intervene to stop him hexing Severus or anyone else he fancied. This year however, she had an empty saddened feeling in the pit of her stomach as she thought about it. She didn't want to not see him for six weeks.

'Alright class, you have ten minutes left.' Professor Babbling announced to the class.

Lily cursed herself internally for allowing herself to be distracted by her own mind. She looked back at the board and decided, as she couldn't for the life of her figure out what the third rune was, to move on to the fourth. If only she had chosen to move onto this one earlier. She knew exactly what it was. The year before she and Severus had been studying in the library and they had come across this rune. She remembered it because Severus had observed that it looked like Mrs Norris was being eaten by the moon. It was a good memory. It was just a shame that the happy memories she had of her and Severus were now all tarnished by the bad ones. She knew he was sat behind her and she wondered if he felt their memories were tarnished too. She doubted it. Even though it was painfully clear to absolutely everyone that they were no longer friends, she knew that Severus still appreciated and held onto their friendship.

She could feel his eyes boring into the back of her skull as she moved on to the next rune. She had a sneaking suspicion that he had translated the fourth rune by associating it with that memory too. She wished he hadn't. She would now have to cope with this annoyance for the last ten minutes of the test.

'That's it everyone.' Professor Babbling said waving her wand and collecting everybody's test papers in.

Lily sighed as she watched hers fly away. She hadn't finished it at all and, in five minutes when she went to collect her mark, she was sure she wouldn't get anything better than an A. To try and distract herself she started to draw circles around the wood groves on her desk. She waited for only two minutes before she was called up to the desk to receive her grade. She got an A, as she knew she would. She only translated three out of eight. Not even half of them. But as they were all correct, Professor Babbling had no choice but to pass her. Relieved Lily left the room and was greeted by Severus.

'Brutal wasn't it.' he said to her. A couple of years ago, even just at the beginning of their sixth year at Hogwarts, Severus would always have a smile on his face when he spoke to Lily. Now his face was devoid of emotion. If anything, there was something slightly sinister lurking beneath the surface. It made Lily's skin crawl.

'It wasn't that bad.' Lily stated matter of factly before walking away from him. It didn't work. He followed her.

'That fourth rune. The one with Mrs Norris being eaten by the moon.' Severus said, 'Funny right?'

'Hilarious.' Lily replied, thoroughly unamused, 'What do you want Snape?' she asked, using his last name and cutting him deeply.

Severus stopped and displaying no show of emotion, simply said, 'Nothing.' and watched her walk away. Their memories meant nothing to her now.

* * *

The marauders were taking their penultimate end of year test. Earlier that day they had all sat their Transfiguration end of year exam, (well Remus, James and Sirius had), and had all passed with Exceeds Expectations. Now, they were sat in their Defence Against the Dark Arts final, taking the written part of the exam after already passing the practical aspect of it with flying colours. The questions they were given were easy and James and Sirius answered every single one of them with ease. Remus also fully answered all the questions creating logical and reasonable arguments for each one. Peter had tried his hardest but couldn't answer them all. However, he had performed surprisingly well in the practical and had been able to disarm both Remus and James. For the practical, they had all received an O for outstanding.

The written exam was almost over and James had completely finished. He believed he had done a _fantastic_ job and that an O for this part of the exam was also in the not too distant future. Finding no need to do anything else for the last five minutes of the exam, he put his feet up on the desk and pulled a spare piece of parchment into his lap. He began to doodle. He always did when he got bored. He wasn't the best drawer in the world but he wasn't the worst either. He began to draw a snitch in the centre before adding in the other Quidditch balls and a small Quidditch team. He then pulled out his wand and enchanted them to move, thoroughly amusing himself in the process.

'I don't think that's what you're meant to be doing is it Mr Potter?' the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher said peering over his shoulder. The whole of the class turned to look at him. After spending half an hour in complete silence, one of James' distractions was a welcome break to everyone.

'Sorry.' said James, pausing and looking at his drawing, 'Did you want it?' he said offering it to his teacher who simply took his drawing, screwed it up and tossed it into the bin. 'Please focus on your test.'

He walked away leaving James bored. He tapped his fingers on the table and looked about. He didn't have anything left to do now but wait for everyone else to finish. He looked about and saw that Sirius was also looking extremely bored. Smiling to himself, James got out his wand and levitated the scrunched up piece of parchment that had just been thrown into the bin. He caught it quickly and, using his wand, batted it over to Sirius who caught it in his ready and waiting hand. He smiled back at James, thankful for curing his boredom and took out his wand to bat the screwed up parchment back to James. They had created a badminton type game between them and were enjoying themselves immensely.

They had succeeded it batting the ball of parchment back and forth between them for about twenty or thirty hits before the screwed up bit of parchment changed its direction and hit their Defence Against the Dark Arts professor on the head. It stunned James and Sirius and they turned to look at each other slowly, trying desperately hard to muffle the uncontrollable laughter that was bubbling up inside of them.

'Mr Potter.' their professor said as he grabbed the piece of parchment off of his desk and once again, threw it in the bin, 'Mr Black. Do you really think this is an acceptable way to sit one of your end of year exams?'

James and Sirius, once more looked at each other in slow motion. They smiled cheekily at each other, both knowing what the other was going to say. They then turned back to their professor and, simultaneously answered, 'Yes.'

'Detention.' the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher stated plainly, looking between them unamused, 'I would have thought that, as you only have a few days left at this school, of this school year, you would be able to show some self-constraint!'

'Obviously not.' James and Sirius replied with a laugh.

Shaking his head, the professor collected in the written papers with a wave of his wand. 'Try not to make any more disruptions whilst I mark these.' he said as he sat behind his desk and began to look over his student's tests. He didn't have that many to mark as there weren't that many pupils in his class. Still, it took him a good ten minutes before he was finished. Or at least, it took him a good ten minutes before he came across James Potter's test. After he had found it, he took no time at all in calling him up to his desk.

'Mr Potter,' he began with a heavy sigh, 'after the practical aspect of your Defence Against the Dark Arts test, I had set some high hopes in store for your written part of the test. However, when I came across it, I was grievously disappointed. Will you _please _ inform me as to why you thought it would be a wise idea to answer every question on this paper with the answer, and I quote, 'Merlin has the answer'?'

'Well, you see professor,' James said, trying to ignore the muffled laughs that were emanating from behind him, 'if you look it up, I think you'll find I'm right.'

'You do realise that this test is an important part of your education Mr Potter.' the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher said seriously to James.

'This is why I answered every question as truthfully as I possibly could professor.' James answered honestly with a nod of his head.

'You will only receive an A for you defence against the dark arts thanks to your performance in your practical.' he said, writing down James' mark on a piece of parchment and handing it to him.

'Awesome!' James said as he walked away to his friends, 'I got an A!' he said, holding his mark in the air, extremely proud. Even by doing nothing, James could still pass a test.

* * *

Severus sat in the potion test. They had been brewing the draught of living death, a potion they had brewed earlier that year, and were coming to the end of the limited amount of time given to them. His potion was starting to turn brilliantly clear. So clear you could see the bottom of the cauldron through it, just like you would be able to if the cauldron was full of water. This meant that his potion was fully brewed and he seemed to be the first one finished. He put that down to the little cheat-cheat's he had to speed up the process such as crushing the sopophorous bean instead of chopping it, as their potion book instructed, and stirring the potion seven times counter-clockwise and once clockwise. They were tricks he had picked up, meaning that he was the best at potions in the class and, maybe even possibly, in the whole school. His mind was brilliant when it came to the chemical side of magic. However, others were often favoured over his brilliance.

'Very good job Miss Evans!' Slughorn raved upon seeing Lily's complete potion. It was almost completely clear and you were able to make out the bottom of the cauldron through the liquid.

Severus didn't mind Lily receiving the credit he was long overdue. After all, after him, she was the best at potion in the class, made even more impressive, according to most wizards, by the fact that she was a muggleborn witch. Apparently, most wizards found it a rarity to find a witch, who wasn't brought up knowing about her magical abilities and who wasn't raised in the wizarding world, to be so skilled at magical crafts. But Severus knew, as soon as he had seen her all those years ago, jumping of swings and playing with flowers, that she would be an impressive witch. And he loved her for it. This was why he didn't mind her receiving credit for a well-made potion when his was obviously far better. What he did object to, was her new potions partner being given praise when all he ever did was joke and mess about.

Severus stared down at James. He had been sat in his chair with his feet on the table for the last twenty minutes of their exam just watching Lily make her potion. (She didn't notice him). He was staring at her with a sappy look on his face and Severus hated to think what was going through his mind, especially when he knew what he thought about when he looked at Lily like that. James Potter having those thoughts about Lily made Severus' skin crawl. The thoughts in his mind were put at ease though when he thought back to the other day. He knew James Potter had upset Lily, (even though she denied it), but he wasn't sure how. Still, it was enough to know that she wasn't happy with him. It closed the door on what everybody in the school knew James Potter wanted.

Glancing over at Lily, he wondered what had ever possessed him to destroy their friendship. No matter how unintentional it was, he still kicked and cursed himself about that fatal mistake. It was the one thing in his life that he actually regretted. If anyone was to analyse this they would find it disturbing that he regretted calling the girl he loved a mudblood more than arranging to have his father killed. But it was true. He could never forgive himself for what he called her. Thing were worse today. It was exactly a year since he had made his ultimate error. He was feeling extremely nostalgic and regretful. Anything that he had been feeling previously, his love for her and his remorse for ending their friendship was heightened. It was almost unbearable.

He was brought back down to earth and away from the shame running through his mind when Professor Slughorn passed him in his peripheral vision. He was telling the class that their time was up and was beginning to inspect everybody's work. He passed Mulciber and peered into his cauldron. He dropped in a leaf to test the strength of the potion as he would do with everyone before he graded them. His face said it all and Slughorn wrote down Mulciber's grade on a piece of parchment and handed it to him. He then moved on to Avery who was sat next to Severus and gave him his grade before finally coming to Severus.

He peered into the cauldron and smiled as if it was what he'd been waiting for. Seeing a student succeed in his class was why he became a teacher.

'Excellent Mr Snape!' Slughorn boomed approvingly so that the whole class could hear. They all turned around to stare at Severus who only looked at Lily. She didn't return the smile he gave her and instead turned around to check her potion. Severus visibly deflated and all he could manage to mumble to Professor Slughorn as he gave him his grade, an O, was 'Thank you sir.'

Severus watched as Slughorn moved onto Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, giving them both a grade but holding his nose as he passed Sirius' cauldron. It was emitting the toxic smell of month old socks. He then moved on to Lily to whom he also gave an O after the leaf he dropped into it disintegrated instantly upon contact. Finally he came to James Potter and didn't keep his surprise at the appearance of his potion quiet.

'Oh ho!' Slughorn said astounded, 'This is quite remarkable Mr Potter! Extremely clear. I see Miss Evans has been a good influence on you! This looks as if one drop could kill you! Well, let's see if it's as good as it appears shall we?' he finished, busying about and getting his last leaf ready to drop into James' cauldron.

'You know what Professor?' James said, snatching the leaf out of Slughorn's hand and chucking it behind him, hitting Severus in the face with it by 'accident', 'I know a better way to test this.'

Severus watched with a scowl as James reached into his bag and took out a clear glass goblet. He stuck it into his cauldron and scooped up some of the liquid. Severus knew what was coming and couldn't help himself in thinking; die.

'Bottoms up!' James said taking a swig of the liquid before setting it down on the table.

The faces of the people closest to James were a sight to see. As Severus looked around, he saw Professor Slughorn looking aghast at the sight of one of his students taking such a suicidal action. Severus then looked at Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, for whom he had equal contempt for. They were trying to muffle smiles. Lastly, Severus looked at Lily and her face broke his heart. She had utter fear on her face. Fear that James Potter might actually collapse. The terror she was feeling for the boy she had once despised was visible and oozing through every pore of her body. Even though it was James Potter who was at risk of a death like state from drinking the draught of living death potion, it was Severus who had just had a part of him die.

'That was good!' James said licking his lips whilst the class watched him in anticipation, 'Want to try some Sirius?' he asked his friend.

'Sure!' Sirius said all too quickly as he strolled over to James and immediately picked up the goblet James had drunk from and sipped the clear liquid in side. When he brought it down from his lips he nodded in approval. 'Nice!' he said, 'Here Remus. You try some!' he finished offering the glass to Remus.

Severus saw Remus sigh and take his hands out of his pockets. 'Yeah sure.' he said as he took the goblet from the Sirius, 'After dealing with you two for six years I think I deserve a break!' he ended as he also took a drink from the glass he had been handed by Sirius.

Everyone watched them for a couple of seconds before Slughorn finally had enough of waiting for his students to drop down dead. He marched over to Severus, grabbed the leaf that James had chucked at him and bustled back to James' cauldron. He dropped it in and, as soon as it hit the surface, it floated, the stem acting as a navigator around the bowl.

Disappointment filled Severus' face as he saw that nothing had happened. Apparently, instead of making the potion assigned for the end of year test, James had decided to just boil water for the whole of the lesson. The worse thing was he didn't fail. There was no T for troll given out by Slughorn for what Severus thought to be a stupid display of immaturity. Instead, Slughorn gave him an A which meant that he didn't fail the class as he should have. Severus believed it to be despicable but his thoughts of James' childish behaviour were soon put out of his mind as he looked at Lily once again. She was laughing. A beautiful sound and sight if only she wasn't laughing at one of James Potters pranks.

He didn't move as everyone packed away their things, the last exam of the year that the sixth years were taking done and dusted. He watched as everyone in the class strolled out happily, all looking forwards to their summer holidays. He wasn't looking forward to his. There would be no Lily again. He watched her slim figure as she walked out with the marauders, her soft wavy red hair cascading down her back. He could tell she was laughing. Even from behind.

He sighed. 'I miss you Lily.' he said to himself.

* * *

**Thanks for reading**

**Galindaba**


	40. Chapter 39

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter Thirty-Nine!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Thirty-Nine**

It was the end of the school year and everyone was thoroughly excited to go home for the summer and see their families. However, they were also sad as they were leaving behind their friends with whom they spent most of the year. It was a time of mixed feelings at the end of the school year. Every student in the school went through it but Lily felt as if, this year, it was worse.

She stared across the long Gryffindor table at James Potter. Nothing had happened between them as she had hoped it would after she realised how she felt for him after the Hogsmeade attacks. For a while she believed that things had been going somewhere but, she guessed she was wrong.

'It's probably all for the best you know.' Hestia said as she munched her way through her breakfast a thoroughly miserable look slapped across her face. She had been like this for a few days. It was as if the joy had been sucked out of her. The happy-go-lucky girl who was Lily's best friend seemed to have disappeared.

'And why do you say that?' Lily asked with a sigh as she turned to face her best friend with an inquisitive look. She was very intrigued as to why her best friend believed that it was a good thing that Lily and James had never gotten together this year. Especially as she had been the one to push it.

'Well…you know…' Hestia continued as if the answer was supposed to be obvious.

'No I don't.' Lily said with a shake of her head, 'Please enlighten me.'

Hestia put down the slice of toast she was eating and clapped her hands free of the crumbs. 'Ok.' she began, 'Don't hate me for this but, everything I am going to say is true and you know it.'

'Just tell me.' Lily whispered impatiently.

'Well, there are a few reasons why it wouldn't be a good idea.' Hestia said, turning slightly to face Lily, a stubborn and moody look on her face, 'First of all, you've liked him for several months now so you've built up an ideal relationship in your head and if it doesn't live up to your expectations, then it'll break your heart. Second, apart from him, you are the most stubborn person I know and you're quite proud. You refused to go out with him for almost six years and I don't think you'd like everybody telling you 'I told you so' or words to that effect. Then, any friends who are girls you've got who aren't me, Alice, Emmeline or anyone in our dormitory, won't particularly like you anymore because you'd have snatched up James Potter. Loads of girls in this school want him. They'd be giving you dirty looks all the time and sneering at you and just generally being mean.'

'Why would they do that?' Lily asked, not liking what Hestia was saying at all and not liking the way she was saying it. Something was wrong with her.

'Because, no matter how nice you are, some girls are just like that when it comes to boys.' Hestia replied with a shrug, 'They'll do exactly what all those Gryffindor girls did at James' birthday party when his kissed you on the cheek. They'll stare at you and be horrible to you all because you said no to him for so many years and he never gave up. It'll be all your fault he never moved on and you will be the cause of every single girl in Hogwarts having a broken heart.'

'Well thanks for that.' Lily said depressively, grabbing a muffin and picking the top off.

'I'm not done.' Hestia said.

'Great!' Lily muttered, throwing a piece of the muffin top she had just picked off at Hestia in annoyance.

'Just one more thing.' Hestia spoke with a slight questioning lilt in her voice. She knew that she had upset Lily but she believed she had to hear this. Something had happened in her life and she didn't want Lily to feel the way she was. 'You have nothing in common.' she continued, 'What exactly would your relationship be based on? You love school, he hates it. He likes Quidditch, you know nothing about it. I just don't think that you'd have much to go on.'

Lily sat tapping her foot. She had been forced to listen to this. Things she didn't want to hear at all, but still, things that Hestia had obviously been thinking about for a while. This confused Lily. Hestia had always been the one pushing this, always attempting to pull the strings the way she wanted them to go. She had played with James and Lily as if they were her puppets. But they had never done what she wanted. Was that why she had changed her mind? Lily had to ask.

'You're the one that told me to go for it in the first place.' Lily stated, 'Why have you suddenly changed your mind? A few weeks ago you said that it was inevitable. Why do you suddenly think it's a bad idea?'

Hestia thought about it for a moment, breathing deeply and not giving Lily any clue as to what she was thinking for at least two minutes. Suddenly she was able to come up with a reason. But her reason came out more like a confession. 'I broke up with Matthew.'

Lily's face softened. 'Why?' she questioned.

'We had nothing in common.' Hestia said, a tome in her voice that Lily had never hear before. She was clearly upset about this. 'And, he may not have all the girls chasing after him like James does, but he had a couple. It's just a shame that they didn't stop at dirty looks. They flirted, just like everyone does with James Potter. Matthew couldn't resist and, well, I think that the rest of the story is pretty clear.'

'I'm sorry Hestia.' Lily sighed with compassion. She reached out and grabbed Hestia's hand in a friendly grasp feeling extremely sorry for her best friend, her mind flickering for a moment to Emmeline and her tea leaves. 'I thought you were doing well. And didn't you have Quidditch in common?'

'Yes.' Hestia snapped, 'But it stopped there. You see, we had something in common and it didn't work out at all. You and James Potter have nothing in common. Nothing at all. And he has loads of girls following him around. What would happen to you if he couldn't resist the temptation? And what if it was all about the thrill of the chase with you and him? It's just…I wouldn't want you to get hurt like this. You going out with James Potter would be one big risk that, now I have experience, I wouldn't recommend you take. I don't want you to get hurt. You needed to hear this.'

She knew she was right. Plus she had more experience in the area than Lily did. Hestia had been in a relationship and had been part of that relationship which broke down. She knew what she was talking about and she was Lily's best friend; she trusted her judgement and knowledge. It was just hard to hear. Lily knew that everything she said was true. Lily wouldn't be able to stand the looks that she would get from everyone in the school if she started to date him. The looks that said 'I told you so'. She wouldn't be able to stand the looks from the girls in the school. The meanness that would result if Lily was to get together with James would be unbearable. Lily couldn't stand it when someone didn't like her. If she had done something to deserve it then fair enough. But she didn't think she could handle that level of nastiness just because of who she was dating. And what if James couldn't resist the temptation of the many girls who adored him? Hestia was right, they had nothing in common and the relationship that Lily had built up in her head could never match up to what could be if she and James went out.

Lily looked across the table again to where James was sat laughing with his friends. What Hestia had said was true but Lily couldn't help the way she felt. Still, she didn't think she could stand having her heart broken the way Hestia had. It was very clear that the romantic in Hestia had disappeared. Lily didn't know what she was left with now. Her friend had changed.

* * *

The marauders were packing their trunks. They only had today to do it and, if they were smarter, they probably would have started sooner. But they had been too busy hanging out near their beloved beech tree.

James had been climbing around in the branches and hanging upside down with ease and enjoyment. His glasses were constantly askew as gravity pulled them towards the ground and his messy hair, well, looked no different than usual. It was still messy. Whilst upside down he had been attempting to use a non-verbal spell to make the small flowers interweaved into the grass below grow. He couldn't do it. It was really annoying him. Remus could do it. Why couldn't he? The flowers just didn't do what he wanted.

Sirius had been etching their initials into the trunk to ensure that future generations would know that the beech tree once belonged and would always belong to the marauders. He also did it because he had seen some cheeky third years inching their way towards the sacred beech tree at the same time they had been walking towards it. He wanted to make sure that there was no confusion. His exact words were; 'This is our tree. Our tree, our tree, our tree! Nobody else's! How dare they try to take our tree! No, no, no, no, no! It has our names on it!'. When it was pointed that the beech tree actually didn't have their names on it, he set himself about correcting it.

Remus had been reading a book for the most part. It wasn't anything school related for a change. He was purely reading for pleasure. It was a wizarding novel written by Edgar Wallace called 'The Flying Squad'. Dumbledore had leant it to him as, when they were waiting to use the floo network to travel to St Mungo's, he had seen Remus looking at it and sent it down to the Gryffindor common room for him to read. A note accompanied it which simply read; 'Enjoy.' Remus hadn't gotten round to reading it due to the end of year exams. It was taking him a long time and, at times, was difficult to follow as it had originally been written in Swedish, originally called 'Kokain Nästet'. He was determined to finish it but, after he had been reading for an hour, he could no longer follow the story and decided to reread that part later. So he had put the book to the side and tried to help James on how to charm the flowers.

Peter had sat picking the grass. For a while he had watched Sirius brutally attack the tree with a small pocket knife but, when he got bored of watching him. He moved onto James. He had gotten up and, extremely uncomfortably, walked the short distance to the beech tree and tried to climb it as well. But, even after James had told him how to get up, (put your foot into the trees ridge just above the roots, grab the branch and yank yourself up), he still couldn't do it. He was too short for one and didn't have the upper body strength that James had built up thanks to hours of Quidditch practices, trials and drills. After failing miserably at an attempt to join James in the tree, he had resorted to flicking through the book Remus had discarded in favour of helping James perfect his spell.

As much fun as climbing the tree, defacing it and sitting it its shade was, it had delayed them with the practical applications which went with leaving Hogwarts for the summer holidays. So now they were really delayed in their packing and, as their room was such a mess, it was taking an extremely long time. Especially as Sirius wasn't helping and was instead laid on James' bed doing absolutely nothing. Well, that wasn't entirely true. He was reading the manual on how to build a motorbike that Jane Potter had given him for Christmas.

'Can't wait to get home!' he said as he turned a page excitedly, his eyes scanning over the page.

'Well you can't go home unless you pack.' Remus said as he rummaged under his bed, finding broken quill ends, empty ink bottles and odd socks which he had discarded after he couldn't find the right ones to match.

'Yeah I can.' Sirius sighed, tired of Remus telling him to pack his belongings away. He had been lecturing him about it not five minutes ago and now he was starting it all over again. 'I'll just buy new stuff.'

'No you won't.' James said with a disbelieving laugh. He was folding up his invisibility cloak and packing it away hurriedly in his overlarge trunk next to his other prized possessions; the marauders map, the snitch he stole from the Quidditch store. (He had stolen one each year for every year that he had been at Hogwarts) and his two way mirror to which Sirius had the other half. 'You'll knick all my stuff instead.' James finished as he packed away his Quaffle and Quidditch gear.

'You knick his clothes Padfoot?' Remus asked incredulously, 'What are you a girl?''

'I am not a girl!' Sirius whined pathetically looking up at Remus with a scowl.

James and Remus simply looked at each other trying to hold back mocking smiles. Sirius was, what they would call, a little girl. He couldn't even handle firewhisky. He didn't even like it. Plus he cared way too much about his hair. Then again, so did James. The difference was James liked to mess his hair up. Sirius liked his in pristine condition. It took James two seconds to run his hand through his hair in the morning, (and many times during the day), whereas it took Sirius at least twenty minutes to set his hair just so. Plus he got really annoyed and a bit angry when it got messed up. James and Remus found this hilarious.

'So you're not going to pack at all?' Remus asked Sirius whilst he took down the calendar which hung just above his bedside table, 'You're just going to lie on a bed and read?'

Sirius looked up in confusion. 'Read?' he questioned, cocking his head to the side and lifting one eyebrow.

Remus hung his head in despair and walked over to Sirius to look in the manual he was looking at. 'Yeah,' he began sarcastically, 'You see these little squiggles here,' he said pointing to the middle of the page in Sirius' book, 'those are _words_. You have to _read _them.'

'Oh!' Sirius replied with a slow nod of his head as he brought the book closer to his face, 'Is that what those lines are between the pictures?'

'They're diagrams.' Remus said, returning to his packing and grabbing a book from underneath Sirius' bedside table which he had used to stop it wobbling. 'They show you what to do.' he continued as he placed the stolen book into his trunk. He was almost done packing now which was a good thing as it was almost time for the last feast. Not that they needed anymore food. After they had left the shade of their beech tree they had made one last trip to the kitchens.

'Oh.' Sirius said as he brought the book closer to his face, squinting at the diagrams in the book. 'That'll make it a lot easier to actually build the bike this summer. Won't it Prongs?'

'Wait,' Remus said, 'You're helping him?'

'Apparently.' James murmured, closing his trunk. He was finished packing. It didn't take him that long because he really didn't care how things were put into his trunk. He just shoved all his belongings in; creased, screwed up or just down-right messy. He didn't care and was just glad that it was all done. All he wanted to do now was relax. So, in aid of this, he walked over to his bed, pushed Sirius off of the edge onto the floor, and jumped onto his bed, lying down.

Sirius sat up and put his book on James bed. He turned his head deliberately and dramatically towards his best friend with narrowed eyes. He then shook his head painfully slowly and said, 'Not cool Prongs. Not cool.'

James chuckled and took the instruction manual out of Sirius' hands and flicked through it. He scanned over a couple of the diagrams and glanced at a couple of the sections. 'This isn't gonna be easy Padfoot.' he said seriously as he chucked the book at Sirius' head.

'What are you talking about?' Sirius laughed standing up and sitting back on James' bed, pushing James up a bit so that he could actually fit on, 'It'll be as easy as…err…easy as…err…'

'Finishing your sentence?' James said sarcastically.

'No.' Sirius replied.

Remus closed his trunk with a thud and glanced over to Peter who had been silently packing his own, listening to his friends having their conversation, the main focus of which was mocking Sirius. Remus wondered how he could stay so reserved whilst in a room with James and Sirius. But then again, Peter had never been too vocal. He had always been more of a background character that just followed James, Remus and Sirius around, sharing in their fun and games. However, it wasn't as if he was ever excluded. At least not deliberately.

Remus, James and Sirius had let him share in their big secret. The secret that had always united the four boys in such a strong friendship that nothing could break. And when they were trying to become Animagi and Peter was struggling, they had helped him along. It wasn't until he had finally mastered the transformation that the three of them had accompanied Moony out on the full moon and it was all because they didn't want to leave Peter alone in the dormitory whilst they were gallivanting around outside. Remus had insisted. It wasn't so much an issue, him being on his own. He had done it before. He just didn't want Peter to be alone and so had suggested to James and Sirius that, until Peter could hold the transformation, they wait to join in the full moon. They had agreed. So even through all that, they were still a group. But Remus just couldn't help but think that Peter felt left out sometimes.

He sighed. 'You're quiet Wormy.' he pointed out to Peter who looked up a bit shocked at being addressed. They had given him a nickname. If that wasn't proof of inclusion then Remus didn't know what to do to keep Peter in the inner circle.

'I'm just packing.' Peter replied, stuffing some socks into a pair of his trainers. His trunk had to be packed a certain way otherwise his mother would go ballistic.

'Excited for summer?' James asked, joining in on the conversation that Remus had started.

'I guess.' Peter said.

There was a pause where James and Remus looked at each other, both thinking the same thing. This was why Peter was always slightly out. When a conversation with him was started, it went nowhere as he didn't particularly contribute anything of substance. Remus couldn't help but think that Peter might feel more included if he met them half way and included himself. They could only do so much. James on the other hand, who also felt as if Peter excluded himself slightly, tried to further the conversation even though he knew his attempt was futile.

'Bet your glad your mum's out of St Mungo's though hey Wormy? And that there's no lasting damage?' James said. He waited for a reply. None came. He continued. 'Bet it's a relief that you can go home and everything will be the same. Like last summer.' Again, there was no reply. Once more, James tried to further the conversation. 'You know, if she wasn't better, we were gonna take you home with us.'

Peter finally spoke. 'Thank you.' he said sullenly.

James looked over to Remus who had given up by now. He shook his head at James and shrugged, wordlessly saying, 'just leave him to it'.

'OUR PRANK!' Sirius suddenly yelled, practically bursting James' ear drums as he did.

'Dude!' James said, smacking Sirius over the back of his head and rubbing his ear, 'Indoor voice!'

'So-rry!' Sirius enunciated, 'But I just thought how to finish my sentence.'

'About ten minutes after the fact.' Remus said rolling his eyes.

'Hey!' Sirius whined, 'At least I finished my sentence and building my motorcycle will be as easy as our end of year prank.'

'That's because our end of year prank is easy.' James said, standing up and grabbing Sirius' trunk and shoving it at him as a clear indication that he should begin to pack, 'Building a motorcycle isn't.'

'Well,' Sirius began cockily as he took his trunk over to his own bed and, as he had been instructed to by James, began to pack, 'we'll soon find out.'

* * *

The whole school was gathered in the great hall finishing the last feast that they would share together before the train ride home the following morning. Donned in blue and bronze symbolising that the house cup had been awarded to the house of Ravenclaw, (the cup had been awarded before the meal started and everybody, including a select few of Slytherin house, celebrated with them), the great hall looked splendid in decoration. The atmosphere was still tangible and, although people were sad to be leaving their friends, they couldn't wait to be rid of the school work and homework for six glorious weeks. They were also excited to see their families but mainly the lack of school work. However, there was a certain person who wasn't looking forwards to the summer holidays. In fact, there was a part of him that was dreading it; Severus Snape was that person.

He was sat looking absolutely miserable, his arms folded with a sullen scowl etched across his face. He didn't want to go back to Spinners End. He didn't want to return to his small childhood home where his mother would still be grieving over the death of his father. He had no idea what she would do if she ever found out that he was the one who orchestrated the whole event but he suspected that she would hate him for killing the man she loved. Even though that man was nothing more than an arrogant drunken muggle who was absolutely vile to both Severus and his mother. She, however, had always been blind to this side due to his 'sincere' apologies. Severus wasn't though. He had hated his dad and was proud to have been a part in his demise.

Severus glanced around at the carcasses of the birds they had eaten such as a juicy chicken and an overly large turkey. They reminded him too much of dead bodies, human bodies, and the task which Voldemort had set all of his prospective death eaters. He had around a year to do the deed but had decided to do it as soon as he possibly could. He was going to be responsible for the passing of a muggle during the summer holiday and he couldn't honestly say that he was fully looking forwards to it. In fact, it made him feel rather sick and Dumbledore's end of year announcement didn't particularly help matters.

Professor McGonagall tapped her Goblet to call silence to the great hall. As it fell, Dumbledore rose from his chair and held his arms open in a welcome to his students.

'I hope you have all had an enjoyable feast.' he began with a smile and a twinkle in his shining blue eyes, 'And I sincerely wish you all a good holiday where you can forget all you have been taught this year. However, before I send you on your way, I do have something I wish to share with you.'

Everyone in the hall looked towards each other curiously in question. No one knew where this was going and waited in anticipation for Dumbledore to continue.

'At the minute, I am sure you are all aware that a certain wizard is gathering a following.' Dumbledore continued, 'He is accumulating power and, I speculate that he is succeeding quite nicely. This wizard's name is Lord Voldemort.'

The hall gasped at the name and Dumbledore had to wait a good five minutes for the students to return to silence in order for him to continue.

'At the minute, nothing the Ministry has declared to be too substantial has happened. I disagree. There have been more attacks than the Ministry care to share with the general public. I believe this is wrong and think you deserve to know what is out there. Dark times are ahead of us all and I urge you all to keep yourselves safe this summer. Things are not what they seem. The Ministry is feeding the public false information and, although a small portion of it is true, most of it is not. Do not underestimate the enemy. Be safe.'

Dumbledore sat down and left the hall in an extremely deflated and dejected state. They were being sent to bed with a depressing warning. Most of the students were now emptied, their happy feelings of returning home gone. Some however, mainly Severus and his friends, (the future death eaters), only smirked at Dumbledore's warning. Their smirks didn't last long as what happened next horrified them.

Getting up out of his seat before anyone else in the hall, James Potter stood on the bench he had been sat on. He addressed the whole hall with a great grin, 'On a lighter note!' He withdrew his wand from his back pocket and pointed it into the air. 'Let's party!' he yelled, casting a nonverbal spell which caused a long jet of yellow glittering light to emit from the tip and burst forth into the air and up to the enchanted ceiling.

No sooner had the light touched the ceiling when thousands of balloons fell from the enchanted rooftop of the great hall. They were an assortment of colours; green, silver, red, gold, blue, bronze, yellow and black, (all in house colours). There were laughs and squeals of delight as the balloons fell to the floor and filled the hall. Things didn't stop there though. As soon as the first balloon touched the floor, James had shouted, 'Who wants more?' and had pointed his wand towards the large oak doors which served as an entrance to the great hall. Again he cast a nonverbal spell and the doors flew open to reveal yet more balloons which spilled into the hall.

Things kept falling into the great hall from all directions and all the marauders were now stood on the benches dancing around like children. They pulled people up near them and soon other houses started to follow their lead. Other houses apart from Slytherin. They were sat sulking amid the joyous voices of everyone and Severus was horrified to see that James Potter had pulled Lily and her friend Hestia Jones up onto the bench next to him.

Nobody else had a problem with the marauders antics though. They were enjoying the balloons fall and, looking towards the open doors of the great hall, they were all laughing at the obvious fact that the marauders had blocked the entrance hall from top to bottom with the balloons that were slowly spilling into the hall. They wouldn't be able to leave until they had all entered the hall. But no one cared. They were having fun.

* * *

The Hogwarts express pulled away from Hogsmeade station with the entire population of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry aboard, all ready to return home to start the six week summer holiday. They were all extremely excited and as they sat in their carriages they discussed what they were going to be doing that summer.

'Well,' Hestia began as the train began to chug rhythmically along the tracks, 'my parents have decided that we're going to go and visit my cousins in France this summer. I don't really like them. In fact, I don't really want to go.' she finished dismally, a miserable expression on her face.

Lily sighed. She had had to cope with Hestia's depressive mood all day yesterday and she was bored of it now. She couldn't believe that breaking up with someone could have this much of an effect on a person. It kind of scared her. It seemed as if the romantic in her had been killed. But still, at the same time, she just wished that Hestia would cheer up. 'It'll be fun to see France though.' she said in an attempt to raise Hestia's spirits, 'Maybe you'll go to Paris! I hear it's really nice there.'

'No it's not.' Hestia grumbled, 'It's too crowded for me. Ever try to see the Eiffel tower? There's loads of muggles mulling around the bottom trying to get to the top. Besides, I won't even be able to get into Paris. My cousins live in some distant rural part of France which is too hot for my liking.'

Alice, who was also sat in the carriage with Hestia and Lily, glanced over to Lily and gave her a look of annoyance. She had only been with her for the morning and was already bored of her whinging. She wished she was in a different carriage with her boyfriend Frank and his friends but, she had promised to sit with her dorm mates and didn't think Lily would appreciate being left alone with Hestia whilst she was acting like this.

Another reason Alice didn't want to leave was because she didn't want to risk the chance of running into Emmeline with whom she had fallen out with weeks ago. They had fallen out because of a clump of wet tea leaves which had turned out to be more true to Hestia's situation than hers. They hadn't spoken since and Alice thought it would be very awkward if they were to bump into one another on the cramped train. Anyway, she was just grateful that Lily and Hestia had 'taken her on' as it were. If they hadn't she'd have probably been forced to sit with Frank and his friends. She liked him a lot but she didn't desperately want to spend every minute of her life with him. It was nice to have the option to go and hang out with Lily and Hestia and join in with some girl talk. She didn't want to lose this option so she stayed and listened to Hestia gripe and grumble.

'…and I don't think I'll get to do any shopping in France which is just depressing because I'd be able to if my stupid parents would just let me stay at home.' Hestia continued.

As soon as she had finished her sentence in her monotone voice, Lily seized the opportunity to change the subject of the situation. 'So Alice,' she said quickly, 'what are you going to do with your summer holidays?'

'Well,' Alice said, sitting up and crossing her legs onto her seat, 'I'm going to Ireland again like I did last year only, for a couple of days, mum has said that I could invite Frank. It's going to be the first time he meets her and I'm just a bit nervous for him, you know? I mean, what if it doesn't go well? Then I don't know what I'd…'

Lily zoned out. _Oh great!_ she thought, _One of them is thoroughly depressed over the fact that her boyfriend cheated on her and that she had to dump him. The other can't stop talking about hers and how well the relationship is going. He's meeting her mum this summer. Big whoop. _

Lily silenced the sarcastic voices in her head. Since when did all their conversations start rotating around boys? Mind you, she was just as bad. All she had been able to think about lately was James Potter but, not in the wistful way she had been doing previously. No. Now whenever she thought of him, she always linked it back to what Hestia had said the previous morning. It bugged her. She was right. It didn't change how Lily felt but, she was right.

Lily looked at Hestia now. She looked about as bored as Lily had been listening to her moan about having to go to France that summer. Personally, Lily thought she was being a bit cynical. She would have loved to go to France, especially Paris. She had seen posters of it and the city looked absolutely amazing. It was on her 'places to go' list that she had pinned up on wardrobe door in her bedroom at home. Most of the major cities in the world were on that list; Sydney in Australia, Washington DC in America, Rome in Italy. She wrote them down every time she saw a picture or an article about a place she wanted to go. She doubted she'd ever go anywhere. She'd never even been out of the country. Petunia hated the idea of planes, boats, (she was with her there), trains or any other mode of transportation that wasn't a car. It was because of her, that the Evans family had never gone on holiday abroad. Lily never held it against her though. Not like her sister had done with the misunderstanding surrounding the letter Petunia had sent Dumbledore.

Whilst Lily had been dreaming of foreign locations and her sisters grudges, Alice had been rambling on about the many worries she had surrounding Frank meeting her mum. When she took a breath finally, Hestia had used the gap, just as Lily had before when Hestia was the one annoying the small group, to change the subject.

'So,' she said, leaning forwards onto her elbows, 'what are you going to do this summer Lily?'

Lily blinked a couple of times to bring herself out of her imagination and into the conversation that had just been proposed by her best friend. She thought for a second before answering with, 'Not much really.'

'Oh come on!' Hestia urged through gritted teeth in a desperate attempt to stop Alice going on insensitively about her happy relationship so close after hers had crumbled around her. 'You've got to be doing something. It's six weeks for Merlin's sake!'

'Well,' Lily began, 'I guess, most of the time, I'll be staying out of the way of my sister as she plans her wedding.'

'Is she getting married?' Alice asked, not knowing this at all. Why would she know this? Lily had only told Hestia and James.

'Yeah but,' Lily said, heaving a great sigh, 'I'm not invited. She doesn't really like me. She calls me a freak at every available opportunity. So, that's what I've got to contend with this summer. Oh,' Lily added, 'and I'll have to put up with my Mum and Dad nagging me to get a job.'

'A job?' Hestia said as if she had never heard the word before.

'Yeah.' Lily began sarcastically, 'It's one of those things where you work for money.'

Hestia shook her head in derision. 'I know what a job is.' she said, 'I just don't understand why your parents want you to get one. I mean, you haven't finished Hogwarts yet so nobody in the wizarding world is ever going to hire you.'

'I think she wants me to get a muggle summer job.' Lily replied as if that fact was abundantly clear, 'Just to earn some extra money for when I go back to school. My sister did it.'

'But she's not a witch.' Alice said.

'Don't remind me!' Lily muttered with exasperation, 'I'm not going to get a job anyway.' she continued, 'I want my first job to be in the wizarding world.'

'I should hope so!' James Potter said as he appeared in the carriages doorway behind Lily. Sirius was stood next to him munching away on a chocolate frog.

'Where did you get that from?' Hestia asked, pointing at the chocolate treat, 'The trolley hasn't been around yet!'

'Doy! I went and found it!' Sirius replied sarcastically, taking another great bite of his chocolate frog.

James chuckled and continued to talk to Lily, 'We were going back to our carriage saw you lovely ladies and wondered if you wanted to come and join us?'

Lily bit her lip and looked around at her two friends to see if they wanted to go. Alice silently agreed straight away, suspecting that the marauders would be more fun than Hestia's depressive mood. Hestia didn't agree straight away and instead shot a warning glance at Lily telling her that she should just move on from James Potter whom she was now sure was no good for her. Lily didn't take notice of this warning and reasoned that they were friends so there would be no harm in joining the marauders at all.

'Sure.' she said to James who grinned at her.

James and Sirius took the girls luggage down to their carriage good way along the train whilst the three girls followed behind them. Alice was in front of Lily and Hestia and could hear Hestia mumbling again. What Alice didn't know though, was Hestia was quietly reiterating all of the points she had told Lily over breakfast the previous morning. She continued to warn her best friend that the cons outweighed the pros until they reached the marauders carriage, entered, and sat down amongst James, Remus, Sirius and Peter.

Much to Lily's surprise, she saw that Hestia, even though she had spent most of the journey so far, whining about her breakup and warning Lily about James Potter, was enjoying herself. In fact, for the rest of the journey, she livened up and even consented to join in a game that the marauders had made up themselves called 'exploding wizards dare snap chess'. If it wasn't obvious enough, it was a mix between exploding snap, wizard's chess and a dare game. It had surprisingly complicated rules but was fun enough to keep them all entertained until the Hogwarts express finally pulled into kings cross station.

When the train had come to a complete stand still, James climbed up onto the seat and systematically handed down everyone's trunks to them. As soon as each person had gotten their luggage, they left the carriage to find their parents, shouting goodbye to the group as they did. Cleverly, James had handed down their belongings in such a way, (Peter's, Alice's, Hestia's, Remus', Sirius', his own then Lily's), that he and Lily ended being the only ones left on the train. Together, they got off of the gleaming scarlet engine.

'You know,' James began, 'you wouldn't be caught dead getting of a train with me a year ago.'

'I know.' Lily replied with a small laugh, 'Funny how things change. Last year I couldn't stand talking to you and now I don't know how I can't not talk to you every day.'

'That made no sense to me.' James chuckled shaking his head as they stepped onto the platform and faced each other.

'It did to me.' Lily said with a smile that James just loved. 'It means I'll miss you over summer.' Lily finished.

'I'll miss you too.' James replied with a crooked smile and a shine in his eyes.

Simultaneously, without thinking, they hugged each other, attracting a few stares as they did. Lily could feel the glares on her and hated the feeling. All she could think at that moment was how right Hestia had been. She was the first to pull away but James took her hand and held it, rubbing his thumb over it which sent her heart into a fast beating pace. She looked into his warm hazel eyes and was unable to let go of his hand.

'I'll write to you.' he said sincerely.

'Ok.' Lily said, unable to say anything else but all the while her brain skipping and saying, _he'll write to me, he'll write to me._

It looked as if James was going to say something else but he was interrupted by Sirius. When his voice drifted over, James dropped Lily's hand like a hot potato.

'Oi! Prongs!' Sirius had yelled, 'Your mums here!'

'Really?' James said in surprise at this odd occurrence. 'Bye Lily.' he managed to add in quickly before turning around and making his way through the bustling station saying, 'Why is she here? We can apparate now.'

Lily watched him go, her hand burning from his touch. She gripped it tightly in her other hand when she noticed her trunk being lifted by the side of her. She turned around to come face to face with her Dad who was looking extremely suspicious and protective.

'Who was that?' he asked his daughter with raised eyebrows.

'No one.' Lily said quickly, 'Is that Mum over there?' she asked as she walked away to greet her Mother.

Her Dad didn't move. No. Richard Evans was a very suspicious man and extremely protective over his youngest daughter. He didn't like the look of the messy haired boy in glasses, the one he was sure she hadn't liked for many years. He watched him jostle away through the crowds with a handsome long haired boy towards a cheery looking woman whom he assumed to be their mother and watched them all turn on the spot and disappear. No. He didn't like the look of him at all.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! **

**Galindaba**


	41. Chapter 40

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader! Quick update this time so yay! And thank you to all who have read and reviewed my story so far! Really does make my day.**

**purpleartis19 - To answer your questions :) The story that comes after this one about James and Lily's years after Hogwarts will be called Seven Moments but, at the minute, it is just in it's planning stages. I know what I want to write and how the story will go, I just haven't written it yet! :/ After this story is finished though I'm getting straight on it so hopefully you won't have too long to wait! :) I try to update my stories as quickly as I can; either as soon as I have finished a chapter or when I get time which, thanks to Uni assignments, I have been strapped for recently. However, I think I'm gonna go back to what I started doing when I first started posting this story which was to set a post date and put it at the end of the last chapter I had posted. That way I have a target and people know when I'm going to update, (or at least know when I plan to! As I say, Uni assignments and unfortunately they take up a lot of time! :p ). Anyway, gonna let you read on now!**

**Thanks for your reviews and if you have anymore questions, ask them and I will answer best I can! :) Thank you!**

**Here's chapter Forty!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Forty**

Remus, James, Sirius and Peter were stood in one of the many out houses on the Potters property. There were quite a few of them dotted around the grounds of the mansion but, if you were looking for the group, they were easy to spot. They were in the outhouse which had the roof blown off.

'How did you manage this?' Remus asked in shocked disbelief. He looked at James and Sirius with raised eyebrows. They were both extremely dirty.

James' glasses had soot covering the lenses and black splotches covered his face. His usually pristine shirt, which he had rolled the sleeves up on, was now extremely dirty and had gained a few tears. His jeans had oil all over them and his hair, well, nothing had really happened to his hair. It was always a mess. Sirius was also a mess. His hair had oil streaked in it and his face was a state. His t-shirt, just like James', had dirt splashed all over it and was ripped in some places. Unlike James though, this wasn't such a shock for Sirius as he usually had something spilt down it. Most often, it was some kind of food substance. His jeans were also oily and had a few tears down them. Together, the pair looked as though they had been dragged through an oil slick.

'I'm not really sure how it happened.' James said, blinking the soot away from his eyes and taking his glasses of to wipe them on the corner of his shirt. It made no difference. He just ended up wiping the grime around the lenses. If anything he made it worse.

'We were putting in the valve springs in the engine when they…sprung.' Sirius said staring forwards with an unwavering gaze. 'The springs hit the oil pump which burst and unleashed the pistons.'

Remus laughed quietly and received a glare from Sirius through narrowed eyes.

'Really?' Sirius said with exhaustion. 'You're laughing at the word piston? You're so immature!'

Remus' mouth fell open. Was Sirius really calling him immature? They boy who played with his food, making one of his Cherri Owls talk to the other about who would make the dangerous 'excursion' into his stomach first, was telling him to grow up? That was rich!

'You're telling me to stop being so immature?' Remus asked as he raised one eyebrow inquisitively, 'Like you're one to talk.'

'At least I don't laugh at the word piston.' Sirius retaliated rather cockily.

There was a pause of awkwardness between the four boys as they looked around the damaged outhouse. The size of the floor plan of the single outhouse was as big as Peter's mum's bungalow. You could live in it if there was a kitchen, a toilet, a bedroom and, well, a roof. Actually, it probably wouldn't be wise to live in the outhouse as Sirius' motorbike was in parts all over the floor and there were lots of oil puddles as well. You'd fall over if you didn't look where you were going.

'You have to admit it though, piston is a funny word.' Remus said after a moment, filling the end of the awkward pause.

Sirius nodded his head. 'Yeah it is.' he agreed, 'Piston.'

'Piston.' Remus repeated.

'Piston.' Peter copied.

'Piston.'

'Piston.'

'Piston.'

'Guys!' James suddenly butted in, cutting his friends off in their random 'piston' saying cycle, 'We have to fix this!' he continued motioning around.

He wasn't wrong. The outhouse needed fixing, as did the motorcycle. He and Sirius had been working on it for most of their summer holidays and now they were pretty much back to square one. All the hard work that they had put in was now all gone because of one lousy spring. Well, at least one thing was settled. Before the summer holidays had started, Sirius had said that building his motorcycle would be as easy as their end of year prank; filling the great hall with balloons. Obviously, at the time Remus, James and Peter knew that Sirius was underestimating the difficulty of building a motorcycle by hand but, at least now it was gratifying to know that Sirius knew that they were right.

'How are we supposed to fix it?' Remus asked, kicking a part of the motorcycle which was on the floor next to him.

'I don't know.' James said, beginning to panic now. If Remus didn't know what to do then they really were screwed. 'Look,' James said, trying to think coherently, 'Mum only gave me one instruction when she left for work this morning; don't blow up the house. It was the only condition I needed to follow so that she would leave us all in the house alone and I've broken it. I've blown up the house. She is going to kill me.'

There was a pause which Peter decided to fill. 'Well,' he said meekly, 'technically this isn't the house so you haven't broken any conditions.'

James turned to look sharply at Peter who instinctively cowered backwards slightly. He reprieved his action though when James began to nod his head with a mischievous smile spreading across his face.

'I like your thinking Pete!' he said, reaching out and ruffling Peters thin, straw-like blonde hair. He then clapped his hands together in a final sort of way, exhaled deeply, and said 'Right. I think we should leave this for now-'

'Noooo!' Sirius cut in with a whine.

'-and go and get something to eat.' James finished.

'Oh. Ok.' Sirius consented, immediately turning around and beginning the long trek across the grounds and over to the Potter mansion.

'Knew that'd sedate him.' James muttered to Remus under his breath as he folded his arms and leant over to one of his friends.

Remus took a deep breath and also folded his arms. He watched Sirius almost running across the grounds in search of food and nodded his head slowly. 'Yep.' he agreed to James, also muttering under his breath, 'Doesn't it always?'

* * *

Severus' summer holiday was boring to say the least. He had only been called to one of Lord Voldemort's meetings and, as he hadn't been to the previous one, due to the fact that he was in school, some of the things said hadn't made sense to him…

'_My Lord.' one of the death eaters closest to Voldemort said. Severus looked at him and saw that he was wringing his hands. He was obviously rather scared at sitting quite close to Voldemort. Either that or he was afraid that the information he had to give wasn't good enough. Severus listened to what he had to say._

'_We destroyed Chamberlaine Court my Lord.' the death eater said, bowing his head, 'Only one survived. We caught her sneaking away and brought her here for you to deal with.'_

'_Excellent.' Voldemort hissed, looking up above the table where there was a lifeless body floating in the air._

_Severus had no idea why Voldemort had ordered an attack on the place named Chamberlaine Court. He had no idea where that was. Looking around the table to his fellow future death eaters, who had also missed the previous meeting, he noticed that they looked almost as in the dark as he was. Nobody seemed to know what Voldemort motives were for attacking Chamberlaine Court. Then again, perhaps he had no motives. Perhaps he had just pointed to a place on a muggle map and thought, _yes I'll attack them!

_Voldemort continued, 'Have the Minister of Magic's assistant kill her. She will make the perfect message.'_

_Severus didn't understand this either. It was obviously in reference to something that was said in the previous meeting but he had no idea what and was too scared to ask. The other thing he was afraid of was killing for the first time. Some others though, didn't share his fear and dove straight in, eager to be made a fully-fledged death eater._

'_My Lord!' Bellatrix said from opposite the table from where Severus sat. He followed her eye line up the table. They, along with Wilkes, Avery, Mulciber and Rosier, were sat at the very end of the table near the door, as far away from Voldemort as they could possibly be. They weren't high enough in rank or respect to sit close to him._

_Bellatrix continued, 'I have completed the task you set.' she said with a creepily devoted smile up at Voldemort._

'_Well done.' Voldemort replied with empty congratulatory words, 'Anyone else?'_

_None of the death eaters in training, or so to speak, said anything._

'_I see.' Voldemort said in disappointment. 'Get on with it!'_

And that's what Severus was doing now. He had seen Bellatrix be branded with the dark mark on her left arm. She was the only one out of the selected six Slytherin student, who were about to start their final year at Hogwarts, that was now a fully-fledged death eater. The five boys had vowed after that meeting that they too would be branded with the mark by the end of the summer. Severus could now be branded.

He stood over the lifeless body of one of his neighbours, breathing heavily and gripping his wand so tight his knuckles were going white. He couldn't believe he had just done it. The body was lying in a pool of deep red blood which had spilled out after Severus had cast his own spell on him. It was cut and hacked in large deep slashes; the cause of death. Anyone who found the body, (for Severus had done the deed down a side street out of sight), would assume that they had simply been the victim of a knife crime. Nobody would know how this man was killed. Nobody except Severus and those in the wizarding world would know that. Most importantly, Voldemort would know that he had done it. He had made his first kill.

Severus didn't know how he felt about it. If truth be told, he didn't feel anything. There was no remorse, no sorrow and no regret. It was what it was. And right now it was starting to attract flies. So Severus left the body where it was, ready for it to later be discovered by a mother and her two young children. But Severus didn't care about that.

Putting his wand in his pocket, he went to sit on the wall opposite his house. Apart from to sleep, Severus had hardly set foot in his house this summer. He hated it in there. Since he had returned from Hogwarts, all he had for company was a snivelling wreck of a mother, still distraught after her dirty muggle husband's death the previous year. Severus couldn't stand her and made no attempts to conceal the fact. He had even told her that he thought it was disgusting how upset she was over a simple muggles death. She didn't respond well and had kicked Severus out of the house for the day. She wasn't too sharp on punishment though as she had let him back in not four hours later; a relief for Severus as he had nowhere else to go.

He breathed deeply as he watched his mother through the window walk into the living room. She walked past the armchair in which his father used to sit continuously and which she hadn't had the heart to throw out. As she walked past it she stroked the top of it and picked up the squashed cushion that was in the seat. She hugged it to herself and sniffed it. Unable to watch this disgusting scene any longer, Severus, with a sneer splashed across his face, got down off of the wall and went for a walk.

He went down a few side streets, past the shredded body that he was responsible for without batting an eyelid, and down to the local muggle park. He hadn't been in the park since he had stopped being friends with Lily. As soon as he walked into the park grounds and saw the swings, his mind was flooded with memories. Memories of the first time he had seen her. Memories of her long, deep red hair flowing out behind her as she swung back and forth on the swing. Memories of the first time he had told her she was a witch, he had shown her his powers and the endless days they had spent playing in that park.

Not being able to resist or tell his legs to stop, Severus walked the all too familiar length to Lily house. He thought that he would just watch her for a while, reignite some of his memories. He thought that he would sit on the wall outside her little semi-detached home and watch her in the kitchen, helping her mum make the dinner. She usually did in the summer holidays and, as it was one o'clock, there was a strong chance she would be there now. But as he approached, he noticed something had changed. The wall in front of the Evans' house had been taken out and, in its place, was a fresh growing evergreen hedge. He stared at it with venom in his eyes. It had ruined his plans and now there was nothing he could do but go home, lock himself in his room and avoid his mother. All he could do now was wait for the summer to end. And for him, it couldn't end fast enough.

* * *

One day, early in the summer, Lily had been sat in her room deep in thought. She was thinking about work. As soon as she had gotten back from Hogwarts for the summer holidays she was adamant to her parents that she would not be getting a job. She had told them that the first job she was going to get would be after she finished her Hogwarts and it would be a job in the wizarding world. To Lily's surprise, they had accepted this and had agreed to allow her to spend her summer reading, writing and, (for she was now seventeen and it was perfectly legal), practicing her magic.

At the beginning, this was fine. Lily's parents had been fascinated when she had shown them all the tricks and charms she knew and when she had shown them her apparation they were entranced. It was only Petunia who put a downer on everything. She had sneered at Lily's magic and had called her a freak on more than one occasion. Then when she had heard that Lily had decided not to take a summer job as she had at her age, she had scoffed at her decision and had accused her of scrounging off their parents.

After this, Lily began to have doubts. She got bored and then she started to think. What made it worse was when she realised that she hadn't had any mail. It wasn't unusual that Alice didn't write to her, she never did. It wasn't too unusual that Hestia hadn't written. She was in France after all and Hestia didn't like to pick up a pen, or quill in the wizarding world, if she didn't have too. Those two she wasn't too fussed about, as hard as that sounded. Even though they were her friends, she was used to this correspondence between them by now and it was nothing new. No, what she was thinking about was the fact the James had promised he would write to her and he hadn't. She wondered if he had forgotten or if he didn't want to. Either way, she didn't write to him in a way of prompt. She did however, begin to obsess slightly and she just couldn't get out of her head. All she kept thinking about was what Hestia had said and James' lack of letters. It was driving her crazy.

So, in a way of controlling this irrational train of thought which seemed to never leap off the tracks but instead kept chugging along annoyingly, Lily decided something. It was something which would take her mind off of her correspondence issues and would quell her sister's loud mouth. It was also something that would get her out of the house and away from Petunia making her wedding plans for the wedding she was still not invited too. It was also the one thing she had told her parents she wasn't going to do so imagine their surprise when she came into the dining room one day and said…

'_Mum, Dad. I'm getting a job.'_

_Richard Evans put down the paper he was reading and Heather Evans stopped pouring her husband a glass of orange juice. They looked at each other and then back at their youngest daughter. Richard was the first to speak._

'_You said you didn't want a job.' he stated._

'_Well I changed my mind!' Lily retaliated cockily only to receive a reprimanded glare from her dad to which she replied, 'Sorry.'_

_Again, her parents looked at each other and then back to her. Then it was Heathers turn to speak._

'_There's a job going at the corner shop.' she said, 'You can apply there.'_

And that was where the conversation had ended. Lily had gone to the corner shop after that and had secured the job. The only downside was that she had to get up at six o'clock every morning to get ready for work for seven. It wasn't because she lived a long way away from her new job, in fact she lived just down the road, it was that she took a long time to wake up in the morning. Still, it was worth it to get her mind off of those tracks. She hadn't thought about James' lack of correspondence, Petunias wedding, Petunias taunts, or anything else that was bothering her, for a few of weeks now. She had thrown herself into her new job.

So, she had been working for a good few of weeks now and had fully gotten into the swing of the job. Her customer interaction was, in the words of her young boss, extremely natural and she had worked out the perfect way to stack the shelves as fast as possible which was what she was doing now. She was behind the counter putting out all of the chocolate bars. She was doing very well and was working very fast but, unfortunately, had underestimated the strength of the shelf and how many chocolate bars it would hold. It fell to the floor with a thud and she sighed in frustration as she knelt behind the counter to pick it up. If it wasn't bad enough that she had made a mistake, someone was about to see it as the bell which monitored the door opening and closing, just rang.

'I'll just be a second!' she yelled to whoever had walked in. She didn't hear a reply and so quickly gathered up all the chocolate bars and shoved them back into the box on the floor, just in case it was Mrs Wright the little deaf old lady who lived down the street. She came in once a day for a paper. She'd get worried if she saw no one and, as her boss was out back, Lily was the only one in the store.

As soon as all the chocolate bars were in the box, Lily stood up and pushed her hair behind her ears to see who the customer was. They were leant on the counter opposite her, gazing at her with a smile and the customer was someone she knew all too well.

'James?' she asked with a shocked half smile spreading across her face. She shook her head a little to ensure she wasn't imagining him there. She wasn't.

'Good.' James said as if he was talking to a small infant, nodding his head slowly, 'You remembered.'

This time Lily couldn't keep her smile to a half. 'What are you doing here?' she asked.

'Well hello to you too!' James retaliated, standing up from his leaning pose and acting insulted.

'Hello.' Lily said quickly before reiterating her question, 'What are you doing here?'

James grinned at her and picked up a small tube of sweets that was on the counter. He looked at the label and shrugged. The sweets were called Opal fruits. He nodded to himself, undid the pack, unwrapped one of the sweets and popped it into his mouth.

'Well,' he began, chewing the sweet but not making it obvious that something was in his mouth, 'I came to take you out to-wow these are really good.' he finished off track, looking at the cuboid shaped tube of sweets in his hand.

'You're going to have to pay for those.' Lily pointed out, 'But do continue. You're here to…'

'Oh right!' James said, getting back to his point, 'I came to take you out for a celebratory lunch!' he said with a lopsided grin before adding hastily, 'As friends of course.'

Lily looked confused. What was there to celebrate? It wasn't like he would want to celebrate her getting a job in the muggle world. It wasn't that hard. She was the only one, or at least the first one, to apply. And anyway, she had gotten the job a few weeks ago, so all opportunity to celebrate this event had passed. So what did he want to celebrate? She decided to ask him.

'What do you want to celebrate?' she asked him.

James' face dropped. She didn't know? Well, he didn't want to ruin the surprise for her so, instead, he dug into his pockets, pulled out some muggle money that he had exchanged in Gringotts that morning, and put it on the counter to pay for the sweets he had taken.

'Doesn't matter.' he said, 'Nice to see-'

'No, no, no, no!' Lily cut in pleadingly. She wanted to know what he knew. She was curious now. 'I want to know! Please tell me!'

'I don't want to ruin the surprise for you!' James said with a small laugh holding his hands up to her.

'James if you don't tell me,' she started as she walked around the counter to stand in front of him, 'I'll…'

James smiled down at her and folded his arms. 'You'll what?' he said cheekily, knowing that she wouldn't really do anything.

Lily narrowed her eyes at him in frustration. 'Just tell me!' she begged, hitting him on the arm.

'Hey that hurt!' James said, rubbing his arm where she had just hit him rather hard. He didn't think someone that sweet could do that.

'I'll do it again if you don't tell me!' she warned, lifting her arm up in a pose ready to hit.

'Alright, alright!' James sighed, grabbing her hand and putting it back down by her side but not releasing it. 'Ready?' he asked her to which he got an excited nod and continued, 'You're head girl.'

'Oh my god!' Lily squealed with a great beaming smile. She released his hand jumped and hugged James, much to his happy surprise, throwing her hands around his neck.

'And I'm head boy.' James finished, wondering how she would take that bit of news. They were friends now but that didn't or wouldn't change the fact that Lily Evans had never believed James Potter was responsible enough to have a position of, well, responsibility. None of the marauders were in her opinion, even Remus who was a prefect. Her argument for that was, what kind of prefect allows his friends to break so many rules and, not only allows them, but helps them to achieve it on a daily basis.

Lily pulled away slowly from her extended hug with James and, with a disbelieving look she asked James incredulously, 'You're head boy?' Her hands were still resting on his shoulders. She felt she should move them but his hands were still resting around her waist.

'Don't look so shocked!' James smiled, rocking her teasingly, knowing the feat would be almost impossible for her. He was shocked when he got the letter. So was Sirius. And Remus. And Peter. And Linda. And even his mum who had wanted him to be a prefect.

When he had opened his Hogwarts letter, along with his friends who were staying at his place for a week, he thought he had opened the wrong one. He had even tried to swap it with Remus who read the head's award letter out loud;

_Dear Mr Potter,_

_Congratulations! You have been selected to fill the role of head boy for your final year at Hogwarts Witchcraft and Wizardry. You, along with Miss Evans, will be responsible for the following;_

_The schools prefects_

_Night time rounds_

_The prefect rounds rota_

_Helping the lower year and your own year_

_Helping the school run smoothly_

_In addition to this, you will be viewed as a role model to the school. I hope you take this responsibility wisely._

_Yours Sincerely_

_Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore_

_(Order of Merlin, First Class; Grand Sorc.; D. Wiz; X.J.(Sorc.); S. of Mag. Q.)_

After the boys had laughed at Dumbledore's whole name, (mostly Brian for it was odd that his other names were old fashioned and fancy and then there was Brian), they had congratulated James on the honour and then mocked him continuously for an hour. After this James had decided to go and congratulate Lily and, so that his friends wouldn't realise what he was up too, he had suggested a nice childlike game of hide and seek. In the Potter mansion, they wouldn't be able to find him for ages which gave him enough time to come and see Lily who still had a shocked look on her face.

'I am shocked.' she said eventually as both of them finally released each other, 'Has Dumbledore lost his mind? You set the record for most detentions in a day-'

'Something for people to look up too.'

'-and regularly sneak out at night-'

'Without getting caught.'

'-and casually prank the Slytherin's-'

'Which they deserve.'

'-and your just down right stupid sometimes.'

'Hey! I'm stood right here!' James said, hurt at the last one. He was one of the smartest in the class. He didn't like to show it and admittedly he did act stupid but he wasn't actually stupid. Not at all.

'Sorry.' Lily replied meekly. Had she just hurt his feelings? She better change the subject. 'So we going out to celebrate then?' she hoped, fluttering her eyelids in way of apology.

'Sure.' James chuckled, 'Let's go.'

Lily was about to go with him when she remembered something. She was at work. She couldn't just up and leave. She was only one on the floor and her boss was out back. Plus she didn't want to get fired by just going. But if she asked if she could go, she was too scared that she would get fired for that too. At first when she took the job it was a distraction but now, she actually liked it and didn't want to lose the work.

'I can't.' Lily said finally watching James' face fall for the second time since he entered the shop, 'I don't think my boss will let me.' she finished, pointing to her boss who had just entered the room carrying a heavy looking box.

James looked over to her. She was a blonde woman whom he presumed was probably in her late twenties. How she could be a boss he didn't know as she looked far too young to own a shop. Still, he took a deep breath, smiled his wonky smile with a mischievous glint in his eyes, rolled up the sleeves on his shirt and walked over to her, taking the box off of her when he reached her.

'Here,' he said, 'let me get that.'

'Thank you!' the woman said, her surprise that someone was helping her showing in her voice. She then looked at James who was smiling at her and her surprised expression grew.

James smiled back, put the box down on the side and ran his hand through his hair. He knew what she was thinking. He did look good today. He then stopped himself thinking that as his arrogance about his appearance, especially the running his hand through his hair thing, was something Lily didn't like. He knew this because she had told him time and time again during the six years that they had known each other.

'Hello…Hayley.' he said looking at her name badge, and then smiling charmingly at her, 'Listen I was wondering if, you know,' he began, 'I'm sorry but I have to say this, you have very pretty eyes.'

'Thank you,' Hayley said, blushing and starting to twirl a strand of her hair around her finger.

Behind the pair of them, Lily shook her head.

'They look so…giving.' James said as Hayley nodded along, drinking up every word, 'Anyway. I've just had some good news and I was wondering if you'd allow me to take my _friend_ Evans over there out to celebrate. Normally I wouldn't ask such a thing but your eyes looked so caring and generous and kind. I thought I'd give it a shot.'

Hayley looked at Lily who was looking away. If she'd have looked over to her a moment earlier she'd have seen her roll her eyes at James' behaviour. Hayley looked back to James who was staring at her charmingly. She melted.

'Ok.' she said agreeing to let Lily go for lunch with James, 'As long as she's back for two.'

'Brilliant.' James said, touching her on the arm lightly, letting it linger there long enough for Hayley to retain her blush, 'Thank you.' He then turned around and winked at Lily who once again rolled her eyes but, after shouting her thanks and goodbyes to her boss, walked out of the shop with James.

They started to walk down the street together, James with his hands in his pockets strolling casually alongside Lily who had her arms folded.

'So where do you want to go?' he asked her.

'Well, before we go anywhere, I need to go home and grab my bag.' Lily replied.

'Oh ok.' James said, 'Where do you live?'

'Just there.' Lily answered pointing a little ways down the street.

James followed her finger to where she was looking. He saw a row of semi-detached houses which were part of a square complex surrounding a communal patch of grass in the middle. The grass had a few trees on it and a long vertical silver pole which James could only assume was some sort of odd muggle contraption or toy. (It was a lamppost.) Dead opposite the middle of the patch of grass was Lily's house. James knew this because this was the house they turned into. They walked up the little path way and stopped at the door.

Lily turned to James. 'Could you maybe wait out here for a second?' she asked him. She didn't think her parents, mostly her dad, would approve of her bringing the boy she had moaned about for five years into the house. In fact she doubted that her father would approve of her bringing any boy into the house who wasn't Severus Snape. Her father had liked him. Well, until he had heard how he had upset his daughter.

'Sure.' James said. He watched her walk into the house and, as soon as the door was shut he looked around. Her house looked extremely ordinary. It was nice house in a 1930's style. They were obviously at the back of the house as James could see into the kitchen. The back garden, which he was waiting in, was just a square piece of grass, separated by a small hedgerow. James then looked out to the communal patch of grass and noticed something which he found extremely funny.

Behind one of the trees opposite Lily's house, was Severus Snape. James could tell because of the greasy hair and big nose which stuck out from behind it. He was glaring at James who revelled in the fact that he obviously hated him being there. Then, just because it was absolutely hilarious for him, James leant against the wall next to Lily's front door in his usual position, looking as if he belonged there. He grinned cheekily at Severus and waved at him which only caused Severus to grip the tree in fury. James continued to smile at him, torturing him with his mere presence. He had to stop though when Lily came outside. He didn't want her to see him torturing her ex-best friend. Even though, it was only mental torture this time.

'Ready?' she asked him as she closed the door behind her.

'Yeah.' James replied. Then, just to piss Severus off even more he offered his arm to Lily so that she could link hers through as they walked. Lily hesitated and blushed slightly before doing just that and walking slowly away from her house with him. She didn't notice Severus' glare from behind the tree. James did though and smirked.

As the pair started off down the road. He looked at her up and down, subtly so that she wouldn't see, (after all he had established that they were only going out as friends, even though his body language stated otherwise), and smiled to himself. To him, she had never looked prettier. She had her hair down but had put on a head band to keep the deep red locks off of her face. It cascaded down her back with a gentle wave at the bottom. She was wearing a denim skirt and a simple white top which outlined her figure perfectly. She also had long brown boots on but parts of her legs were still showing.

Lily looked to James and noticed him look away quickly. She shook her head. Perhaps she had imagined that. 'Where do you want to go?' she questioned in reference to where he wanted to go for lunch.

'I was hoping you'd know a place.' James answered.

'Well we could go to the diner round the corner.' Lily suggested, 'We go there all the time.'

'Sure.' James said with a nod of his head.

They walked round the corner and saw the diner. Lily led the way towards it, neither of them saying a word as they approached the homely little restaurant. They weren't walking in awkward silence however. On the contrary, both of them were quite comfortable in each other's company, linking arms, talking or not.

James opened the door for Lily and she thanked him and entered the building. James followed her in and they looked around for a table. It was pretty empty so they could take their pick.

'Where do you want to sit then?' Lily asked James, gesturing around to the array of empty tables.

'How about here?' James said, pointing to the one closest to them.

'Err…no.' Lily disagreed, explaining, 'It's too close to the door there'll be a draft.' when James gave her a questioning look.

'How about that one over there then?' James suggested, pointing, this time, to the table furthest away from them.

'Err…no.' Lily said, repeating her last statement and explaining, 'It's next to the bathroom. It'll smell.'

'Well what about that one in the centre.' James sighed, sensing a theme here.

'No.' Lily said plainly, not even bothering to give an explanation this time.

'Well you pick one then.' James exhaled, giving up.

'How about the one near the window?' Lily asked politely, knowing that James would go and sit there even if she hadn't phrased it as a question.

'Err…no.' James said with no explanation.

'Why not?' Lily questioned in shock.

'Because you refused to sit at all the tables I suggested so-'

'Oh stop being so pedantic!' Lily laughed as she grabbed his hand and dragged him over to the table she had chosen by the window.

Almost immediately, as soon as they had sat down, a waitress appeared. She was wearing a blue chequered dress with a frilly pinafore on and in her hand was a small notepad and, as James couldn't see a quill, what he assumed was a writing instrument. Her name tag read Fran.

'Can I take your order?' she asked them.

'I'll have a pumpkin juice and-Ow!' James yelped, looking across the table to Lily who had just kicked him and was giving him a warning look.

'We'll have two cokes and two beef dinners please.' Lily said with a smile to Fran the waitress.

Fran smiled at Lily and then at James, paused to look at him a while longer, and then left to give in their orders.

As soon as she was out of earshot, James leant on the table and asked, in all seriousness, 'What's a coke?'

'Well you're about to find out!' Lily smiled as Fran returned and put down two tall glasses of coke.

James watched Lily take her coke with his head tilted to one side. She put the glass down and unfolded the napkin that was sat next to her. She placed in down in front of her, dug her fingers into her drink and took out a wedge of lime. James raised his eyebrows at her odd behaviour.

She looked up to see this and simply responded with, 'It's already a fruit drink why do they need to put more fruit in it?'

'Do you not like fruit?' James questioned.

'I have no problem with fruit I just don't like it in my drink.' Lily answered, folding the lime wedge up in her napkin and moving it to the side.

Simultaneously, they both took a drink. Lily, who had drank coke before, took a sip and put it to the side. James on the other hand, had never had coke before as he had grown up in the wizarding world. All he had really had was pumpkin juice, water or butterbeer. Coke was something completely different. He took a sip and his eyes widened. He took another sip and then another until his glass was almost half empty.

'Slow down.' Lily laughed, watching James get super excited about a glass of coke.

'I can't!' James said, taking another gulp, 'This is awesome! Where have muggles been hiding this stuff! It's bubbly! I like bubbles! You know, I can't taste any fruit in this and I left my lime wedge in. I'm telling mum to get this in! It's awesome and-'

'Maybe I should have ordered you a diet coke.' Lily smiled, noticing the sugar taking an instant effect on James. He was already someone who worked off of a natural buzz. Adding a full sugar coke into the mix wasn't particularly wise.

The pair of them had a lovely meal together, as soon as James had calmed down from the coke. Lily had ordered him a diet next and he began to return to his usual self. When he had, Lily had been able to get a word in edgeways and stop laughing so much for when he was on the buzz of coke he was ever so funny. Just the way he spoke was hilarious. And then, when he had built an office out of the salt, pepper, tomato sauce, menus and vinegar, his impression of Dumbledore had had Lily in stitches.

When there meal had arrived, he was calm and they began to talk. They talked about their summers and what they had been doing. They talked about who they had seen, why Lily had gotten a job, why James hadn't written to Lily, (he and Sirius had decided to use all the ink in his house to fill balloons and throw them off of the roof), and what they planned to do when they got back to Hogwarts and, as James said, ruled the school. Their conversation never lagged and the both felt very natural around each other with Lily wondering if this was what a date with him was like then maybe Hestia was wrong. Besides, before Hestia's ex-boyfriend had practically destroyed the romantic in her she had supported Lily on the topic of James. She had even gone so far as to say that they were inevitable.

They were having such a good time that time itself had flown by and it had hit two o'clock before they knew it. Lily had to get back to work and, reluctantly had to leave. She rummaged in her bag for some money when James told her to leave it. He said he'd pay. Lily had, of course, argued and said that he didn't need to pay for her but he continued to insist. If she hadn't had to get back to work she would have stood her ground longer but, as it was, she did have to go and unwillingly let him pay for her, promising she'd pay him back later. She hugged him goodbye, a long prolonged hug that neither wanted to pull away from but which James had ended by kissing her on the cheek, and left him sat at the table alone.

James watched her go. He had had a great time with her but felt that he did need to get back home now. He had left Sirius, Peter and Remus alone at his house, playing hide and seek of all things, for nearly three hours now. He'd be lucky if the place wasn't a mess by the time he got back but, as he had left it in the hands of Sirius, that was unlikely. The place wouldn't just be a mess but a pigsty. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a couple of bits of paper which the muggles considered money. He had no idea how much the meal was but left two notes with the number twenty written on them. He then took one last sip of coke and left the diner to find a safe place to apparate. When he had, he turned on the spot with a smile on his face. Even if the rest of the summer was boring, it would still be the best summer he had ever had. He had spent three hours of it with Lily Evans. If that didn't equal an awesome summer, he didn't know what did.

* * *

**Ok. :) I'm just gonna leave you with the summer holidays at the minute. In the next chatper they return to Hogwarts and the fun really begins! :)**

**I will try to update on the 31st of March **

**Thanks for reading! **

**Galindaba**


	42. Chapter 41

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader! **

**Here's chapter Forty-One!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Forty-One**

Platform nine and three quarters was buzzing with chatter and laughter as students greeted their friends after a six week break from each other. People were hugging each other and jumping up and down squealing when they saw each other and that was just the boys. Everyone had missed the people that they spent most of their adolescent lives with and were just pleased to see that they had come back in one piece. The platform was filled with trunks and owl cages as the students slowly loaded the train. Not everyone was moving slowly though. There were some people who couldn't wait to get on the Hogwarts express.

Severus pushed his way through the bustling crowds with his head down. He dragged his trunk quickly towards the gleaming scarlet engine, pushing people out of the way as he went. He was surlier than ever and just wanted to get on the train, go to school and get the whole year over and done with as soon as possible. He was only going as it was a legal requirement and he needed his N.E.W.T's but if he was to be perfectly honest he'd rather be trying to work himself up into Voldemort's good graces. He was now a death eater, fully-fledged but, whilst he was at school, there wasn't much he could do. Especially as the Hogsmeade trips were now protected by roaming teachers and anti-apparation charms meaning no-one could attack the students whilst they were there and the students couldn't leave. Until the Christmas break when he would return home, Severus and all his other Slytherin 'friends' wouldn't be able to attend a death eater meeting and their only way of contact would be via letter or whatever they read in the Daily Prophet.

He heaved he trunk onto the train but found his way blocked.

'Want some help there?' James Potter said, smirking to Severus who didn't have his upper arm strength and looked as though he might need some assistance.

'Piss off Potter!' Severus spat in his face, pushing past him and disappearing down the train.

James watched him go. That's what he got for, for once in his life, trying to be nice to him. Delightful. Well, that wasn't true. He wasn't trying to be nice to him. He was reminding him subtly that he had spent time with Lily Evans in the summer holiday. His mere presence at a place where Severus should be ought to remind him of that. James Potter smirked again. He jumped off of the train and made his way through the crowd until he reached Peter and his mum saying their goodbyes.

'Do you have everything?' she asked her son who was clearly uncomfortable at being dropped off by his mother who was wearing a thick, mustard coloured, hand woven cardigan, a grey flat cap, army boots, bright green, flowery pedal pushers that were too small to her and an eye patch to cover the empty socket that had been left behind after she had been attacked. The older generation of wizards always found it harder to keep up with the latest muggle fashions. So when they did venture out into the muggle world to drop their children off, they looked a little strange and, to their kids, embarrassing.

'Yes.' Peter murmured with a tense jaw.

'Oh James.' Peters mum said when she finally saw him approaching them, 'Just a few things, he has new shoes on so be careful he doesn't trip and his trunk is rather heavy so you can carry it because it might hurt him.'

Peters mum suddenly plonked Peters trunk into James hands. Normally carrying trunks wasn't a problem but James was sure that there were bricks or something in this one because it was too heavy for him to hold.

'I'll see you at Christmas then darling!' Peters mum said, planting a great big wet kiss on her son's forehead before waving to James, who was struggling to pick up Peters case, and disapparating.

As soon as she was gone James stopped trying to manually move the case and turned to Peter. 'What did you put in here? Rocks?'

'No.' Peter said, wiping his forehead, 'Mum made me pack all of my clothes and all of my text books from the last six years.'

'Why?' James puffed, 'We didn't use them when they were actually set. Why would we use them now?'

Peter shrugged and took out his wand to levitate his trunk with. He moved the trunk magically over to the train and through the thinning crowds. It would be eleven in less than two minutes and, as soon as the big hand hit twelve, the train would pull out of the station. With this in mind, Peter and James stepped onto the train and walked down to their carriage where Remus and Sirius were waiting. They slid open the door and Peter levitated his trunk onto the shelves above. Then, both boys flopped down onto opposite seats in the carriage. No sooner had James sat down though, Remus got up.

'Come on then.' he said to James who looked at him with confusion and raised eyebrows.

'Come on where?' James asked, 'The trolley comes to us.' he continued, for this was the only reason he thought Remus would want to venture out of the carriage which they usually stayed in for the whole of the journey.

'To the prefect's carriage.' Remus explained as if it were obvious, 'We have to go there for a bit to sort through some stuff.'

'Well why do I have to go?' James replied, 'I'm not a prefect. And anyway, you don't usually go till about twenty minutes into the journey.'

'Well, I don't usually go when I'm supposed too because you lot never let me.' Remus said, gesturing around to the three boys who were still sat in the carriage, 'But now it's different because you need to be one of the first ones there.'

'Why?' James questioned with a yawn.

'Because you're head boy.' Remus said, raising one eyebrow.

'Oh yeah.' James said as if he had just remembered, forcing himself to stand up, 'Let's go then.' he sighed.

The pair of them left the carriage and James, who had never been to the prefect's carriage before, followed Remus down the train. It took a short while until they had finally reached the prefect's carriage as they compartment that they had chosen was on the complete opposite side of the train. They slid the door open and there were only two other people in there; a Ravenclaw girl and Lily Evans.

'Hey Evans!' James said as he saw her. He smiled at her, extremely happy to see her. He hadn't seen her since they had gone to lunch in the middle of the holidays. After that, everything he felt for her, everything he had unsuccessfully tried to bury had come back stronger than before and he was extremely glad that they were now head boy and head girl together as he had an excuse to spend more time alone with her. Maybe by spending time alone with each other, Lily's feeling from after last Christmas would return, she'd forget that he had tried to kiss her and she had pulled away and she would finally go out with him. They were probably just feeble hopes but, hope was hope.

'Hey.' Lily responded softly, standing and staring at him. Her stomach flipped as their eyes locked. Not wanting James to feel uncomfortable, she shook her head a looked away saying, 'Do you know all the prefects?' as a way to change the subject.

'I know Remus.' James said, jerking his thumb to Remus who was stood next to him waving.

'I'll take that as a no then.' Lily smiled. She handed him a sheet of parchment which he took and glanced at but just put to the side. He knew Remus and he knew Lily. Who else did he need to know?

He sat down, well, laid down as he had put his feet up, on one of the seats in the carriage. They were softer than the ones in the normal compartments and were also longer. The curtains in the carriage were nicer too. They actually blocked out the light. James liked it in the Prefects compartment. It was more welcoming than the ones they had to use.

Soon the compartment had filled with the prefects from all houses. Half of them had been able to sit down but the other half were unable to as James was still sprawled out along the other seat with his hands behind his head. They just stood in the middle of the compartment, not really sure what to do with themselves. It was Lily who saved them.

'James, move your feet.' she said, sitting down opposite him.

James sighed and moved his feet, reluctantly sitting through the prefects meeting. He hardly said anything whilst it took place. The only person to actually talk was Lily. She knew what had to happen in these induction meetings and she sorted out which prefect would take the first years to the houses dormitories, which prefects would take the first two nights of patrol and which prefects would be in charge of ensuring the higher years didn't send the first years off in completely the wrong direction. (That shouldn't have been an issue for Gryffindor this year as James was usually the one to do that. Still, being head boy doesn't change everything and there was still Sirius to consider.) Then the part of the meeting came when they gave out passwords for the houses that needed them; Slytherin and Gryffindor. James got the wrong end of the stick when it came to this and suggested that they give Slytherin one of two passwords; 'Gryffindor rules' or 'I'm a little tea pot short and stout'. He was soon corrected by Lily and told that the passwords were set by the head of house, something which he didn't find fun at all.

Soon, thanks to Lily's efficiency, the meeting was over and the prefect's went back to their own carriages leaving Lily alone with James and Remus.

'Well I think I did a brilliant job.' James said very proud of himself and running a hand through his hair.

'I think you did too.' Remus agreed.

Lily looked at them both in confusion and blurted out, 'You didn't do anything.'

'That was the best part.' Remus said.

'Yeah.' James said in continuation, writing something down on a piece of parchment, folding it, taking out his wand and enchanting it and then sending it out the compartment. He then turned to Lily and carried on with what he was saying, 'You know you liked being in charge.'

Lily smiled at him, blushing a little and then tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. Her stomach flipped again and the butterflies returned as he looked at her and winked. She looked down. She still really liked him and didn't know how they were supposed to work together professionally if she felt this way. When they had gone out to lunch in the holidays she couldn't help but wonder if that's what it would be like with him on a date. If so, she didn't know what Hestia was talking about at all but was too chicken to actually call her out on this. If she did, it wasn't like anything would happen. They were now stuck in a limbo, both thinking the other just wanted to be friends and both too scared to say anything.

'Are you coming?' Lily asked them both as she went to the sliding door.

'Nah.' James replied, flopping himself down on one of the seats again and sprawling out, 'We're gonna stay here. This place is much nicer than our compartment. You can stay if you want? I know I wouldn't mind.'

Remus looked away and out of the window as James invited his long time crush to sit with them.

Lily smiled again. All she seemed to do around James was smile. 'I'd love too.' She began, getting James' hopes up and making Remus raise his eyebrows in insinuation. They both dropped their expressions though when Lily continued with, 'But Alice and Hestia will kill me if I don't go and see them.'

'Oh.' James said, deflated and looking down. 'Sure. See you later then.'

Lily stood where she was for a second and then walked over to James and hugged him. It took him a few moments to realise and hug her back, breathing in the smell of her hair as he did so. They hugged for about three seconds before she stood back up, blushing furiously, said bye and left.

As soon as she was gone Remus turned to James who had a sappy smile on his face and said, 'Dude you should ask her out. You want to. Just do it.'

James didn't answer as, at that moment Sirius and Peter walked into the compartment.

'Awesome!' Sirius said as he walked in, 'This place rules!'

'I know right!' James said in reply, folding his hands behind his head and relaxing, 'I know how to travel in style!'

'Please! You hadn't stepped foot in this compartment before today.' Remus laughed.

'Yeah but now it's my carriage!' James grinned, 'I'm head boy. I own this train!'

Sirius and Remus looked at each other and laughed as Peter tittered behind them. James was going to be unbearable this year. If he thought he owned the train, they were sure that it would only lead on to him soon declaring that he owned the school. Not that they minded. It would be funny to watch.

Still, the thing that baffled them all was how James had made head boy in the first place. Merlin knows he wasn't exactly a model student. He received many detentions, played loads of tricks, bullied the Slytherin's (although he had gotten better at not doing that so much, not doing it at all last year), skipped classes, missed exams, sneaked out and basically didn't give two hoots. Why Dumbledore had decided to unleash him in a position of power that would also boost his arrogance was beyond everybody, including James. The only reason they were able to come up with was Dumbledore had gone crazy but even that seemed implausible. No matter what though, James would be head boy all year and they would just have to deal with it.

* * *

Lily sat with Hestia and Alice at the welcome feast, waiting for the first years to arrive. They were late which was unusual as Hagrid was always so punctual when it came to delivering them to the sorting. He had to be otherwise he would have a load of hungry teenagers mad at him. They were starting to get moody as it was. They had been traveling all day with only sweets from the trolley to eat. They needed real food and it was being held up by something. Only nobody knew what. They suspected Peeves had something to do with it as he always stropped about not being able to come to the welcome feast to greet, as he would say, 'the wee little piggy winks'.

Lily turned to Hestia and stuck her bottom lip out. 'I'm hungry.' she said.

'Me too.' Alice said, her belly rumbling loudly.

'No worries.' Hestia replied to them both, looking around suspiciously before digging into her robes. She pulled out three ice mice and offered them over the table. Alice and Lily grabbed one each and popped them into their mouths. They chewed them hungrily, the sweet taste filling them up for about a second. When they had swallowed, they all smiled at each other and then, simultaneously, there smiles dropped.

'I'm still hungry.' Lily whined, rubbing her stomach beneath her robes.

'Me too.' Alice repeated.

'Well I've got nothing left so you're just going to have to cope.' Hestia replied brutally. She had been harsh with them for the whole of the train ride. Cold even. Obviously a six week holiday in France wasn't enough time to get over your first boyfriend cheating on you.

They didn't have to cope with their hunger for much longer though as Professor McGonagall walked into the hall with the missing first years in tow. They followed her up the hall to the front where the old and fraying Sorting Hat sat atop a small three legged stool. They all looked terrified at the prospect of being there and were staring at the hat as if it was about to eat them. The small students were gathered around it nervously and the hall fell silent in waiting. Then it opened its frayed mouth and began to sing.

_Almost a thousand years ago_

_When I was just a hat,_

_The founders had a problem_

_That caused them all to spat_

_They all had different virtues_

_Which they valued and revered,_

_But none could agree on which_

_Values should be reared_

_And so four houses were devised_

_Which today are still well known_

_Each founder heading one of them_

_And calling one their own_

_Gryffindor house took on those_

_Who were brave and bold_

_Taking on the colours of_

_Scarlett red and gold_

_Slytherin wanted those with_

_Cunning and use of means_

_Lending them the colours of_

_Silver steel and greens_

_Those with brains, thought Ravenclaw_

_I'll teach my magic too,_

_Clothing them in colours of_

_Bronze and royal blue_

_Then was Hufflepuff my friends_

_In yellow and deep black_

_Who only cared if you would give_

_The clothes straight off your back._

_With all their houses settled_

_There was one more thing to do_

_To inform me of these values_

_So I could then place you_

_So put me on your head and I'll_

_See which traits you show_

_Put me on your head and I'll say_

_Where you ought to go!_

The hall burst out in a rapturous applause as the Sorting Hat closed its ripped mouth and took an odd little bow. It was the Sorting Hat's shining moment, when he performed his little song before the sorting. He only had one job at the beginning of the year and it only lasted for forty minutes at the most. For the rest of the year there was nothing he could do. Students suspected that he spent his time working on his songs. That was why they always gave him a generous round of applause in appreciation, even if they didn't think the song that he had created was that good.

'When I call your name,' started Professor McGonagall, unravelling a long scroll of parchment which had a list of student's names on it, 'please come and sit on the stool and I will place the sorting hat on your head.'

Lily and Hestia looked at each other ready to play their game. It wasn't particularly a fun game but it was how they had decided who bought the butterbeer on their first Hogsmeade trip. What they did was guess which house the students would be placed in. Whoever lost bought the butterbeer. Lily usually won. She enjoyed winning.

'Molly Atkins.' McGonagall read.

A small girl with bleach blonde hair walked nervously up to the three legged stool. She looked at the stool and then around at the crowd of other nervous first year students. She smiled at them and sat down. As soon as she was settled, McGonagall placed the sorting hat on her head.

'Hufflepuff.' Lily said assuredly, nodding her head.

'Nope.' Hestia disagreed, 'She's a definite Ravenclaw.'

Alice looked at the pair of them from across the table. 'What are you doing?' she asked them.

'Hufflepuff!' the Sorting Hat yelled out across the hall which clapped politely for the small Hufflepuff girl who hopped of the stool and ran across to the table belonging to her new house.

As she went and the next student walked up confidently to the stool, Sorting Hat and Professor McGonagall, Lily and Hestia explained to Alice what they were doing. She hadn't sat with them properly after their second year and, as this tradition started in their third year, she was oblivious to it. Still, she wanted to join in. There was a chance of free butterbeer and no witch or wizard in their right mind would refuse a chance for free butterbeer.

The three of them put in their guesses for the next student who was on the stool. She was a tall girl with sleek black hair. Lily guessed Gryffindor whilst Alice and Hestia went for Slytherin. They waited for the house to be announced. The girl ended up being placed in Slytherin and Lily lost. She wasn't happy about this as she hated losing so imagine her displeasure when she lost the whole game to Hestia and her new found accomplice Alice. Now she had to buy the three of them the first round of butterbeers when they went to Hogsmeade.

Still, she put that out of her mind as soon as her belly rumbled again. Lily looked up to the front of the great hall where Professor McGonagall was moving the three legged stool, along with the Sorting Hat, to the far side of the hall and out of the way of Dumbledore's view. Dumbledore then stood up and opened his arms in welcome. Lily smiled. She had missed Hogwarts but that wasn't the real reason behind her smile. She was smiling because she knew that as soon as Dumbledore was finished speaking, which would only take about a minute or so providing there were no interruptions, food would be served and her hunger would be curbed.

This would have definitely been the case if the doors of the great hall hadn't banged open just before Dumbledore opened his mouth. The entire hall, as one, turned their heads to the now open doors, all expecting to see Filch and his annoying little cat Mrs Norris ready to complain about Peeves but they got an odd surprise.

In the door way was one of the boats which were used to carry the first years across the lake. (By seeing this, the whole hall now understood the reason for the first years being late.) The boat was floating in mid-air and standing inside in the middle, hands on hips and attempting to look noble, wearing an extremely odd hat with the letters HB on, was James Potter. Either side of the boat then, were Remus and Peter waving little flags with the letters HB on them. Then, finally, Sirius was sat in the front of the boat blowing out an annoyingly awful and loud tune on an old fashioned messengers trumpet. He blew out the tune a couple more time before Remus hit him over the back of the head and told him to get on with it. Then, after a short spat which sent snickers of amusement through the hall, Sirius Black announced loudly, 'Make way make way! Head boy coming through.' As soon as Sirius had said this the boat lurched forwards until they stopped in the middle of the hall.

James looked around at the quietly stunned hall. 'Well I was expecting a round of applause!' he said in mock annoyance raising his hands for the hall to clap.

Surprisingly to everyone, Dumbledore was the first one to start clapping. Slowly, the rest of the hall joined in until they were applauding in the same way they did after the sorting hat had finished its song.

'Thank you, thank you!' James said taking a dramatically large bow, shouting over the rapturous applause, 'I'm here all year!'

'Me too!' Sirius yelled.

'Yeah, no one cares.' Remus said to him as the four of them jumped out of the boat and sat at the four available seats at the Gryffindor table.

'What an entrance.' Dumbledore said to the hall as they started to settle down, taking out his wand and making the floating boat in the middle of the hall vanish from sight, 'Now we've had the show, I do believe it's time for the meal. Enjoy!'

The tables filled up with the delicious start of term feast to which Sirius shouted his usual response, 'FOOD!'. Then, in usual response, the people around him laughed including, for the first time in her life, Lily.

'Why are you laughing?' Hestia asked Lily with one raised eyebrow. Lily had never in her life laughed at that. All she had done was roll her eyes in the past.

'Because that's the last time we'll ever have to hear that!' she grinned in return, 'Just like that was the last sorting we'll see and this is the last welcome feast we'll have and-'

'All right, shut up, you're bumming me out!' Alice said with a sad pout. She then continued on to change the subject as she had a feeling that Lily would just continue to list all of the lasts that they were having. 'Why didn't you go in with Potter in his 'grand' entrance?' she asked Lily with insinuation.

'She wouldn't do that.' Hestia said in place of Lily, 'She's not a big fan of boats and she's over that stupid Potter crush. Come to her senses haven't you Lily?' she went on to say, her mood returning, no longer the romantic she was the previous year.

Lily glanced over to James who smiled at her in return with a wave and a wink. She wasn't over it, not at all. But she didn't want her best friend to think she hadn't listened to her advice and go off into another 'my boyfriend cheated on me and now I hate the world' fuelled rant. So she just said, 'Yeah. I'm over it.'

* * *

The next morning at breakfast, the students of Hogwarts were given their timetables for the year and James Potter and Lily Evans were given a note informing them that Dumbledore wished to see them. As soon as she had received the note Lily walked over to James and suggested that they make their way up to their headmaster's office together. Without missing a beat, James agreed and the pair of them walked out of the great hall together.

'What do you think he wants?' James asked Lily, shoving his hands in his pockets and turning his head to glance at her as they walked.

'Maybe he wants to tell you he made a mistake by making you head boy?' Lily teased with a little laugh before giving her real answer. 'It's probably something to do with the duties expected of us as head students.'

'Yeah that makes sense.' James agreed, nodding his head.

They walked a little bit further in silence before Lily randomly came out with, 'I had a really good time with you in the summer.'

James stopped in surprise. He hadn't been expecting her to say that at all. In fact, if anything, he didn't think that she would ever speak of it again. He didn't think she'd have told anyone that they went to lunch in case they looked upon it as a date. Still, he was glad to see that he wasn't the only one who enjoyed their few hours together.

Having people speculate it was a date was the reason that he hadn't told his friends. He was getting bad at not telling his friends things, keeping secrets from them. He hadn't told them anything that had transpired between him and Lily over the past few months such as the time he had almost kissed her and then, of course, their summer lunch. His friends still believed that James had just found an extremely good hiding place in the Potter mansion. Then there was the thing with Severus Snape that he had kept hidden from his friends, despite their suspicions. But just by keeping these secrets he felt extremely guilty. The marauders friendship as a whole was built on open honesty. It was why their friendship was so strong. Even though this was the case, something had stopped James from sharing these secrets and he didn't particularly want to reveal them, even now. Something was stopping him.

'Err, James?' Lily said, interrupting his thoughts.

'Yeah?' James replied, blinking the problems that had just been running through his head to the back of his mind. It seemed that he had just randomly stopped and started to think. Knowing this must have seemed extremely weird to Lily, James started to walk forwards again, with her following by his side.

'You know,' James began, finally replying to what Lily had originally said, 'I had a good time with you too.'

'Did you not expect too?' Lily asked him, picking up on the surprised tone in his voice.

'No.' James laughed, running a hand through his hair as he did so, 'No, I knew I'd have a good time with you. Always suspected that would be the case.'

Lily smiled at this, blushing slightly as she did so. 'Always?' she questioned.

They had reached the stone gargoyle which guarded Dumbledore's office by now and stopped just outside it. As soon as they were both stationary James turned to Lily and said, 'Yes. Always.' He then took a deep breath and went for it. 'We should do it again.' he stated.

Lily took a deep breath also and quickly said, 'Maybe.' to James before turning to the stone gargoyle and saying the password Dumbledore had sent in the notes that they were given; strawberry dream.

Immediately, the ornate stone gargoyle sprang to life and leapt to the side to reveal the moving spiral staircase which would take James and Lily to the door of Dumbledore's office. They stepped on stairs and stood still as it lifted them up through the tower until the top step connected to the piece of wall just below the oak door entrance. James knocked on it and, upon hearing that they could enter, opened the door for Lily who thanked him and walked in.

Lily had never been in Dumbledore's office before. She had read about the headmasters office extensively in Hogwarts; A History. She had read about the past headmasters portraits being pinned to the walls and she had read about the changing password which the headmaster himself chose and how it changed every time someone who wasn't official Hogwarts staff entered the office. This meant that as soon as she and James left his office he would have to change his password. Her expansive knowledge of how the headmaster's office worked was how she knew about the emergency password bypass that helped the marauders get in when Peters mum was attacked. Still, now she was actually in Dumbledore's office, everything she had read seemed insignificant. It hadn't even started to describe the magnificence of it.

It was a circular office filled with moving pictures of past headmasters in ornately decorated golden frames who were talking to James wondering aloud what he had done that had caused him to be sent up to Dumbledore's office again. There were lots of odd contraptions and devices that Lily had no idea what they were for. Atop one of the many bookcases that surrounded the office was the sorting hat that was used just the previous day. At the back in the centre, Dumbledore's desk was large and inviting with a throne like chair behind it, which Dumbledore was sat on, and in front of it were two large cushy armchairs meant, presumably, for James and Lily. As they went to sit down, Lily noticed something that definitely wasn't in Hogwarts: A History. A magnificent, fiery feathered phoenix was perched on a golden stand with its head tucked into itself, sleeping soundly.

'Ah Miss Evans, Mr Potter.' Dumbledore greeted as they sat in front of him, 'How are you both?'

'Fine sir.' James answered for them both as Lily was still entranced by the space they were in.

'Good to see that becoming head boy hasn't stopped you breaking the rules!' Dumbledore commented with a hearty chuckle, looking over his half-moon spectacles at James with sparkling blue eyes.

'With all due respect sir, we broke no rules.' James said with a cheeky smile, 'First of all, Hagrid always says no more than four to a boat. There were only four of us in there sir so, no rules broken there. Secondly, I have read…no rule books actually but I'm pretty sure there are no rules about borrowing the boats.'

Dumbledore gave another throaty chuckle, his eyes twinkling at James with whom he was all too comfortable with having in his office. He shook his head fondly and turned to Lily asking her, 'And Miss Evans, how are you?'

'I'm very well thank you professor.' Lily replied a little nervously. In her whole Hogwarts life she had never had a one to one with Dumbledore, at least not since the day when he came to explain to her parents and her about Hogwarts. She had only ever seen him at the special occasion feasts. This was a novelty for her. Out of respect and politeness, Lily asked him in return, 'How are you sir?'

'I am well too Miss Evans. Thank you for asking.' Dumbledore replied nicely, nodding his head once in a small type of bow before continuing, 'Now you've nothing to worry about here. This is strictly a routine meeting that I do with all my head students.'

'You mean…we aren't the first?' James sniffed dramatically putting his hand to his chest, 'I can't say I'm not hurt, but, I'll cope!' he sniffed again.

'Thank you Mr Potter.' Dumbledore smiled, 'Now, as head students you will be responsible for organising the prefects, especially the patrol rota which you will need to schedule in advance. My advice on this subject is to compose a rough timetable for this week and inform your prefects of the schedule in the meeting tonight. Now, as you know Miss Evans, the prefects meeting is a weekly occurrence, every Friday, which both the head boy and head girl reside over. This means, Mr Potter that you _will_ need to attend. Usually, before the meeting, the head students create the schedule for week which organises everybody's patrols. During the meeting, you must go over the patrol rota with your prefects to ensure that no one has a problem with it and listen to any concerns the prefects have. These concerns can vary from a problem with the patrol rota to a school issue. After the meeting the head students take the time to consolidate the minutes of the meeting and make any necessary changes to the rota that has been discussed. Then you will post the rota on the notice board of each common room that night. Any questions so far?' he asked them, looking between them both.

'One.' James said, stroking his chin in what he thought was an intellectual way, 'How do I go about getting jelly added permanently to the menu?'

Dumbledore pressed his fingertips together and simply said, 'You would have to talk to the house elves in the kitchen. I trust you know where that is?' he raised his eyebrows before continuing with the serious information.

'Also, from time to time, you may be needed to help with a school issue or the mentoring of younger students if they are struggling in a particular subject. Don't worry though, we won't ask you to tutor in a subject you don't take or have never taken. In those situations, all we ask is that you recommend somebody who you believe will be suitable to take the post. Is that clear?'

'Yes Sir.' Lily said before James could answer him with some odd sarcastic comment that would just slow this meeting up and cause them to be late for their first lesson.

'Next, the Hogsmeade visits.' Dumbledore began.

'Brilliant idea!' James responded with a grin, resting one of his elbows on the arm of the cushy purple chair he was sat in.

'They will be going ahead with the same provisions as the last academic year.' he continued, delighting both of his head students with his announcement, 'Last year, the head students were tasked with the job of safely ferrying the students back to Hogwarts if anything were to go wrong. This was to enable the staff and residents of Hogsmeade to take care of the situation. This is just a precaution and probably won't happen but, if it does, then it is your duty to look after your peers.'

James and Lily nodded. Both understood that, if anything bad were to happen during a Hogsmeade trip, (which it wouldn't as Dumbledore's enchantments, protections and precautions were airtight.), they would have to be serious. They would be responsible for the health and wellbeing of all students who visited Hogsmeade. They had dealt with a similar situation in January and knew what could happen as, when it had happened back then, they had both ended up in the hospital wing.

'Finally,' Dumbledore announced with a twinkle in his eyes, 'you're privileges.'

'Now we're talking!' James grinned, leaning forwards eager to know what the title head boy gave him.

'As you know, curfew for all students is nine thirty. The curfew for the prefects is ten o'clock and your curfew is ten thirty.' Dumbledore said.

There was no reaction from James or Lily. Lily had always stuck to curfew anyway unlike James who never took any notice. Either way, the extended curfew didn't affect them.

'You're other privileges include full use of the restricted section in the library, use of the prefects bathroom, use of any and all available classrooms and the ability to give and take away points from other students.' Dumbledore said, coming to a close.

'Excellent!' James said a little bit evilly. Only one thing was running through his head; punishment. He could deduct points from the Slytherin's for just looking at him. That was going to be extremely fun. Also, as soon as he took away points from Slytherin, he could give them to Gryffindor. Effectively, they had already won the house cup. _Score_, James thought.

'That's all.' Dumbledore chirped, smiling at his head students, 'You may go.'

James and Lily rose from their squashy armchairs and thanked Dumbledore for his time, information and advice. They headed towards the door with Lily looking all around her as she went, drinking in Dumbledore's office one last time before she had to leave. James followed her across the room gazing at her deep red hair as it moved gracefully along with her. They reached the door and James leaned round to open it for Lily who thanked him and walked through it. James was about to follow her when he thought about something. Something everybody was curious about.

He turned back to Dumbledore with a curious look on his face. 'Professor?' he queried.

Dumbledore, who had already started to write something with his extravagant quill in a small black book, looked up. 'Yes Mr Potter?' he answered with a questioning head tilt.

'I was just wondering,' James began with a sigh, 'as my track record is against me here, why you made me head boy?' he finished in question, looking intently at his headmaster.

'Ah, Mr Potter.' Dumbledore smiled, placing his quill down and his fingertips together, 'I'd have thought that would be obvious. Good day.'

James nodded, still confused, and left, closing the heavy oak door behind him. It wasn't obvious. It wasn't obvious at all. That only left one conclusion. Dumbledore had, indeed, gone mad.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	43. Chapter 42

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter Forty-Two!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Forty-Two**

After just one day back at school, the students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had quickly gotten back into the swing of their lessons. It wasn't that hard for the seventh years as their timetables were exactly the same as they were for the previous year. In fact, after just one lesson filled day back at school, they all felt as if they had never left. If they were honest, they were all extremely happy that it was Friday, meaning that they had the whole weekend to recover from their first day. All their teachers, at least all the teachers they had seen so far, were trying to impress on them the seriousness that their last year brought. They had N.E.W.T's coming up in just over nine and a half months but, the way that their teachers were going on about them, you'd think that they were tomorrow.

This wasn't the most urgent thing in some people's lives though. Lily was extremely nervous about her first official meeting with the prefects of the school. She was in the transfiguration classroom, which was usually leant out for this purpose, and she was pacing the floor wringing her hands.

'Calm down!' James said to her. He was sat down at the long rectangular table that was in the middle of the floor. He was leaning back in his chair with his feet up on the table playing with a snitch. He was the picture of relaxation, completely the opposite of Lily.

'What if they have a problem with the patrol rota we've written?' Lily asked, brushing her hair back from her face and putting it behind her ears.

'Then they'll just have to deal with it.' James replied simply, letting his snitch fly away a little bit before capturing it and repeating the process again.

'We can't ask them to deal with it!' Lily sighed in agitation, flopping down in the chair next to James with her head in her hands, 'What if they have other things that they need to do like homework or writing to their families! I don't want to be the cause of tearing a family apart and-'

'Lily.' James said, taking her hands down from her face and gripping them supportively in his hands. He had let his snitch fly away up into the ceiling of the class room and had taken his legs off of the table so he was sitting properly. He looked into her eyes. 'You have to calm down. Everything will be alright. No one will have a problem with the rota, you won't stop anyone writing to their families and I doubt that they do their homework anyway.'

'They aren't you. They all do their homework.' Lily responded through gritted teeth, not taking her hands out of James' grasp.

'I'm pretty sure that they don't.' James laughed, releasing Lily's hands and returning to his previous position.

Lily tucked her hair behind her ears again, still completely stressed out, and stood up to pace the room once more. James may not be as anxious about this meeting as she was but she knew what was at stake here. She had been a prefect for two years before becoming head girl and had sat through these meetings before. If the head boy and head girl had made a weak or bad impression to their prefects, whether by organising a completely unworkable rota or by being stuck up idiots, they usually lost any respect they had for the whole year. If their first impression was bad then they risked having a team who believed they could walk all over them. Lily didn't want this to happen to her as head girl. Her last year was going to be stressful enough already with N.E.W.T's without having the prefects adding to it.

Lily came to an immediate halt in her pacing as the door opened. The first prefect was here. She looked to see who it was. It was only Remus Lupin. Lily sighed and began to pace again.

'What's going on?' Remus asked James mutedly as he sat down on the table next to James' feet.

'Lily's stressing out.' James replied in a nonchalant, matter-of-fact manner.

'Well someone has too!' Lily snapped at him as he smiled back at her insolently. She shook her head and once more, tucked her hair behind her ears. She wished she'd put a headband on. If she had she wouldn't have to keep tucking her hair behind her ears like an idiot. The annoying thing was she had a new headband which would match her earrings perfectly. It was a deep blue band with a small white bow on it. It would have been perfect.

She shook her head of these thoughts. Here she was about to take a prefects meeting for the first time in her life and she was thinking about headbands. She had been so intent in her ridiculous thoughts she hadn't noticed that Remus had levitated James into the air to help him catch his snitch. As she stood and watched them in amusement, some of the prefects filed in. Well, their first impression of their head students would be different to say the least.

As soon as all the prefects were settled and seated and James was back on the floor, he and Lily started the meeting. Everything went well which was to be expected. They started by having everyone tell James who they were as he still had no idea. After they had told him though, he still had no idea. Instead he decided to call them Ravenclaw Prefect one through four, Hufflepuff Prefect one through four, Slytherin Prefect one through four, Gryffindor Prefect one and two and Remus.

'Feel privileged Remus!' he said, pointing to him, 'I know your name.'

'I'd be worried if you didn't we've been friends for seven years.' Remus replied with a smile. He was completely at ease in this meeting, leaning back in his chair with his arms folded.

Continuing with the meeting, Lily informed the prefects of the patrol rota she and James had worked out for the week just before the meeting. She went through it with them as James put in the odd sarcastic comment providing the entertainment for the meeting. Lily just let him get on with it. His comments made her relax slightly so they really didn't bother her.

After they had gone through this schedule, Lily asked if anyone had a problem with it. One of the Hufflepuff prefects spoke up and asked if they could swap with someone as they had Quidditch try-outs the following day. Lily consented to change it but James was a bit more stubborn.

'I wouldn't worry about the try-outs Hufflepuff prefect number two because Gryffindor is going to win hands down.' James said cockily, leaning back in his chair and putting his hands on the table. Unfortunately, he leant too far back in his chair and fell off of it.

'If you sit on your broom the way you sit on chairs I think we have a fair chance.' the Hufflepuff prefect said cheekily.

James pulled himself up on the table, rearranging his glasses and running a hand through his hair. He then turned to Lily and said, 'I like her.'

Lily shook her head at him and rolled her eyes. She asked the girl when she would prefer to take her patrol. Lily took down the girl's suggestion and said she would try and rearrange it for her so that she would have the evening free to prepare for her Quidditch try-outs. She then asked if anyone had any dates that they couldn't do that week so that they could try and change the rota to suit them.

Usually, in these meetings, Remus would have been the one with the problem with the rota, but not this time. James had obviously taken care of that aspect. He didn't have to ask for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off for the full moon and make up some ridiculous story about why. However, he thought he may need to just ask for the Saturday off for recovery time. Remus was about to say something but, upon receiving a look from James, he knew that it would all be taken care of. It might even be possible that he would never have to ask to be excused from certain dates again as James would take care of it for him. It was a welcome relief.

After everyone had given in the dates which they couldn't do that week, James and Lily said goodbye to the prefects and let them go. This left the pair of them alone to reorganise the rota for the week.

'Ok.' Lily said, pushing her hair back out of her face, 'That went well.' she said to James, looking for his agreement.

'Yes it did.' James agreed, moving his chair a bit closer to hers, 'You did very well.'

'Thank you.' Lily said. She looked into his eyes for a couple of seconds before exhaling quickly, wanting to get on with creating their rota, 'Right. Let's redo this. Which dates do you want to do again?'

'Err…' James said, looking over the blank timetable. Remus needed the full moon off and enough time to recover from the experience so he decided it would be best to give him the weekend off as well to recuperate. That way, he would have the full moon off and the two days after it. They would do their patrols earlier in that week. 'Me and Remus will do these.' he said, pointing to the dates he had chosen.

Lily hesitated. 'Do you think it's wise for you and Remus to do patrol together?' she asked him, voicing the concern she had already pointed out earlier, biting her lower lip, 'You two. Patrolling together. Can the school handle it?'

'It'll be fine.' James laughed, taking the quill off of her and writing his and Remus' names into the blank boxes, 'Which did you want to do?' he asked her, taking over the writing aspect of creating the patrol rota.

'These.' Lily said pointing to the two boxes after the ones that James had chosen.

After they had written in the dates that they wanted to take patrol, they wrote in the rest of the prefects patrol dates, ensuring that they had made sure that nobody was doing any dates that they couldn't do.

It took them half an hour to finish the prefect's rota for the week and Lily's hair fell over her face again. Not knowing what possessed him to do so, James smiled crookedly and reached forwards to tuck the strand of hair behind her ear. He obviously caught her off guard because as soon as he did, he saw her shiver at his touch and blush slightly. His breathing started to get heavier and his face became serious as he couldn't believe what he was about to say. All he knew was that this had gone on long enough and he couldn't handle it anymore. And through a surge of adrenaline, he thought something needed to be done.

'You know Lily,' he began softly, capturing her attention, 'last year you asked me not to ask you out and I respected that. Even after I found out you liked me I did nothing. Then I tried to kiss you and you pulled away and it seemed like you just wanted to be friends so I stopped hoping that you would change your mind too. Then we had lunch in the summer and this morning when I said we should do it again you said maybe and I just can't shake the feeling that whatever this is between us isn't going to go away. I don't want to do anything to jeopardise our friendship but…I can't stop myself anymore. Lily I want you to go out with me. Just one date. Will you go out with me? Please?' he asked her, almost begging for her to say yes.

Her mouth fell open slightly in shock and she said nothing. She didn't have time. At the exact moment she was about to answer, Sirius entered the room in a dizzy excitement.

'Prongs! Prongs!' Sirius panted as he rushed towards James' back.

James had still not turned around to face his obviously ecstatic best friend though. Instead he continued to stare intensely into Lily's eyes waiting for an answer. Lily stared back at him saying nothing. She didn't want to in front of Sirius. Plus she had no idea what she wanted to say. She only knew that she wanted to say something.

'Prongs!' Sirius continued, not noticing what he was interrupting, 'Wormy is about to ask Mary McDonald out! You have to come see this!'

James searched Lily's face as he spoke to Sirius. 'Can it wait?' he asked in hope.

'Err, no!' Sirius answered as if the urgency of the situation was clearly apparent, 'Come on! He's asking her now! This is a once in a life time experience my friend!'

'It's alright. You can go.' Lily said finally. She saw James visibly deflate. He slouched slightly into his chair and turned his face away with disappearing lips, a slight frown and sad eyes. She had unintentionally hurt him with her initial statement. But she wasn't finished. 'You can meet me back here after you've finished to…finish the rotas.'

James' lips reappeared again as it was his turn to let his mouth drop slightly in shock. He was not smiling but you could see his hope was reignited. 'I'll be back soon then.' he said as he got up to leave with Sirius, 'Just…think about what I said ok?' he said to her, praying that she would think about what he had said the way he hoped. He wished to receive the answer he wanted but he would have to wait half an hour to find out.

* * *

Severus sat down at the Slytherin table in the great hall to eat his supper. He was one of the last people in the school to come and eat. There was hardly anyone left in the hall at this time. Apart from him, there were a couple of people over at the Hufflepuff table, a few at the Ravenclaw table and hardly any Gryffindor's. He was the only one at the Slytherin table, but that didn't last long. Avery, Mulciber and Bellatrix Black came to sit next to him, acting, as they always did, as if they were the be all and end all of civilisation.

'Have you seen the Daily Prophet?' Avery asked him as he climbed over the bench to sit next to Severus.

'Yes.' Severus replied with a stony face, not looking at any of his so-called friends but instead staring straight ahead and gripping his fork tightly, 'There's nothing in it.'

'Exactly.' Mulciber said, moving into Severus' eye line so that he had no choice but to look at him, 'The Daily Prophet have gone from reporting everything that the Dark Lord has done to reporting, well, nothing.'

Severus didn't answer. Instead he started to fill his plate with the food that had appeared in front of him. He scooped out some roast potatoes and some vegetables onto his plate. He was about to grab a chicken drumstick when the one he was about to pick up was moved away from him.

'That was mine.' Severus snapped at Mulciber who had just taken his chicken drumstick.

'I didn't see your name on it.' Mulciber retaliated, taking a mammoth sized bite out of the chicken leg. With his mouth full, he continued to talk, 'Don't you get what this means?' he asked Severus who was now scowling at him for taking his chicken.

'What?' he spat, wishing that they would leave him in peace to eat.

They were supposed to be his friends but he thought of them more as nuisances. His 'friendship' with them was nothing compared to his past friendship with Lily. He hated spending time with his fellow Slytherin's whereas he felt that he could have spent a lifetime with Lily. He looked upon talking to Avery, Mulciber and Bellatrix, especially Bellatrix, as a chore. Their conversations were laboured and centred around one topic. The topic he didn't mind, it was the company and the strenuous speech. He would much rather be in a deep conversation with Lily. When they were friends, their conversations never lagged, at least not for the first four years. Things had started to change in their fifth year which Severus fully blamed himself for. Still, he would much rather be talking to Lily than Mulciber, Avery and Bellatrix.

'The Ministry is covering up our movements.' Bellatrix announced happily, clapping her hands together like a small child.

'Will you keep your voice down!' Severus hissed at her, grabbing the sleeves of her robes and pulling her hands apart to stop her clapping, 'The Dark Lord won't thank you for announcing our status to the whole school.'

Bellatrix snatched her hands away from Severus as if they were dirty and sneered at him like he was dirt. 'Don't touch me.' she snarled at him.

'Don't imply that the Ministry is covering up our movements then.' Severus retaliated with just as much venom as Bellatrix had dished out to him, 'They aren't covering up our movements they're covering up the Dark Lords and those around him. We're stuck here in this dismal school. We haven't done anything!'

Bellatrix snapped her jaws at him like a dog, her heavy eyebrows almost covering her eyes and her intensely black and frizzy hair falling over her face. She didn't like being spoken to like that. Especially by somebody who had only become a death eater after her. She was the prized one in this rag tag group. She was the one with full devotion to Voldemort and, if the Dark Lord hadn't insisted on the seventh years staying in school, (no one could quite work out why), then she was sure to be the first one by his side to do his bidding. In her opinion, he was everything a wizard should be and everyone should try to be more like him.

'I've done something!' Bellatrix boasted, 'Even you've actually done something!' she continued in reference to the two victims who had met their demise at their hands, 'It's these two that have been too chicken to do anything!'

'The deadline isn't up yet!' Avery said, moving his face so that he was only an inch or so away from Bellatrix, spitting at her, 'We have time.'

'Not much.' Bellatrix taunted, not fazed at all by Avery's proximity to her face. Instead, she revelled in it, knowing that he would back down before she did. Her eyes widened in a threatening way and her nostrils flared. It wasn't long till Avery backed away from her and she looked up with an odd pride at being able to scare away one of her fellow Slytherin's.

'We'll get it done.' Mulciber said, staring at Bellatrix with a placid but evil look.

'Well I suggest you get on with it!' Bellatrix snapped back.

'And I suggest you stop talking about this.' Severus said to the group, still scowling. He was attempting to eat and they were disturbing him.

Mulciber and Avery looked at each other with sneers. They didn't particularly want to mess with Severus Snape. He was into some creepy stuff because he was a creepy bloke, even in their eyes. He was particularly skilled at the dark arts so, when he came into the last meeting of the summer and announced that he had killed, they weren't particularly surprised. After all, he had almost killed Avery once in a potions lesson, almost stabbed him with a knife and was constantly pushing them around. Also, he always had his nose in his book, creating spells and potions. But the oddest thing about Severus Snape, at least the oddest thing about him to Avery and Mulciber, was the fact that he was a loner. He used people. He didn't have friends.

'Didn't you enjoy the thrill Snape?' Bellatrix asked him in an evil whisper.

Severus put down his fork and started to breath heavily. He didn't like this topic.

'It was a great feeling; killing someone.' Bellatrix continued, 'Staring at them and uttering those forbidden words. You're whole body trembling with excitement as the curse rose from within you and forced its way out of your wand. The jet of green light hitting your unwitting victim. Their scream just before it does. Their eyes widening and then, at the moment of impact, the light in their eyes vanishing. The lifeless body falling to the ground. But most of all, the power you feel when-'

'Will you shut up!' Severus snapped standing up and taking his fork up to her throat.

She started to breathe heavily a flicker of fear in her eyes which quickly disappeared only to be replaced with a daring look. She smiled and licked her teeth, moving her jaw slightly. 'Go on.' she taunted, 'Do it. Maybe then you'll actually convince me that you did what you said.'

'The Dark Lord believes it.' Severus hissed in her face, his fork now touching her neck.

'The Dark Lord may be mistaken-'

'The Dark Lord knows all!' Severus snapped in a whisper, his fork now pressing into Bellatrix's neck, forming four little white dots where the prongs were stabbing her, 'Don't question the Dark Lord Black or it might just be the last thing you do.'

Severus pulled his fork away from Bellatrix's neck, slammed it down on the table, capturing the attention of everyone who was still in the hall, and stormed off. He steam-rolled down the aisle between the Slytherin table and the Gryffindor table, his robes billowing out behind him as he went. Striding out into the entrance hall, he looked outside into the courtyard. It was empty; a great place to be alone.

He walked out into the open air, the harsh Scottish wind whipping his face and drying out his greasy black hair which usually fell in curtains around it. He went and sat down on one of the stone benches which were underneath one of the three trees in the courtyard. It was cold but Severus soon got used to it.

Inhaling deeply, Severus tried cleared his mind of the, what could only be described as an argument, he had just had with Bellatrix Black. Why she had to go on about killing like that he would never understand. Yes he had taken a life but, unlike Bellatrix, he hadn't found an excitable thrill in the process. He hadn't felt anything at all. She had gone on about it as if killing was what her life was about. Yes killing was now a part of Severus' life, that he couldn't deny, but he didn't want it to be the reason he lived as Bellatrix had made it out to be. When she talked about it, it seemed as if she had to kill so that she could live. As if it made her heart beat. Severus wasn't like this.

When he had stood over the bloody and cut body that he had killed, he had felt nothing. No remorse. No thrill. Nothing. If anything he had felt rather sick at the sight of it. In fact, when he walked past it on the way home, he had been sick at the sight of it. A mangled corpse swimming in a pool of deep, red blood with flies and ants and all other insects swarming around it. They were feasting in the dying flesh which, by the time he had returned from his walk in the park, had gone cold.

He still felt nothing when he heard the muggle police sirens in the middle of the night. He had just lain in his bed staring at the ceiling, wondering why James Potter had been outside Lily's house that day. That was what was plaguing his mind. There were no thoughts of his victim. No wonderings as to whether he had somebody he loved or who loved him. No thoughts of what his family would think. No. Severus only had selfish wonderings. Those of Lily and those of being branded with the dark mark thanks to his work.

He rolled up the sleeve on his left arm and looked at the black ink that now covered his forearm. It was a black skull with a snake protruding out of it mouth. It was an ugly tattoo that Severus was quite proud to have. He traced the outline of it with his finger. He wouldn't have gotten it if he hadn't killed. The only problem in his mind, the real reason why he wished Bellatrix would stop gloating about the fact that they had both now officially joined the death eaters, was Lily's face. He had done the unthinkable, taking an innocents life, and he knew that Lily would find it despicable and she would genuinely hate him for it. All he could see in his mind was Lily shaking her head, her face filled with loathing and disappointment.

* * *

For the second time that evening, Lily was pacing the floor wringing her hands. She was still in the transfiguration classroom where they had just held their first prefects meeting and she was still nervous. Only this time, it was for a completely different reason.

The door opened and the reason for her nerves stepped in, softly closing the door behind him.

'Hey.' James said, not actually moving away from the door but instead still gripping the handle tightly as if he was keeping his options open. He could bolt if he wanted too. If he didn't get the answer he needed.

'Hi.' Lily replied, the tension in the room blatantly obvious. She tried to break it. 'So what did Mary say when Pettigrew asked her out?'

James smiled with a laugh. He knew she was trying to ease the tension and he was thankful for it if he was perfectly honest. 'She said no to him.' he said as he shoved his hands into his trouser pockets, (he had ditched his robes in the common room) and walked a bit further into the room, 'We knew she would really.'

'Yeah.' Lily agreed, 'Pettigrew doesn't really seem to be her type.'

'Pete isn't anyone's type.' James smirked, 'Poor guy. He knew she'd say no.'

'Then why did he ask.' Lily queried.

James shrugged and looked at her emerald green eyes. 'Sometimes you just gotta ask.'

They smiled at each other and it took a raise of James' eyebrows for Lily to realise that he was waiting for her to say something. He had left her thinking about a very specific question and he wanted an answer. He deserved an answer. He had waited a long time.

'Ok.' Lily said with a deep breath, unsure of how to start this. She had gone over this conversation in her head so many times over the past few months but now it was here, really here, she had no idea what to say. She thought she'd start with just establishing their feelings. Yes, that was a safe bet. Establish where they both were. It would make things easier. 'So,' she said, 'you like me?'

'I think that's been obvious for a while now.' James nodded, 'Around six years to be precise.'

Lily smiled with a small unsure laugh. 'Ok.' she began again, 'So you like me and I like you.'

'I'm sorry.' James said sincerely and suddenly.

Lily looked extremely confused. What was he sorry about? Sorry that she liked him? That would be odd as that was what he had wanted for many years. Anyone in the school could tell you that. If you walked up to any of the students in Hogwarts and asked them, 'what does James Potter want?' the inevitable reply would be 'Lily Evans to go out with him'. Everyone would reply with that answer, even if some were a bit begrudgingly. So him apologising for her liking him made no sense. She had to ask what he meant as this was really puzzling her. 'What?' she questioned.

'I'm sorry.' James repeated, still giving no hints as to what he was apologising for.

'What?' Lily asked again, still confused as James had made no elaborations and she was now doubly confused as to what he was doing.

'You see,' James said, walking forwards cautiously, 'that's funny because last year when I said the same thing in the Owlery, you said 'I'm sorry' to me. See, that's funny.'

Lily blinked a couple of times before saying, 'No it's not.'

'Yeah it is see, it's this little thing called irony and-'

'James, can you just…let me talk?' Lily asked him, losing her patience and folding her arms momentarily.

James chuckled at this and motioned his hand for Lily to continue. He was just glad that the tension in the room had gone and they were now both at ease. What he didn't know was that it wouldn't last that long. The tension would soon be back.

'Right.' Lily began again, 'I'm just gonna come straight out and say this. I do want to go out with you-'

'Great!'

'-but-'

'Ah…but.' James sighed, hanging his head. He closed his eyes. He knew this was too good to be true. For one fleeting moment he thought that Lily was going to go out with him. Then she had said 'but'. It was if a knife had just slashed his hopes to pieces, wounding his soul and pride in the process.

'No, no!' Lily said walking forwards quickly towards him, knowing she had given James the wrong idea, 'This isn't a bad but, it's just a…a necessary but. At least for me it is.'

James said nothing. He was doing as Lily asked and just letting her talk but he had to know why there was a 'but' in the first place. In his version of things, Lily said yes to him, they went out and everyone was happy. Their friends were happy for them and they were happy and he was definitely happy. He would have gotten everything he wanted since his first year at Hogwarts. Her version of things was obviously different and he was curious to know why. He waited for her to explain but she just stood there and bit her lip, looking at him in nervously. He had never seen her this nervous before. In the end, James had to prompt her to continue. 'You want to go out with me but…' he said.

'Right.' Lily said, sorting through her mind to get back onto the tracks she was on before, 'But, I'd appreciate it if…we didn't tell anyone.' she finished.

James raised his eyebrows and shook his head slightly to make sure he had heard that right. Out of everything he had made up in his head that could follow the 'but' that was never on the list. 'But I'd like to take it slow' was one of the answers he had come up with. 'But I'm a bit worried' was an answer too. But nowhere on that list was the suggestion of keeping it a secret. That had never occurred to him and why would it? It was an odd request. Why did she want to keep it a secret?

'Why?' he had to ask.

'Well, it's a bit difficult to explain.' Lily said, once again wringing her hands nervously. She had to tread carefully here. This could be the limit for James and he could decide that it wasn't worth the hassle if she just wanted to keep everything a secret. She was worried he'd say no. 'You see, it's our last year at Hogwarts. I'm head girl, you're head boy and we have N.E.W.T's coming up.'

'I must say you've got much better at pointing out the obvious.' James joked, trying to ease her nerves. It didn't work. She just looked at him sharply for interrupting her again.

'Anyway!' she continued, unimpressed with James' joke, 'It's a big year.'

'I know.' James replied in mock shock and sarcasm.

'I can change my mind about you, you know.' Lily retorted.

'Ok. I'm sorry.' James apologised sincerely, 'Continue.'

'Right.' Lily went on. Now all she had to do was try and explain her reasons behind wanting to keep it all a secret, 'You see, there's a lot of pressure this year and, I don't think I can deal with everyone staring at me and talking about me which they will do if they know we're going on a date.'

'Why would anyone do that?' James asked.

'Because for six years I've said I wouldn't got out with you and you never gave up and I hate people telling me 'I told you so.' I'm quite a stubborn person you know.'

'Really?' James teased sarcastically, 'I never would have guessed!'

Lily shot him a look to tell him to shut up again. She then continued to explain all the reasons Hestia had told her why they shouldn't be together. Even though these reasons were born out of Hestia's bad break up and new permanent bad mood, they were still valid. 'None of the girls in the school will like it and they'll be horrible to me about it. Most of them will stop being my friend and they'll give me dirty looks and I don't want that to be the start of my last year. Also, how do we know that we haven't built a relationship in our head that we can't possibly live up too? Then there's the fact that we have nothing in common and-'

'Whoa, whoa.' James said, genuinely shocked at the information he was being given, 'Whoa!' he put his fingers to his forehead and then ran them through his hair. 'Where have you gotten all this from?' he asked her searchingly.

Lily took a deep breath. 'Hestia.' she said.

'Hestia as in Jones who's on my Quidditch team?' James said in more of a statement than a question. He knew the answer. 'Stop me if I'm wrong but I kind of got the feeling that she wanted us to get together.'

'She did.' Lily replied honestly in earnest, nodding her head. She then stopped nodding her head and said, 'Then she changed her mind.'

'Ok.' James said slowly.

'That's another reason why I want to keep our date a secret-'

'So we are going out on a date then?' James smiled happily. This was what he'd wanted for ages. Inside his head he was yelling, _Heck yeah! Thank you Merlin!_

Lily smiled in return but it wasn't as pure as James'. Her smile faltered. 'Only if we keep it a secret. You see I kind of told Hestia, after she had told me all that stuff, after that whole romantic gooey side of her was crushed by Matthew Davies, that I was…over you.' she said, pausing for a second. Then she started to ramble. 'But just to keep her happy and I didn't think that anything would happen between us anymore and I just know that if we tell her she'll probably list of all those reasons again because she's still sore about what happened between her and Matthew and I'll start to doubt it all but I don't want to doubt it all. I do want to go on a date with you but until I know that Hestia was truly wrong I don't want to tell her or anyone, because let's face it she's a gossip and it will get back to her no matter what, I just don't want her to say 'I told you so' because if there's one thing I can't stand it's-'

'Lily!' James interrupted. She had gone off on a random ramble again and he could see her reasons. He walked over to her and took her hands. 'We can keep it a secret.'

'Really?' Lily asked with a smile growing across her face.

'Yes.' James laughed, 'If it means you'll stop rambling _and_ you'll go out with me then that is what we will do.'

'Thank you.' Lily said. She hugged him and he hugged her in return. They stayed that way for about a minute, James tangling his hands in Lily's hair and Lily breathing in the beech wood scent that James always carried with him. James was the one to pull away eventually.

'Well,' he sighed, 'I told Sirius that I'd meet him in the kitchens in ten minutes and it's been fifteen. If I don't go now he'll come up here. But I am going to hold you to our date.'

'Good.' Lily said, excitement building in her stomach.

'So…' James continued awkwardly, 'I'm gonna go.'

'Ok.' Lily replied.

'Bye.' James said, staring at her happily for a second before catching himself, running a hand through his hair, turning around and walking over to and out of the door.

Lily smiled to herself. She couldn't stop it at all. She was going on a date with James Potter. If she had gone back in time and told her fifth year self this and, well, every year before that, then she probably would have told herself that she was crazy. She would have told herself that Potter in an irresponsible, arrogant, big-headed, annoying show off. But now she knew that all of that stuff was only half true because, let's face it, James was big-headed and annoying and everything else too. It was just who he was. But, in the past year, she had gotten to know the other side of him. And that's what she would have told her fifth year self. That side of him, in her opinion, out-weighed or at least equalled, the other stuff.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**The next update will be 5th April**

**Galindaba**


	44. Chapter 43

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader! I would just like to take this opportunity to thank the people who have reviewed my story and have read it from the beginning and stuck with it! It really means a lot so thank you! :)**

**Now this is where the relationship between James and Lily starts so the writing will become a little bit more mature, (but not too much), as they are now becoming adults too and certain things need to be addressed or said. It's sort of the second half of the story which is a little bit of a transition for what is to come after Five Minutes has ended and we go onto their lives after Hogwarts. I hope you'll stick with it but if you don't I understand. :)**

**Here's chapter Forty-Three!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Forty-Three**

The marauders were sat under their beech tree in the grounds of Hogwarts. James was sat in the branches of the tree, leaning casually against the trunk and playing with his snitch. Remus was lying on his stomach under the shade of the beech tree doing the Defence Against the Dark Arts essay that they had been set they day before. Peter was sat crossed legged against the base of the tree, picking the grass and listening to Sirius who was holding onto one of the lower branches of the tree, his feet only inches from the ground, moaning about the fact that they had been given Homework on the first day of school.

'Who does this new professor think she is?' he moaned in reference to the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher that had taken up the post for this year. They had no idea what had happened to their last Defence teacher. It had been rumoured that he had resigned due to stress but there were some students, some of the older students, which speculated otherwise.

It hadn't really come as a great shock to anyone that they had been given another teacher for the supposedly cursed job. It was rumoured, (and so far proven), that the job was jinxed ever since the last permanent Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Merrythought, who had held the job from 1895 to 1945, had retired. Nobody knew what had happened after she had retired to make the job cursed but something had and no other person had been able to hold down the job for longer than a year since.

'I mean homework on the first day?' Sirius continued to explain, 'That's a good way to make some enemies!'

'And I'm sure that Professor Linkedin's first concern is whether or not she's upsetting her students and, and I quote, 'making enemies'.' Remus replied sarcastically in a bored fashion. He didn't look up from his essay at all.

'Well it should be!' Sirius scoffed, jumping down from the branch which he was hanging on and collapsing fluently crossed legged on the floor, 'I just don't think she should have given us homework on the first day.'

'You do realise we have N.E.W.T's this year.' Remus pointed out, flipping through the text book that they had been assigned that year for their Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons.

Sirius didn't answer but instead stuck his tongue out childishly at Remus who took no notice. Sirius didn't want to think about N.E.W.T's. He didn't want to think of this as his last year at Hogwarts. It just meant that it wasn't that long until he, along with his fellow marauders, were catapulted into the real world to face whatever was out there. When they finished Hogwarts, they had to get a job. Now getting a job Sirius had no qualms about, it was just that he knew that it wouldn't be a job he enjoyed, at least not at first. He wouldn't be able to go straight into being an auror as he wanted, he would have to start by doing all the menial and tedious training tasks instead of getting out there and taking down the death eaters like he wanted. Getting a job also meant that he had to grow up and he wanted to delay that as much as humanly possible.

In the spirit of not growing up, Sirius moved over to Remus, who was still doing his essay, and stuck his hand in front of his face.

Remus stopped writing and exhaled in annoyance. He stared at Sirius' hand for a second before deciding to himself that he wasn't going give Sirius the satisfaction of stopping writing his essay so, instead, he moved his essay slightly to the left, ensuring that his face wasn't being obstructed, and continued on with it. However, it wasn't long until Sirius moved closer again and shoved his hand under Remus' face.

'Will you stop that?' Remus said, annoyed.

'Stop what?' Sirius said, knowing exactly what he was doing.

'Annoying me.' Remus muttered through gritted teeth, 'Will you stop.'

'How can I annoy you when I'm not touching you?' Sirius replied cockily, pushing his hand further into Remus' face, a direct correlation to how much this was ticking him off.

'You can annoy me just by breathing.' Remus retorted carefully, his anger flaring up, 'Now I suggest you move that hand if you don't want to lose it.'

Sirius waved his hand in front of Remus' hand. He was doing exactly what Remus wanted; he was moving his hand.

'I meant move it away from my face.' Remus exasperated, rolling his eyes.

'Why?' Sirius continued to say, not giving up in his pursuit to be a child, 'You don't own the air. I can hold my hand wherever I want.'

'You know Sirius, there is such thing as personal space and-'

'-and I'm not in yours at all!' Sirius said happily. He turned to Peter, who he knew would agree with him, and asked, 'Wormy. Am I in Moony's personal space?'

Peter looked at Sirius and then at Remus. Looking between the pair of them, he couldn't decide which one to side with or, in other words, which one he was more scared off. Remus was close to a full moon and was sure to get extremely mardy in the next few days though by the look on his face it seemed that he was starting early. Sirius, with his deep grey eyes, scared Peter just as much as Remus. Plus, he was capable of making the other two ostracise Peter for almost a week before they realised what he was doing. He had done that before and it was safe to say that Peter had not liked that one bit. Unable to pick a side, he simply rambled non-words. 'Mugful foe gigue…' he mumbled.

'Ah you're no use!' Sirius tutted at the small boy who hung his head at his words. Sirius then turned to James in the tree for back up on his stance. 'Hey Prongs! Am I in Moony's personal space?'

James didn't answer. Instead, he was staring up at the great castle that was Hogwarts and absentmindedly playing with the snitch he had stolen from the stores the year before.

Sirius tried again, determined that his best friend would be on his side. 'Hey Prongs! Am I in Moony's personal space?'

James still didn't answer. It was as if he was in a world of his own.

Sirius and Remus looked at each other, their view of each other's faces still blocked partially by Sirius outstretched hand. Sirius looked at Remus quizzically who just shrugged his shoulders. He was as oblivious as Sirius was as to why James seemed to be in his own world.

'Prongs?' Sirius said loudly. 'Prongs?' louder still. 'PRONGS!' he practically yelled at his best friend, shocking him and causing him to fall with a thud out of the tree.

'Dude!' James yelled in reply, standing up and rubbing his arm which he had fallen on, 'You could've killed me!'

'Stop being so dramatic!' Sirius laughed at James who scowled at him.

'Like you're one to talk.' James said, shaking his head. He then noticed something. 'What are you doing Padfoot? You know there's such thing as personal boundaries right?'

'Ha!' Remus chortled at Sirius once in victory, 'Now move your hand!'

'Fine!' Sirius said reluctantly. He was outnumbered and he knew it. All he had wanted to do was keep their childhood alive with some childish behaviour and that was all the thanks he got. It was typical. Still, he decided to move on to a different topic. 'So why the space out?' he asked James, putting his feet up on Remus' book so that he couldn't see. He was, as some might put it, killing two birds with one stone, (which he would never do because he swore it was impossible to kill a bird with one stone let alone two. It left people wondering how he knew that though). He was being annoying and childish whilst talking maturely to his best friend.

'Nothing.' James said with a shrug.

'Get your feet off of my book!' Remus said, speaking at the same time as James.

Sirius ignored Remus and continued to talk to James. 'Seriously, you were zoned out! What were you thinking about?'

Remus was looking more and more annoyed and James could see fire building behind his eyes. It wasn't wise to mess with a werewolf this close to a full moon. He looked at his watch and came up with a perfectly respectable reason to save Sirius from Remus and Remus from doing something he'd regret.

'Time for dinner.' James announced, pulling Sirius up and away from Remus book.

'Oh boy!' Sirius said, licking his lips and, needing no more convincing after the word dinner, started off towards the castle. Peter ran after him, tripping slightly as he started to catch up. This left Remus alone with James.

'Why are you doing that homework?' James laughed as he picked up the Defence Against the Dark Arts text book that was lying on the floor.

'Because I, unlike some people, yourself included, care about my N.E.W.T's.' Remus snapped at James.

James gave one solitary nod and raised his eyebrows as he handed the book back to Remus. He knew it was near the full moon but sometimes Remus needed to be subtly reminded to rein his temper in. After all, they were his friends and they were only ever trying to help him. Apart from Sirius who was only ever trying to annoy him.

Remus took the book from James and shoved it in his bag. 'Sorry.' he apologised shortly.

'Don't matter.' James smiled, running a hand through his hair and then putting his hands in his pockets.

'So why were you spaced out?' Remus asked James as they began the walk to the castle, a long way behind Sirius and Peter who had practically ran there.

'Just thinking.' James shrugged as if it was nothing of importance. In fact, that wasn't true. He had been thinking about his date with Lily and wondering what he should do for it. He had a pretty good idea but really wanted to ask his friends opinion. Actually, he wanted to ask Remus' opinion. If he asked Sirius, he would give him some cheesy lines that he used on all the girls that he went out with, and then start to mock him about Lily. If he asked Peter, all he would get in reply was a sputter of nonsense as he had no experience in the area. Remus, although he also had no experience in the subject, not unlike James, would give him some reasonable suggestions and advice.

Remus had been a prefect with Lily Evans for two years and was sure to have picked up on something that would help James and, although he had not always been supportive of James' continuous pursuit of the girl who had always rejected him, he would have tried to help James as much as possible to achieve a successful first date. Plus he read lots of books. And not just books that they were set for their school subjects, real books. He read stories that were made up for entertainment. He was bound to have read some great ideas that James could pull off. The only problem was, even if this was the case, James was unable to ask anyone for advice or help because Lily wanted to keep their date a secret. So James would be able to get no confirmation whether his idea for their first date was good or not. He would just have to dive in and hope for the best.

'Oi! Prongs!' Remus said, waving his hand in front of James eyes in a similar way to what Sirius had been doing to him earlier, 'Just thinking or not, something's on your mind. You keep blanking out. What's up?'

James blinked himself back into reality. He had zoned out again. He was stood still with Remus stood at his side. It seemed that he had just randomly stopped. He wasn't doing very well at keeping things a secret. If he didn't stop acting unusually soon, Remus and Sirius and Peter would suspect something.

'I was just thinking about the prefects patrol rota.' James lied quickly.

'Really?' Remus asked, 'Are you ill?'

'No.' James laughed. He knew where Remus was coming from. He had shown no interest in the roll of head boy since he had found out that he would be taking up the post. 'Just can't remember if I put in the right dates for us not to be doing patrol.'

'Ah.' Remus said. He was talking about the full moon, and whether or not their patrols were conflicting with it. Remus hated talking about the full moon and tried to avoid the topic of conversation if he could possibly help it. Of course, he never could because his lycanthropy was a part of him which he couldn't deny but he did like to pretend that it wasn't.

'I should just go check with Lily.' James said as the pair of them approached the entrance hall which had an astonishingly good view into the great hall where everybody was eating. He was thinking that when he went over to her, he could discuss when he wanted their date to be. 'She's got a copy of the rota.' he continued.

'Ok cool.' Remus answered, 'So are you going to ask her out again then?'

James was caught off guard. It took him a moment to realise that Remus was referring back to when they were on the Hogwarts express and what he had said after Lily had hugged him. Quickly getting back to his lies, James, without missing a beat said, 'No and I'm not going too. It's a busy year with N.E.W.T's and everything. No time to chase after someone who's just gonna say no right? N.E.W.T's are more important.'

'N.E.W.T's are more important?' Remus reiterated in shock, 'Who are you and what have you done with James?'

James laughed. 'I care about my N.E.W.T's' he said.

'No you don't.'

'No I don't but my mum does.' James replied, truthfully this time, 'She wants me to get good grades so I can become an auror like dad was.'

They had just entered the great hall and were starting their way towards Sirius and Peter. Sirius was stuffing his face as per usual and Peter looked at a loss at what to eat as Sirius had taken everything worth having. James spotted Lily sat on her own, a rare moment as she and Hestia always ate lunch together, and thought he'd seize the moment to go and talk to her.

'I'm gonna go check the rota with Lily.' James said, 'See you over there and try not to kill Sirius.'

'I can't promise anything.' Remus replied, walking away to where Sirius and Peter were sat.

James chuckled and walked up the opposite side of the table to go and talk to Lily. When he reached her, he saw that she was reading a book. She looked so enwrapped in it that he felt bad for interrupting her story but he only had a limited window of opportunity to talk to her.

'Where's Jones?' he asked straight away to establish how much time he had to talk to her before he would have to shut up about their date.

'She's gone to the loo.' Lily replied, a little shocked at first that someone was interrupting her reading, (no one interrupted her reading), but when she saw it was James she closed her book and turned to face him to see what he wanted. 'What's up?' she said.

'How's two o'clock tomorrow sound?' James whispered so that no one else around him but Lily could hear.

Lily couldn't help herself and smiled at him. She nodded. 'Sounds great.' she said, 'But-'

'No! No buts!' James continued quickly, his voice still a low soft whisper, 'I've get everything worked out…theoretically anyway. No one will know we're gone.' He guessed that that was Lily's worry that would have followed her 'but'. He couldn't help but notice then that she had used the word 'but' a lot over the past couple of days. He then shook his head of that thought as it wasn't particularly important.

'Ok.' Lily smiled, 'Two o'clock tomorrow.'

'Great. Now get out the prefects rota.' James said quickly.

'What?' Lily replied confused by the sudden change in conversation topic.

'I told Remus that I needed to check the prefects rota so that he wouldn't suspect anything because you want to keep everything a secret so-'

'Ok. I get it.' Lily interrupted in exasperation, grabbing her bag from the floor, 'I'll get the rota out.'

From the other side of the table, a little ways along it, Sirius looked over to where James was sat with Lily who was now rummaging through her bag. 'What's he doing over there?' Sirius asked Remus with his mouthful.

'Checking to make sure that I'm not on patrol during the full moon.' Remus replied, taking the opportunity of Sirius' momentary distraction to take some of the mound of food off of his plate and share it out between Peters and his own.

'Oh right.' Sirius said, taking a great big mouthful of mashed potatoes, 'I thought he was gonna ask her out again.'

Remus looked at Sirius in disgust as he spoke with his mouthful. He really was disgusting. Still, Remus answered him thinking of the benefits that, when he was talking, Sirius wouldn't be. 'He's not gonna ask her out again actually. He seemed deadly serious about it as well. He said that his Mum wanted him to focus on his N.E.W.T's.'

'Well that's true.' Sirius said.

'I know.' Remus replied shortly, 'He just told me.'

Sirius looked up with narrowed eyes. He was thinking of a way of payback for that retort. He was only trying to add to the conversation and his attempts were demolished. So, returning to his childish ways, Sirius punished Remus; he stuck his hand in front of his face.

* * *

Lily was sound asleep in her bed, surrounded by her dorm mates who were also sleeping. The room was still and silent except for the occasional snore from Hestia and the odd word or two from Mary MacDonald who quite often spoke in her sleep. Lily wasn't in a deep sleep though. It had taken her a while to get to sleep as she was rather excited about her date with James which was to happen the following day. No, she wasn't in a deep sleep at all, and it was a good job she wasn't.

She subconsciously felt something hovering above her face, the light under her eyelids dimming slightly. She turned over onto her side, hoping whatever it was, her imagination most likely, would stop it and let her get back to sleep but she had no such luck. She slowly opened her eyes to see what the annoyance was and, for moment, believed she was dreaming as she saw a piece of parchment floating just above her face. Then she remembered that this was Hogwarts. Things like this happen every day.

She sat up and rubbed the sleep out her eyes, fumbling for her wand on her bedside table. Once she had grabbed it, she reached out for the floating parchment, ducked under her covers so as not to wake any of her sleeping roommates and whispered, _'Lumos'. _The tip of her wand began to glow and she was able to make out some words on the parchment. There were only two; _'come downstairs'_.

It was the middle of the night, no time for Lily to recognise anyone's handwriting, so she had no idea who wanted her at this ungodly hour. Still, she got out of bed, put her dressing gown on, put her slippers on, put her wand in the pocket of her dressing gown, popped a mint into her mouth from the little bowl on her bedside table, ran her fingers through her deep red hair and started out of the door quietly. She crept down the spiral staircase with curiosity building in her stomach. Who would want to speak to her so urgently at this time? Her question was soon answered as he was at the bottom of the stairs, leaning against the sofa in his usual fashion.

'James?' she asked tiredly when she saw him, 'What do you want?'

'It's time for our date!' James said happily with a great big grin splashed across his face, 'Sunday. Two o'clock!'

'What?' Lily replied, pushing the sleeve back on her dressing gown to look at her watch. It was two o'clock. 'I thought you meant two in the afternoon! Not two in the bloody morning!'

'Did I miss the a.m. off? I'm sorry.' James apologised, shaking his head at his own idiocy, 'But let's go. Time for our date!' he continued. He seemed super excited about this and he should be. He had been waiting for six years.

'But I'm not dressed for a date.' Lily moaned, looking down at her pyjamas and dressing gown. She didn't want to go on their first date dressed like she was about to fall asleep when James looked so handsome. She didn't know how he did it but he always looked good. Smart yet casual. He was in all black. Black round glasses which he always wore anyway, black trousers, black shoes and a black shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Then of course there was his messy black hair but there was nothing anyone could do about that. His hair just grew that way, in a mess, and he took great pride in messing it up further by running a hand through his hair.

'You look beautiful.' James said with a smile down at her, 'Now let's go! Times a wasting!'

Lily smiled and shook her head fondly. She couldn't refuse him because he was all excited like a child. She found it sweet and, truth be told, she was rather excited too. What had James got planned for them that needed doing in the middle of the night when they would be breaking the rules? Also, there was the added bonus that no one would know they were out on a date. Unless they were caught by a teacher or something, but James had measures in place that would ensure that wouldn't happen.

'Ok let's go.' Lily said with a deep breath almost sounding reluctant. This was a big night for her. Her first date ever and with James Potter no less. Plus she was breaking the rules. James sort of brought that out in her.

She followed James through the portrait hole which was the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. They then stopped and James pulled out a ragged piece of parchment from his back pocket and unfolded it. It was the map of Hogwarts which Lily had seen the previous year when they snuck out to Hogsmeade from detention. She glanced over his shoulder and saw that everyone was in their dormitories or offices or bedrooms, leaving the halls free to roam.

James folded the parchment back up and put in back into his back pocket. He turned and smiled at Lily who was looking curiously at him. 'Shall we go?' he asked her, still smiling.

'Where?' Lily questioned.

'Well if you wait you'll find out!' James said.

Lily narrowed her eyes and tilted her head slightly. However, before she had time to retort sarcastically, she was taken completely by surprise when James grabbed her hand and started to drag her through the corridors. She ran with him, laughing as they went. She loved how excited he was and, as he was laughing and laughter was infectious, (especially James'), she couldn't help but giggle as they dashed through the empty school.

'Slow down!' Lily whispered happily as she was pulled down a flight of stairs leading to the entrance hall. 'Where are we going?' she continued to ask as James stopped her just before the large oak doors which hadn't been locked.

He let go of her hand and simply flashed a smile and a wink in reply. He then pushed the door open slightly, taking extra care to be quiet. At least that would be what he would tell you if you had asked why it took him so long to open the door. In truth, the door was really heavy and difficult to move. Once he had opened the door, he did an odd little bow and motioned Lily through the door.

Shaking her head fondly at James' daft behaviour and rolling her eyes, Lily walked out of the castle, followed by James. They walked a little ways down the slope but Lily didn't need to go any further to see what James had planned for them.

She gasped as her eyes took it all in. Next to the black lake was a small picnic blanket, set up for two, lit with blue flames in small jam jars. There was a picnic basket, over flowing with food. As they got nearer, Lily knew that there would be nothing healthy in that basket. No, instead it was filled to the brim with their favourite sweets and foods along with bottles of butterbeer. As lovely and romantic as all this was though, it wasn't what took Lily's breath away. The thing that Lily loved, that could not be topped, was stood next to a tree, glowing in the dark. It was a pure white unicorn with a sparkling single horn atop its head.

'Oh my god!' Lily said in hushed reverence, staring slightly open mouthed at the beautiful creature.

'You like it?' James asked her, standing quietly by her side with his hands in his pockets. He stared at her with a small pleased smile. He liked making her happy.

'How did you think of all this?' Lily questioned in wonder as she walked forwards slowly, drinking it all in, 'The picnic? The unicorn?'

'Well,' James began, 'the picnic because, well, I like picnics. The unicorn because last year when we were making the Felix Felicis potion - which we never got come to think of it – you said that because you didn't take care of magical creatures you never got to see a unicorn and that was something you wished you had done. So, I made it happen.'

'How?' Lily said, still in wonder at what he had done for their first date.

'Ah!' James replied, 'That would be telling. You can go and pet her if you'd like.'

'Really?' Lily said in pure excitement. She slowly approached the unicorn and began to stroke her head, careful to avoid her horn.

This was amazing to her. Since she had found out she was a witch and had learnt from Severus when they were eleven that there was such a thing as unicorns, she had wanted to see one. Maybe it was just a girl thing but finding out that the mythical creature from her muggle books was really real excited her. There was just something so enchanting about a unicorn. It was almost as if the wizarding world wouldn't have seemed real if there were no unicorns in it. Something so pure and magical, how could they not exist in a world full of dragons and goblins, witches and wizards?

James went and sat on the picnic blanket that he had laid out just a short distance away from the bank of the black lake. In the light of the blue flames that he had created an hour earlier whilst setting everything up, he watched Lily with the unicorn. She looked so happy he loved it. Her smile was radiant to him and it never faded as she petted the pure white creature. He had to wait ten minutes for her to realise that he was staring at her at which point she kissed the unicorn on its forehead and skipped over to sit next to him.

'I still can't believe you did this.' she said as she sat down beside him, looking back over her shoulder at the unicorn that was still just stood calmly by the tree.

'Well,' James said as he reached into the picnic basket and pulled her out a bottle of butterbeer, 'I did say last year that I am full of surprises.'

'And you do not disappoint.' Lily laughed. She graciously took the butterbeer from James and took a swig. There was a moment's pause when neither of them knew what to do. In the end, Lily voiced this. 'This is a little weird isn't it?' she asked him.

He shrugged. 'Just a little. I think it's because we were friends before and practically enemies before that and this is just a completely different level.'

'Yeah.' Lily agreed with a little laugh at the enemies comment, 'Also, I've never been on a date before.'

'I have.' James said with an absentminded nod, thinking back over it.

'You have?' Lily asked a tiny bit hurt because she had believed that he also hadn't dated anyone before. He had always turned the people who asked him out down, much like she had always done with him.

'Yeah.' he continued, taking a drink of his butterbeer, 'With Sirius.'

'What?' Lily said in shock, her eyes widening and a tiny disbelieving laugh coming out in her voice. That she was not expecting.

'No, no!' James replied laughing also as he realised what he had said and what she obviously must have heard, 'It was Sirius who had the date. I was just sort of…there. So were Remus and Pete of course. I've never had a date of my own. I've just been on lots of Sirius'.'

'Oh right!' she said in relief, 'So what does he do on dates?' she continued to ask, wondering if there was a sort of protocol that needed to be followed.

'Oh I'd never do what he does on dates.' James said with a shake of his head, leaning back on his elbows. He would never do what Sirius did on his dates because, as much as he loved his best friend and basically brother, he did think that the way he treated girls, not just on dates but in general, was mean. 'What he does,' James went on to explain, 'is drags us with him so he doesn't have to be alone with the girl or talk to her. Sit in front of us in the three broomsticks snogging for a while. Order food. Snog some more. Pretend he forgot his wallet. Make the girl pay for his dinner. And then say, 'this isn't really working out for me', and leaves.'

'That's awful!' Lily recoiled. How could someone treat another person like that? It was despicable.

'Yeah it is.' James nodded.

'How can you be friends with someone like that?' Lily asked, extremely intrigued by James' friendship with the other marauders. It was just so strong. It was kind of amazing.

'Just always have been.' James replied, shrugging again. 'I was friends with him before he started to do that. That stuff only started to happen in third year when we were technically allowed to go to Hogsmeade.'

Lily shook her head fondly. She knew what this meant. 'So you'd been to Hogsmeade before we were allowed.'

James didn't answer. Instead he smiled mischievously and raised his eyebrows once, answering her question with that.

'I should've known.' she said with a single breathless laugh. 'So why are you four such good friends?' she continued to ask him, tilting her head to the side slightly.

'What do you mean?' James asked as he rummaged through the picnic basket and handed her a box of her favourite sweets; exploding strawberry bon-bons.

'Well,' Lily began, 'you four have been friends ever since our first year at school. You've kept that friendship going for six years now and even when you did fall out with Black you never really fell out with him because you kept him around. I'm just curious as to how you've been able to do that. I mean, when I first came to school, I was friends with Snape and now I'm not. In my first and second year I was closer to Emmeline than I was to Hestia and she was closest with Mary and Alice. Then it all kind of switched in our third year. We meshed together as one big group but that didn't really work so we all broke off and I ended up being best friends with Hestia from fourth year to now. How did you guys not have as much drama?'

'Well, first off, we're not girls!' James joked, receiving a playful hit on his arm from Lily, 'I'm not sure really.' James continued, knowing exactly why they were able to stay such good friends but also knowing that he wasn't going to be telling Lily that. He may be lying to his friends about going out with her but he would never breech their friendship to the level that he revealed their secret.

'It's like something binds you together.' Lily continued, 'Like you all have a secret that you share in.'

James sighed. 'Not really.' he lied, 'I mean we have the map which was kind of a secret, I have the cloak which was also a secret, but we don't really mind if people find out about those things. If someone needs to use them like we did when we needed to get across Hogsmeade during that battle or out tonight, then we don't mind showing them to people. It's just easier when people don't know. Plus it adds to the mystery of how we pull most of our pranks off.'

'Do you have any other secrets like that?' she asked him, sensing that there was more there then he was telling.

'Now if we did and I told you they wouldn't be secrets anymore would they?' James winked, 'And there'd be no allure for you to keep going out with me.' he added with a smile.

Lily smiled in return, blushing slightly. She couldn't help it. It was just her complexion. She popped an exploding bon-bon in her mouth and felt the familiar popping sensation that came with it. They were her favourite sweets. How James knew she didn't know but, after she glanced over at the unicorn again, (who was still just stood there extremely docile and unmoving), she just thought she had mentioned it at some point and he had remembered.

'So what about you then?' James asked her.

'What about me?' she replied in question.

'Well,' James continued, sitting up and leaning forwards, 'on dates you're supposed to learn about the other person and get to know each other. I mean, I'm no expert but at least I assume that's what dates are for. So, I want to get to know you.'

'You already know me.' Lily pointed out, 'Hi. I'm Lily.' she joked, holding out her hand in a hand shake.

James laughed and took her hand to shake it. After he had shaken her hand though, he didn't let go. He held it and brought their entwined hands down so that they were resting on the ground. 'I meant I want to get to know you better.'

'Oh right!' Lily said in a mockingly sarcastic way before returning to normal, not even attempting to take her hand out of James'. 'What do you want to know?' she asked.

'Well,' James began, not really having any idea of what to say, 'how about your family?'

'Ok.' Lily said.

So Lily began to tell James about her family and he listened to her intently, drinking up everything she said eager to learn more about her and what made her who she was. She told him that she had no aunts, uncles, cousins or grandparents and that she lived with her mum, her dad and her sister. She told him that her mum worked part-time at the local post office behind the counter and that her dad worked as an accountant for a small firm which she had never really taken notice of what the name was. (James laughed at this.) Then she continued to tell him about her sister, a subject she could have prattled on all day about if she wanted too. She told him how close they were when they were little and how her sister wouldn't even look at her anymore without a look of contempt. She poured out to him about her sister's upcoming nuptials with her fiancé Vernon and how she still wasn't invited to the wedding and how deeply this hurt her.

And he listened to her. He listened to all of this and asked questions where he could. He asked her more about her dad's job as an accountant because he had never heard of that occupation before. He asked her more about the personalities of her parents to which he got the answer, 'Mum's a softie but Dad's extremely protective and likes tradition.' He asked her about her sister and whether she believed that Petunia would ever forgive Lily for looking at the letter that Dumbledore had sent her. (Lily didn't think so.) Then he asked her about her sister's fiancé to which she rolled her eyes and shook her head in answer. The conversation about her family ended there.

It was then Lily's turn to ask the questions. She asked about James' family to which he was a bit reluctant to answer. He didn't really talk about his family much being a very private person. In the end he gave in to her and did tell her some information about his family but not everything. He only really spoke about his relatives and their personalities along with his childhood. She was blissfully unaware about the Potter's status in the wizarding world and for that, he was truly thankful. That meant that she, unlike half the girls who chased after him, liked him for him and not what his family had. Not that he had any doubts.

He told her that he was an only child with no grandparents but one uncle on his mother's side who had passed away. He told her that he was very close with his parents when he was younger and that they had spent as much time as possible together because he was so special to them. He went on to explain after this that they had thought they couldn't have children in case she thought he was just being arrogant again. He then told her that they had grown apart when he started Hogwarts and that his parents had dove into work because of Voldemort's uprising. He continued to say that they had stopped dropping him off to platform nine and three quarters and had stopped picking him up in his third year and that when he returned home for the summer, he was lucky if he got to spend any time with them at all apart from a hello and a goodbye in the morning. After this he told her about his dad's death last Christmas to which she had nothing but sympathy for.

Just like he had with her, she listened to him and she asked questions about things she was curious about. She asked him what his dad used to do and what his mum does now. He told her that his mother was a healer at St Mungo's and that his dad used to be an auror. From this they both learnt what the other wanted to be when they left Hogwarts; Lily wanted to be a healer and James an auror. Lily was relieved to find out that he had actually got a profession in mind. She did wonder whether he was just going to become a full time prankster. She then asked him about something she had been extremely curious about; Sirius Black living with him.

James told her how that came about. Not the extreme details of what went on in Sirius' home with his family because he had told him that in the strictest confidence and the last thing he wanted to do was betray his confidence. All he told her was that Sirius had come to live with him and his parents for the summer on his sixteenth birthday and then officially on his seventeenth birthday. He told her that they had welcomed him with open arms. He also told her that he wasn't going to tell her any more than that because it was Sirius' business not his and definitely not hers. She fully respected this and respected James for it as well. It showed that he was a trustworthy person.

After they had covered their families they went on to just talk. James asked Lily questions which she answered truthfully and vice-versa. They discovered each other's likes and dislikes from the obvious, (James loving Quidditch and Lily enjoying school), to the just plain weird.

'You don't like cereal?' James asked her as he helped her up. The sun was rising now and they had to get back to their dormitories before anybody noticed they were gone. He waved his wand and everything jumped into the picnic basket. They had eaten and drunk most of what James had packed so everything fit in neatly now. 'I'm sure I've seen you eat cereal before.' he continued as he picked the picnic basket up.

'I've got no problem with cereal it's the powdery stuff at the bottom of the box.' Lily clarified with a smile.

'That's odd.' James laughed good-naturedly, loving her little quirks, 'You might want to go tell the unicorn she can go. Unicorns don't really like men.' he added on a different note.

'What?' Lily questioned as she walked over to the unicorn, told her to go, watched her gallop off and walked back to James, 'I have two questions there. One, you really consider yourself a man? And two, how did you get the unicorn here if they don't like men?'

'Well,' James said as Lily walked back over to him, 'you answered the first question yourself and I'm not telling you how I got the unicorn here. I need a little mystery!'

Lily laughed as James took her hand and the pair of them walked slowly back up to the castle. They carried on talking as they strolled through the school, taking as long as they possibly could. They had both had such a good time they wanted to prolong the end of their date as long as possible. They hadn't stopped talking the entire night. Their conversation had never lagged or dropped and by the time they reached the common room, at the bottom of the spiral staircases that lead to their dormitory's, there was only one question left to ask.

'So,' James began, looking deep into her emerald green eyes, 'are we going to do this again?'

Lily took a deep breath and nodded. 'Definitely.' she said, 'But I still don't want to tell anyone yet.'

'Fair enough.' James replied, 'We'll keep it a secret until you decide you want to tell.'

'Thank you.' Lily said with a beautiful smile. Then it was slightly awkward. Ends usually are. 'So…good night.'

Their hands were still entwined and James smiled in return to Lily. With his free hand, he tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear, leant forwards towards her and gave her a simple kiss on the cheek. When he pulled back, he saw that she was blushing and beaming. 'Good night.' he said as she turned, still smiling, and walked up the spiral staircase to her dormitory. He watched her go, his spirits elated. For him, and for her too, (he hoped), this had been a perfect first date.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	45. Chapter 44

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter Forty-Four!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Forty-Four**

On Sunday morning, Hestia Jones woke up and looked outside excitedly. Today was Quidditch try-outs, at least, the morning was. If there was one thing she loved it was Quidditch and the sooner she made the team again, the sooner they could start the real practices and, perhaps more importantly, the games. She couldn't wait to get out there and feel the wind in her hair as she sped past the other hopeful chasers, showing them how it was done. She had practiced a lot over the summer and, thanks to Gwenog Jones last year, she now had a few new tricks up her sleeve. It was actually unreal how excited she was about this.

She clamoured out of bed at eight-thirty, completely unaware that her best friend Lily had only gone to bed three hours before, and jumped on her bed. For the first few jumps, Lily didn't wake up. It was only when Hestia chucked the glass of water that she kept on her bedside table over her that she opened her eyes; drenched.

'Ugh!' Lily said in disgust, sitting up and picking up her pillow to have a look at the giant wet patch that now covered it, 'What was that for?'

'Time to get up!' Hestia announced as if it was the 'in' thing to do.

'No!' Lily moaned. She threw her now soaked pillow on the floor and, struggling as Hestia was sat on her bed, pulled her quilt over her head. She closed her eyes in an attempt to get back to sleep but it was futile as Hestia's voice invaded.

'Come on Lily! It's Sunday!' she said as if this would inspire Lily to wake up and get out of bed.

'Exactly!' came Lily's muffled voice from under her covers, 'It's Sunday! It's God's day! It's the day of rest!'

Hestia looked confused. 'No it's the day of Quidditch!' she responded, 'Come on! Why don't you want to get up?'

'Because I didn't get to sleep till around six!' Lily said, her voice still muted by her covers.

'Why?' Hestia asked her.

Lily had just realised what she had said and slowly pulled down the covers from her face. She looked straight at Hestia who was looking at her with a questioning frown. Her mind raced ten to the dozen trying to think of a good lie. She was not good at making up lies on the spot because she never usually lied but thankfully, said something that tallied with her personality. 'I was reading a book.'

'Oh.' Hestia said, believing it. If Lily got into a book that she liked she wouldn't put it down until she had read it. This happened a lot. 'Well you can still get up!' Hestia continued, bouncing a bit more on the bed in an attempt to annoy Lily enough that she would get out of it, 'We'll miss breakfast otherwise.'

'I'm not hungry.' Lily mumbled and she pulled her duvet back over her head, this time pulling it tightly around her ears so that she could block out Hestia's voice. 'I'm still full.'

'From last night?' Hestia questioned. This wasn't like Lily. She was usually ravenous at breakfast time because it would have been more than ten hours since they had last eaten.

Lily cursed herself internally. She was really bad at this 'keeping things a secret thing' and it had only been around forty-eight hours. She was usually such an honest person. Things would be a lot easier if she just told Hestia the truth; that she had gone out with James Potter on a date in the early hours of the morning. But she didn't want to because she knew what Hestia, still mardy over a bad break up, would say; _You have nothing in common. I thought you were over this. Move on Lily, move on. Everyone will stare at you and hate you for going out with him. Just let it go. _Lily didn't want to be made to feel badly about this, especially as she had had such a good time with him last night.

She still couldn't respond to Hestia's question and closing her duvet around her ears so that she couldn't hear her hadn't worked. Instead she just said, 'Just let me sleep a bit longer please?'

Hestia sighed. 'Fine.' she said, giving up completely. She wasn't going to win this. It was hard enough to get Lily out of bed in the morning as it was and Hestia still had to eat breakfast and go to the Quidditch trials. She had no more time to waste trying to coax her best friend out of bed like a badger out of its den. 'If you do decide to get up I'll be on the Quidditch pitch for try-outs.' she finished.

Lily suddenly sat up. 'Quidditch try-outs?' she asked. That couldn't be right. James had had as little sleep as she had, probably even less. Definitely less in fact. She distinctly remembered him still being in the common room when she had gone to bed the night before. Then he must have had to get up earlier than she had as he would have had to get everything all ready for their date. They had returned at half five which would have only given him two or more hours sleep until he had to be up to go and prepare for the Quidditch team try-outs. As captain of the team, it was his duty. How could he do all this? If it were Lily, she'd be asleep on her broom, (not that she had ever been or would ever go on a broom). It was impossible to have the energy to do all of this with no sleep. Lily was intrigued by this to say the least.

'Yeah.' Hestia had continued to say, not noticing that Lily had gone off into her own little world, 'I thought as it's our last year and you keep saying all that depressing stuff like 'it'll be the last time we see the sorting' or 'this is our last first day at Hogwarts' you might want to come and see, as you would put it, 'the last ever Gryffindor Quidditch team try-outs we'll get to see' or words to that effect.'

Lily, who hadn't actually been listening to this, was still able to get the right sentiments behind her answer, even though she had no idea what she was answering to. 'I'm gonna go. After all, it is the last ever Quidditch try-outs I'll get to see you do.'

'Exactly.' Hestia said, rolling her eyes as Lily had basically just repeated what she had already said.

In a hurry, as the Quidditch trials began at half nine and they had wasted ten minutes talking and still had breakfast to go get, Lily got changed and ready to go. She pulled on light grey clingy t-shirt, some deep indigo jeans, ran a brush through her hair and put on a fabricated deep blue stretchy head band to keep her hair off of her face. (If she was going to be outside in the wind and had no headband on, she was sure to be watching a lot more of her red hair flying around than the prospective Quidditch players.) She then brushed her teeth and washed her face, slipped on some trainers and was ready to go.

The pair of them left their dormitory at five to nine and headed down to the great hall for breakfast. When they got there almost the whole of the Gryffindor house was sat down eating. It seemed that they all wanted to get out to the Quidditch pitch to either watch or participate in the try-outs. The seventh years seemed especially excited about the trials. It seemed that all of them, or at least the majority of them, had decided to try-out for the team for their last year. This meant that the try-outs would go on forever.

Hestia and Lily sat down at the only available seats at the long Gryffindor table next to Remus, Sirius and Peter. Lily looked around but James was nowhere to be seen.

'So Black,' Hestia said as she sat down opposite him but next to Peter Pettigrew, 'you actually gonna make the team this year?'

'What you mean?' Sirius replied through a mouthful of toast, 'I made the team last year.'

'Sorry I phrased that wrong.' Hestia continued on to tease and taunt him, 'I meant are you actually gonna stay on the team this year?'

Sirius put down his toast with a scowl in the direction of Hestia who was just smirking cockily at him. He turned to Peter who was sat next to her buttering his toast and said, 'Just hit her for me Pete.'

Peter dropped his toast, the buttered side falling on the table, and looked up at Sirius in a gormless fashion. He couldn't believe he had just been asked to do something by Sirius. What he couldn't believe more was that he couldn't do what he was asked to do. As much as his mother annoyed him, the values she had brought him up with had stuck with him, including the good old 'never hit a girl' saying. So as much as Peter wanted to do what Sirius asked of him, he couldn't but it turned out he didn't need too.

'Ow!' Hestia said, turning Lily in a calm outrage, 'Why did you do that?'

'Because what you said was mean.' Lily said simply before adding, 'And Pettigrew looks like he's about to wet himself.'

Hestia, Sirius and Remus turned their heads to look at Peter who did indeed look as if he was about to wet himself. Remus and Sirius laughed at this, not mockingly or in any other bullying type of way, just because the face Peter was pulling looked funny. Hestia didn't laugh at all. She merely tutted and picked up the slice of toast that Peter had dropped and took a bite of it.

'So where's James?' Lily asked, trying her hardest to be nonchalant as if this was just a casual question which, in fairness, it was. She just couldn't guarantee that something about her, her tone of voice, a blush, a smile or something wouldn't give her away. Thankfully, nothing did.

'He's on the pitch.' Sirius replied, grabbing yet another slice of toast and standing up, 'Talking of which, we should get going.'

'Ok.' Remus said, following his lead and standing up, ready to go.

'Are you going to try out?' Lily asked Remus who just laughed in reply. Remus didn't play Quidditch. He was more of a spectator.

Remus and Sirius, along with Peter when he realised they were leaving, left the great hall on their way to meet James out on the Quidditch pitch. Sirius had left with a great big pile of toast claiming that half of it was for James and Lily had watched him go with a roll of her eyes.

They stayed in the great hall to eat their breakfast but it wasn't long until Lily and Hestia followed them out and headed over to the Quidditch pitch themselves. As they got up to leave, they noticed that the vast majority of the Gryffindor table had already gone and as they walked down to the pitch, they joined the crowd of excitable students all eager to watch or participate in the trials. The Quidditch pitch was full, as were most of the stands, when the two girls got there. They went their separate ways as soon as they stepped foot into the grounds with Lily wishing Hestia luck with a hug and disappearing into the stands whilst Hestia went out onto the pitch to join the throng of other hopeful Gryffindor's.

Lily climbed up through the spectators stands until she reached the section usually reserved for Hufflepuff's. She had been everywhere else trying to find a good place to sit and watch and this was the only place available. So, all on her own, she went to sit in the middle of one of the long benches that ran the length of the stand and looked down at the pitch. Straight away, she spotted Hestia though she wasn't hard to miss. She was the one waving madly and enthusiastically in Lily's direction.

After she had located Hestia and returned her wave, she searched through the crowd for James. She couldn't find him anywhere. There were just too many Gryffindor's to sift through and she concluded that she would soon find out where he was anyway when he started the trials. The one thing she hadn't counted on though, the one thing that never occurred to her even though she was at a Quidditch pitch, was to look in the air.

She was suddenly startled by a loud whistle coming from the opposite end of the pitch. When she looked over there she saw James balancing on his broom with no hands. He looked absolutely shattered from where she was sitting and she felt relieved that she wasn't the only one. After all, James was only human as was she, something would have seemed wrong if they weren't tired.

'If there are any first years here can you go please?' Lily heard James call out from the other side of the pitch. He sounded as if he was in no mood to be patient today.

Looking down at the crowd of people still gathered on the pitch below, Lily saw some of the smaller students hang their heads and leave reluctantly. They walked off of the pitch dragging their heels and their brooms behind them, absolutely gutted that James was sticking to the rule of no first years on the team. It was a good rule in theory. The first year students had enough on their hands to be worrying about Quidditch. They had to get acclimated to the school and get used to their subjects and make friends. Who wanted to be worrying about an upcoming Quidditch game when they already had all of that on their plate?

When they had dispersed, Lily looked back over to James who was now telling the mass of people still below to get on their brooms and fly. Lily was a little confused by this at first but soon got to grasps with what he was doing, understanding his motives behind this request. He had asked everyone to get on their brooms to see how they could fly because, let's be honest, if they couldn't even manage to fly well them how were they to manage handling Quaffles and Bludgers and Beaters bats and Snitches? Lily watched him as he flew around after people and told them, politely at first and then later on with no tolerance, to 'get off my pitch'.

All this was going well but, the real test for James came when Lily saw a group of all too familiar Slytherin's walk on to the green. She was suddenly alert and sat bolt upright, gripping the bench as she leaned forwards to see what was going to happen. Many other people around her were doing the same thing but they were probably all hoping to see an altercation of some sort between James and the Slytherin's. Lily was not. She was all too prepared to go down there if James or the Slytherin's didn't play nice.

Down on the pitch, James flew over to the group of Slytherin's and landed effortlessly in front of them. 'Can I help you?' he asked.

'Well, well, well.' Severus replied with a swagger. He was clearly showing off as the leader of the little group that consisted of Wilkes, Avery and Mulciber. 'Potter. What are you doing here?'

James sighed and raised his eyebrows. 'I'm holding a Quidditch try-out and you're kind of interrupting it.' he said, gesturing around to all the potential Quidditch players that were now hovering in the air and watching James' interaction with the Slytherin boys. For the sakes of this, James worked hard to keep his cool. It wasn't easy as he was sleep deprived and his hand was itching to reach for his wand but he did his best.

Severus smirked around at his fellow Slytherin's and took a threatening step towards James. 'What you gonna do about it?'

Taking a step backwards James widened his eyes in annoyance. 'Ok. There is such thing as personal space and you just totally invaded mine.' he said.

'And what you gonna do about that?' Wilkes taunted as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his wand. Avery and Mulciber followed his lead. Only Severus didn't feel the need to do this.

James rolled his eyes and said robotically, 'Oh gee. I'm really scared now.'

As soon as he said this, the four Slytherin boys hissed at him which, in his sleep deprived state, seemed absolutely hilarious to James. He burst into laughter and laughed straight in their faces. 'I know your house animal is a snake but that doesn't mean you have to hiss. What does that mean? I have to roar. Ok. Rooooaaarrrrr! Rooooaaarrrrr! Rooo-'

'What are you doing?'

James looked to the side of him to find Lily stood there. In the time he had been talking to, and growling at, the Slytherin's, she had made her way down from the stands. James smiled at her and simply said, 'I'm being a lion.'

'As you do.' Lily laughed with raised eyebrows.

Severus watched the exchange between them with venom in his eyes. He said nothing about it but a tight ball of rage built up inside of him. He may not have said anything, but Avery did.

'When you and the mudblood have finished, we want the pitch.' Avery spat. The Slytherin's didn't really want the pitch, they just hated the Gryffindor's and didn't want them to have it even though James had booked it.

'Hey!' James snapped, 'Don't call her that.' He gave the four boys a deathly stare.

'Don't worry about it James.' Lily said, shaking her head. She had gotten use to the insult that was often thrown her way over the years. Usually she couldn't do anything about it but now, she was head girl. She could punish them. 'They can call me that as much as they want. They should just know that every time they do twenty points will be taken away from each of them. As they have no self-control, it seems like Slytherin won't be winning the house cup this year.'

Now this may have seemed like a bit of a feeble punishment but it worked on the Slytherin's. If there was something the Slytherin's didn't like, it was to lose. They needed to win the house cup. The seventh years wanted to win it for their last year but more importantly Avery, Mulciber and Wilkes wanted to win it so that they could beat Gryffindor. It was their aim to beat Gryffindor at everything this year. That was another reason why they were crashing the Gryffindor Quidditch try-outs. Quidditch was where Gryffindor earned most of its house points. They didn't want this to happen.

'This is a closed try-out so please leave.' Lily instructed the boys.

Avery, Mulciber and Wilkes sneered at her but, under the threat of losing the house cup, they begrudgingly left the pitch and made their way up to the castle. Severus was a bit more reluctant and stared between James and Lily, still hating the fact that they were friends and, thanks to Avery calling Lily a mudblood, reminded of the fact that he wasn't anymore.

He stepped towards James and whispered deathly quietly, 'Remember what I'm capable of.' He stared threateningly at James for a couple of seconds before turning and walking away, slouching as he went.

Lily watched him go, a little confused at the threat she had just heard. She turned to James and asked him, 'Are you ok?'

'I'm tired.' James replied with a small half a laugh, 'But it's worth it. Now I've got to go and make a lot of enemies and six friends.' He climbed on his broom and gave Lily a small discreet wink before zooming away into the sky where a lot of disappointed people were waiting. They had all wanted to see a fight. Luckily, no one had noticed the small exchange between Lily and James. They had all believed it was just their head boy and girl in action. There was nothing more to it.

Lily watched him fly off with a small smile and, so that no one else would see this, she made her way up to the stands again. She was relieved. James wasn't some kind of super human. He was tired too, just like her and he had said that she, Lily, their date, was worth the tiredness. It was worth it.

* * *

By Monday afternoon, James and Remus had grown tired of Sirius' enthusiasm that he had made the Quidditch team for his final year. They had no idea why he had been as excitable over the fact as he had been as he had made the team every year since his third year. Plus, since James was the Quidditch captain, it was almost inevitable that he made the team. At first they had been patient with him as they knew how much he had hated being taken off the team last year by Dumbledore but now they had reached the end of their tether.

'Will you please shut it or I'll have to hit you with this!' Remus said through gritted teeth, raising his potions book threateningly to Sirius who was walking backwards in front of him as they made their way to their double potions lesson through the castle.

'You wouldn't hit me with that!' Sirius laughed, still walking backwards facing a very irritated Remus and, now, a slightly bemused James.

'Try me.' Remus threatened in a deadly low voice. He was being extremely aggressive today, most of the time passive but with flickers and hints of physical violence in it. The full moon was approaching fast and his temper always swung wildly out of control during this time of the month. Sirius' added non-stop exuberance really wasn't helping matters any further though and Remus believed that, if Sirius kept on going the way he was, that he might just snap. Strangely, he was rather enjoying the idea.

James sensed this in Remus. After dealing with a temperamental werewolf for six years, you kind of pick up on a few things and James was definitely picking up on the darker side of Remus' lycanthropy rearing its ugly head. It had only happened twice before, once in third year when he literally threw Peter against a wall and once in their fifth year when he had pushed Peter down one of the moving staircases, (poor Peter always seemed to get the brunt of Remus' anger and frustration but no one could ever work out why when it was usually Sirius who irritated him to his wits end). Twice, however, was more than enough times to recognise what was about to happen so James decided to put a stop to it before Remus had the chance to decapitate Sirius with his potions book.

'Alright Padfoot shut it about the Quidditch now.' James said, pulling his bag up further onto his shoulder as it was slipping and then shoving his hands back into his pockets.

'Why?' Sirius taunted happily in a playful manner. He smiled broadly as they turned around a corner and down the corridor which had their potions room along it, extremely cocky that he was able to navigate himself walking backwards through the entire school.

'Because if you don't I'll take you off of the Quidditch team.' James replied threateningly. His threat was much different to Remus. Where Remus' had been dark and menacing to the point where it just became scary, James' was light with widened eyes. However, both threats were just as real as the next one.

Sirius stopped just outside the potions classroom, no longer smiling the devilishly handsome smile he had been blessed with. No, now he pouting just as a puppy would do, knowing that James actually would take him off of the team, if push came to shove, and replace him with someone else.

'Fine.' Sirius muttered, still pouting as he turned into the potions classroom leaving Remus and James outside.

'You couldn't have thought of doing that before could you?' Remus snapped at James quickly before he stalked into the potions room.

James sighed and rolled his eyes. When Remus was in a mood like this, there was no winning with him.

Following the lead of Sirius and Remus, James walked into the classroom, casually strolling but turning into a more hesitant walk when he saw the whole class, not sitting down in their usual seats, but stood to the side, each looking extremely confused about what was going on. Nobody seemed to understand the purpose of what they were doing. It was if the first person in the classroom had spontaneously decided, 'hey lets stand here', and the rest of the class, like sheep, had followed. This wasn't the case though.

In the small crowd of students, James spotted Lily. A small part of him, the fifth year and below part, started to dance inside his head in jubilance, all the while chanting, 'you're dating her, you're dating her'. He knew that this was a tad childish but he couldn't stop the fifteen year old him from dancing. He was just too over the moon.

He walked towards her and, obviously sensing someone was behind her, she turned around to face him, smiling happily as she did so. James loved her smile and wished he had a camera to capture it so that it would never fade.

'Hey.' he said to her.

'Hey.' she replied.

To the outside world, this greeting of hello just seemed like any other greeting. A greeting you would give to your friends or your cousins or even your mum. But to them, this greeting was unlike any they had ever shared before. This greeting was almost like an acknowledgement of their relationship changing status from friends, to more than friends. No one would ever know this though and that was the way they wanted it to be.

After a few seconds of considering this greeting James moved on to ask a question. 'Why are we all stood over here?'

'Professor Slughorn put a notice on the blackboard instructing us to.' Lily replied, still smiling only now also pointing to the board at the front of the classroom.

'Oh yeah.' James said, looking over to where Lily was pointing. Indeed, just as she had described, there was a chalk written notice on the blackboard which read, _'Seventh year Potions 3, periods four and five – Do not take your seats. Please wait to the side of the classroom for further instruction.'_

'Wonder what he wants.' James pondered whilst Lily shrugged in a way of answer.

'Obviously wants to congratulate me on making the Quidditch team.' Sirius boasted, putting a hand over his heart with a fake 'you shouldn't have' expression over his face. The kind you give to a close friend when they give you a present you really want after you've falsely told them that you didn't expect gifts.

'Padfoot.' James said warningly with the hints of a smile coming through. He wasn't particularly happy that Sirius was still on this subject but in his mind he was still dancing, high fiving his fifteen year old self for finally being in a position where he was going out with Lily Evans. What hadn't occurred to him was the fact that he had actually only been on one date with her. That had gone well, extremely well, but who was to say if things would continue that way and if their next date would go as smoothly. Still, it didn't stop him feel completely elated, so much so that Sirius' behaviour, which had been annoying him all day, failed to do so now.

Sirius turned away, pouting once more, an expression which was starting to become a permanent fixture on his face. He would have said something more, not really understanding why Remus and James had a problem with him being so excited about being on the Quidditch team again, (they knew how miserable he had been when he was taken off of it), but Professor Slughorn had just walked into the room in his usual bustling manner. Everyone was keen to know why he had asked them all to stand to the side instead of taking their usual seats. Unfortunately, it wasn't as exciting as they had originally thought.

'Ah, good! You all got the message.' Professor Slughorn boomed across to the class as he reached his desk and placed down the stack of books he was carrying, 'Nothing to worry about I assure you. Only the other day, in our Friday's lesson, I noticed that some of you were dragging your feet or so to speak. Now, I know that could probably just be put down to the suggestion that it was only our first lesson of a new year but this isn't just any year. This is your N.E.W.T's year and we can't afford you becoming complacent. So, in the spirit of keeping you all alert and motivated, I want you to all swap partners.'

James and Lily looked at each other extremely disappointed. They had both been thinking the same thing. As they were keeping everything a secret, their potions lessons would have been a perfect place to arrange dates and talk and just basically be together without arousing suspicion. They would have been at a table on their own and, when they lowered their voices, no one would have been able to hear them. But now, all of their hopes for this lesson had been torn to shreds all because Professor Slughorn didn't want them all to become complacent.

Others in the room weren't as disappointed. Severus, who had been stood in the shadows of the classroom towards the back, glaring at James Potter, was actually pleased that they were to swap partners. It meant, for one, he wouldn't have to be Avery's partner anymore. Avery, in his opinion, was completely inadequate at potions and he hated his stupidity. He didn't understand how someone could be so dense about mixing ingredients and he had no time or patience for his idiocy. He guessed that came from working with Lily as a partner for so long. She had always been a natural at potions and she and Severus had been able to exchange tips and tricks. Severus had been unable to do this during the previous year with Avery and it had irritated him more than he realised.

The other reason why he was glad they were all swapping powers was because it meant that his dear Lily Evans would no longer be partnered with the vile James Potter. Really he knew that there was nothing he could do about their friendship but at least he knew that they wouldn't be growing closer right in front of him. Swapping partners would mean that the friendship Lily now had with James Potter wouldn't be given an extra three hours a week to develop into anything else. Severus was extremely happy about this fact. He knew that there was a chance that Lily still had more than friendly feelings towards whom he considered to be his enemy, but at least he knew that nothing had come of it and there would be three less hours a week for anything to happen. Plus, swapping partners meant that Lily was free to partner him. He knew the chances of this actually happen were next to none but he was allowed to dream.

Sirius and Remus looked at each other both thinking the same thing. Who would be partnered with James? They both had their reasons as to why they wanted to be. Sirius because James was his brother practically and Remus because he knew that no one else would understand or be patient enough to handle his mood swings. Both boys knew there was only one fair way to settle who would be James' potions partner for the year. It was the same way Sirius and James had settled who would be Remus' partner the previous year; rock, paper, scissors.

'Aww!' Sirius moaned, pulling a rock against Remus' winning paper, 'Unfair!'

'Totally fair. Bye, bye.' Remus smirked as he went over to sit at his usual table.

The four Gryffindor's, the only ones in the potions class, dispersed to their tables. As James and Remus were now potions partners that left Sirius and Lily and, as neither of them particularly wanted to pair with any of the Slytherin's, they had no choice but to partner each other.

Lily sat down uncertainly next to Sirius who had put his feet up on their desk. She looked over to James who just shrugged and looked apologetic. Sirius could be a lot to handle if you didn't know how to deal with him.

'Can you take your feet of the desk please?' Lily asked Sirius politely as she sat down, 'Only it's gonna be hard to brew a potion in your shoes.'

'That sounds like fun!' Sirius said, sitting up a great big grin spreading across his face, 'Let's do that!'

'Do what?' Lily replied a little bit confused as to what idea she had just planted into his infantile mind. She looked over to James at the next table in question. He shrugged at her again. He had no idea either.

'Brew a potion in my shoe!' Sirius enthused nodding his head, his broad grin growing wider as he took off his size fourteen shoe and placed it on the table.

'Err…no.' Lily laughed, pushing his shoe towards him with the tip of her wand, not really wanting to touch it.

Sirius pouted and pulled his shoe off of the table. He glared at Lily as he pulled his shoe back onto his foot. 'James would have let me.' he mumbled.

Lily shook her head. 'No.' she said.

'Actually I would have!' James shouted across with a wonky smile at Lily who looked a bit disappointed but also rather fond of this part of him. The childish part was funny. Sometimes.

'But you need potions.' Lily pressed on.

James shrugged and relaxed back into his chair, letting Remus get out the potions book they'd need for the lesson.

'Why do we need potions?' Sirius asked. It was more of a rhetorical question. He didn't expect an answer but Lily gave him one nonetheless. However, it was one he wasn't expecting.

'James needs potions so he can become an auror like his dad was.' Lily said matter of factly, releasing the bit of information she'd learnt about him on their date. She was quite proud that she now knew that. It was nice to know more about him. Others didn't think so.

'How did you know that?' Sirius questioned. For the first time in about a day, his face, his expression, his voice, was deadly serious. There was no hint of a joking pout or a broad grin. Just suspicion.

Lily looked up from her bag in which she rummaging in for her potions book. She wondered what she'd done wrong. What had she revealed that she shouldn't? What shouldn't she know? There was no way to hide it. She was just going to have to say the truth; that James had told her. After all, they were friends. It wasn't so farfetched that James would share that information with a friend. No one needed to know or would suspect that he had told her on a date.

'James told me.' she eventually replied, a little uncertain about what she was saying.

'About him wanting to be an auror sure.' Sirius said, brushing that part away, 'But not about his dad. James doesn't talk about his dad.'

In her mind, Lily was thinking two things. One, it was a great sign of trust that James would talk to her about his dad on their first date when it was apparent that he never spoke to anyone about this subject. And two, how on earth was she going to talk her way out of this without revealing that she and James were now dating?

Thinking fast, and drawing an obvious conclusion seen as James dad had been a celebrated auror, Lily simply said, 'I read it in the paper.'

'You often do background research on all your potions partners?' Sirius asked moodily, not liking the idea that she did. He hated his family and never spoke about them. He definitely wouldn't like another person to know about them and then apply the same treatment they got to him. He continued on getting moodier and moodier, 'Only I'd like to know before you go snooping around into my-'

'So she knew Sirius just let it go!' James cut across.

Sirius looked at James with confused annoyance mixed with a smidge of anger. He looked between Lily and James. James giving him a warning look and Lily looking extremely nervous, as if she was hiding something. He had no idea what it was all about. Something was off but he couldn't tell what. He sighed and turned to face the front of the class, completely missing the look of relief between James and Lily.

Slughorn moved to the front of the class and commanded the attention of his students. Sirius looked towards him, his mind still wondering if Lily would check up on his family. He doubted that his suspicion of that was true. Still, he couldn't help but think that there was something fishy going on. It was entirely possible that she had read about James' dad in the paper but to remember it was weird. And he couldn't help but think there was some other reason as to why Lily knew about James' dad. However, he couldn't think of anything. Plus, if anything else was going on, James would have told him. Wouldn't he?

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	46. Chapter 45

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter Forty-Five!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Forty-Five**

'What exactly are we supposed to be doing?' James asked Remus. They were walking around the dark castle doing nothing of substance.

'We are patrolling.' Remus replied looking at one of the moving portraits on the wall as they walked past it. It was of an old man sat at a desk. His head was lolling back over the edge of his chair, open mouthed and snoring. It made Remus chuckle.

'Why?' James moaned, not liking this aspect of being head boy. In fact, the only part of being head boy that he liked so far was spending time with Lily. And taking points away from the Slytherins. He had already ridded the house of thirty points. 'Is there any point to it?' he continued.

'We're making sure that no one is out of bed when they shouldn't be.' Remus said as they turned a corner and made their way down a small staircase.

'So…no.' James said, answering his own question.

The boys walked a little further through the school, neither one too bothered about the time. They had become accustomed to it over the years thanks to their late night strolls to the kitchens etcetera. They, James, Remus, Sirius and Peter, were exactly the type of people who Remus and James were now patrolling the halls in search for to tell off for being out of bed after curfew. The only difference was that James, Remus, Sirius and Peter had never been told off for being out of bed before as they had never been caught. The invisibility cloak and, later, the marauders map had made sure of that.

As they walked around the corridors, it appeared to James that others weren't that lucky. Across the other side of the corridor to where they were standing was a small boy in Hufflepuff pyjamas trying, with all his might, to open the door to the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers office. He was wriggling the door handle furiously and muttering to himself, 'Come on! Open!'

Remus elbowed James and motioned his head towards the boy. 'Your first as head boy.'

James nodded his head determinedly and walked over to the small Hufflepuff lad. He stood quietly behind him and watched for a couple of seconds as the boy became more and more frustrated with the locked door. James took out his wand. 'Here.' he said, stepping to the side of the boy who looked extremely shocked by the sight of the head boy. '_Alohamora!' _James continued to say, waving his wand swiftly and opening the door.

'Thank you?' the boy said in a shaky thanks, not really sure what had just happened.

'No problem.' James smiled to him before turning around and walking back over to Remus who had clapped his right hand to his forehead in a sign of exhausted exasperation. 'What's up?' James asked him unsure as to what he had done wrong. Surely as head boy he was supposed to help those in need?

'You're not meant to help him!' Remus sighed, shaking his head.

'But he needed help.' James argued, clearly thinking he was right, 'As head boy I'm supposed to help those in need and he needed to get into that office.'

Remus chuckled in disbelief. 'No.' he said, 'You're meant to ask him what he's doing out of bed, take points away if you want to, and then tell him to go to bed.'

'Why?' James retaliated, not making any of this easier on Remus who was trying his hardest to show James what they were meant to do on patrols, 'I know what he's doing out of bed; trying to get into that office. I don't want to take any points away from him because I don't think I should punish him for not knowing a simple charm, plus he's not a Slytherin so there wouldn't be any fun in it. And lastly, why should I tell him off for being out of bed when we've done it loads of times and we're doing it now. Now, I don't know about you but to me that seems to have some sort of double standard attached to it.' he finished with a knowledgeable nod of his head.

Remus stared at him, still in disbelief with his mouth slightly open. He shook his thoughts away and sighed in exhaustion, 'Just do it.'

'Fine.' James said, rolling his eyes and walking over to the boy again. This time, he was partly in the office, his wand out trying to open the second door by copying the charm that James had just performed. He wasn't having any luck as he kept saying _alomora _instead of _alohamora._

As he approached him, James was trying to think of the three steps Remus had told him to follow. One; ask him what he's doing out of bed. That seemed simple enough, though it also seemed a bit redundant as James could clearly see what he was attempting to do. Still, if it would please Remus, James would ask him.

'You're missing the 'ha' out.' James said at first, just offhandedly correcting him, 'Like laughter. Ha.'

The boy looked at him gone out, not really sure what he was telling him. There was a small pause where James said nothing and neither did the Hufflepuff lad. Eventually Remus broke it.

'Get on with it.' he hissed as he leaned forwards, prompting James to continue.

'Right.' James said, remembering what he was supposed to be asking, 'What are you doing out of bed?' he continued on, his speech a bit stilted as he wasn't used to asking questions like this. He was usually on the receiving end of this type of question.

'Professor Linkedin gave me a detention when I did nothing wrong so I'm going to swap her sugar for this sand so that she puts sand in her tea.' the boy replied honestly, holding up a small bag of sand labelled 'sugar.'

James nodded his head, not particularly sure about how to respond to that. 'Ok.' he began, thinking of the next step Remus had told him; take points away. 'Right.' he said, fully prepared to go forward with the next step. The only problem was his marauder like nature which cropped up most inopportune. 'For trying to swap sugar for sand, I'm going to have to…err…well…I'm gonna give you ten points for that. I quite like it. Simple yet elegant. Continue like this and you'd make a pretty good marauder.'

As James complimented the boy, he looked extremely confused. He had reason to be confused though. In a situation like this one was usually punished not congratulated. 'Thank you?' he said once again, still unsure as to whether words of thanks were the right way to go. Then again, what other way was there?

'Can I make one suggestion though?' James asked the boy who, instead of answering him, looked around him to Remus who was now softly banging his head against the wall. 'Ignore him.' James said, 'My suggestion. Don't swap Professor Linkedin's sugar with sand-'

'But-'

'Don't interrupt.' James said, for the first time actually exercising his power as head boy. He liked it. 'Now,' James carried on, 'what you want to do is put the 'sugar' in Professor Slughorn's office. Put a label on it saying something like…I don't know…'To Professor Slughorn from Gwenog Jones.' Something like that.'

'Gwenog Jones?' the Hufflepuff boy questioned, 'The reserve for the Holyhead Harpies?'

'Yeah.' James nodded, waving his hand to brush away this fact, 'She won't mind. I know her.'

'You do?' asked the boy, amazed at this piece of trivia. He hadn't been at Hogwarts for the previous year and so hadn't known her. Now, over the course of the summer and one substitute match later, she was a bit of a celebrity. He was very impressed that the head boy knew her.

'Yeah.' James said, shaking this off so he could continue with his suggestion, 'Anyway, put it in Professor Slughorn's office and he will put it in his tea but, because he's, well, a tiny bit odd, he'll think it's just some sort of fancy sugar. And then, because he will want to boast that his ex-students still send him fancy sugars, he'll share it around at breakfast and then all the professors will have sand in their tea. Believe me, you have not lived until you see Professor McGonagall's face after she had tasted something she hates.'

'Ok.' the boy smiled, nodding his head, liking this idea. It sounded funny.

'James.' Remus said, walking up to stand next to his friend. He had stopped banging his head on the wall now. 'You're meant to tell him to go to bed.'

'Oh right yeah!' James said as if the idea had just popped up to him. 'Ok.' he said, turning back to the boy, 'Go to Professor Slughorn's office. The spell is _alohamora. _Not _alomora. Alo_ha_mora. _Got it? If you get it right I'll give you another ten points. But you got to promise me you'll go to bed afterwards right?'

The small Hufflepuff boy nodded his head, extremely relieved that he wasn't in trouble and rather happy that he was earning points for his house too.

'Great.' James smiled, 'Off you go then.'

James and Remus watched the small boy run off happily in the direction of the dungeons where Slughorn's office was.

'I think that went well.' James said to Remus with a lopsided grin, running his hand through his messy black hair.

'I think you're a useless head boy.' Remus laughed good-naturedly, pushing James to the side a little bit in a brotherly fashion, 'You were meant to take points from him not give them to him.'

'Ah who cares about that?' he replied, brushing this comment off, 'He's going to bed isn't he?'

'After a detour.' Remus pointed out.

'Yeah. You got to admit though,' James began, his grin spreading over his face once more, 'if he pulls that off it's gonna be a very funny breakfast.'

* * *

It was now Wednesday the 7th of September. He had been at school for less than six full days and, already, Severus Snape was wishing the school year was over. Nothing good was happening to him. Everything in his life was a disappointment. He was a fully-fledged death eater now, marked and everything, yet he could do nothing to help with the cause he believed in. And if that wasn't bad enough, he was in love with a muggle-born witch, Lily Evans, who had been his best friend since he had been a young boy, yet she didn't return his affections and had stopped being his friend over a year ago. That was something he had never fully gotten over. He hadn't accepted it and had never gotten over her decision. What made this worse was that his feelings for Lily were forbidden as a death eater and every time he had been in the presence of the Dark Lord he had had to employ his newly practiced skill of Occlumency against him. He didn't know if it worked but as he hadn't been found out yet, he had to assume it did.

He was walking through the school for the last ten minutes of his free period before lunch, full of thought. Today had been a particularly boring day. He had been slightly amused at breakfast when every single teacher had spat out their tea but when he had noticed James Potter and his gang of misfits laughing, he knew they were behind it and subsequently stopped laughing. Whatever they did was never funny to him. It was dramatically less funny when he saw Lily affectionately push James' head to the side, giggling slightly as she did so. This was a knife in Severus' side. He hated that they were friends now.

Then he had gone to his first lesson; Defence Against the Dark Arts. That had to be the dullest lesson he had ever had. He usually enjoyed the subject but that was only when it was a practical lesson. They were only learning the theory behind N.E.W.T level defensive spells. It was incredibly boring reading and copying out of a book. He wanted to be active and be out in the world using the spells he was learning. He also wanted to be using the spells that they were learning to defend themselves against. Either way, he just wanted to be out of that dusty classroom.

His wish came true but only when the lesson had ended. He left the classroom hurriedly with a scowl on his face. A scowl, no strange expression to him in the past, had now become a permanent fixture on his face. He wore it everywhere he went and was scowling when he had left his Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson. He was scowling as he made his way down to the Slytherin common room and found was blocked by a load of first year Ravenclaw's and he was scowling as he sent out leg-locking charms at them all.

When he had reached the Slytherin common room, the dark dank dungeon room with its green glowing lights and its dark mahogany wood, he marched up to his dormitory. Once inside, he locked the door, wanting to be alone, not caring that the other boys who shared the room with him may want to come in also. After he had locked the door he sat down at his desk and, in a fit of rage, swiped everything off of it. Here, at Hogwarts, what had he got to live for? So-called friends which he openly despised and wished nothing but harm to? Subjects that he believed were beneath him as his capabilities far surpassed those of which he was being taught by inadequate teachers. Scraps of news from the daily prophet about the death eater's movements, news which was covered up, never in full detail? And a girl who he loved with all his heart but could do nothing about for two reasons. One, he and she would both be killed by Voldemort and two, they weren't even friends anymore and she would never return his feelings or feel the same way. Whichever way you looked at it, there was nothing for him at Hogwarts. The only thing he had was what was waiting for him when he graduated.

When he had swept everything off of his desk, it had moved slightly, dislodging a draw which he had kept closed for personal reasons. He didn't want any of his despicable roommates to see the contents. Inside was all of his most prized possessions; his letters from Lily. He had no idea why, all of a sudden, after more than six months everything was creeping back into his mind. He couldn't stop it though. He couldn't stop himself and with a shaking hand he reached into the ajar draw and pulled out the slightly crumpled letter from the bottom of the pile. Careful to protect his mind, he opened the piece of paper – not parchment, paper, with pretty pink swirls in the right hand corner. He took a deep breath and read the writing on the page, words he had read a thousand times. It was the first letter Lily had ever written to him. It had arrived at his house a month after they had met and he cherished it ever since.

_Dear Sev,_

_ This is so cool! I'm sending this to you by an owl! An _owl! _It's the first time I've done something like this. I wasn't going to send you a letter as you only live a few streets away but how often do you get to send mail with a bird?_

_My Hogwarts letter came this morning! Now I know it's true. I mean, it's not that I didn't believe you but now it's in writing so I definitely know I'm a witch. And, what's even more cool was that Professor Dumbledore came to give me my letter himself. He explained it all to my mummy and daddy and they're so proud of me! Petunia is less impressed. She spent the whole time Dumbledore was here in the corner sulking. I'm not sure why though. We'll have to investigate that when you next come round._

_Dumbledore's an odd man isn't he? I can't remember if you've met him or not. He was wearing a really odd purple dressing gown type thing and used his belt to tuck his beard into. I found that really funny! Why doesn't he just cut it? Anyway, when he came round he showed me, mummy and daddy, (Petunia had left the room in a strop), some magic. I know we've been doing some magic with the flowers and stuff but he showed us stuff with a wand. An actual wand Sev! Isn't that cool? He turned the candlestick on the fireplace into a bird and back and then made mummy's favourite ballerina ornament actually dance! Then, the best part of his visit, (apart from letting me use his owl to send you this letter), was that he let me hold his wand and wave it about. I made the ceiling fan turn on and it swung around really fast._

_I can't wait to get a wand. He's given us instructions on how to get to Diagon Alley tomorrow so that I can buy all of my school things. He gave me a list and it's quite long. We've got to use wizard money though so he's told us to go to Gringotts bank first and change some money over to their currency. I'm so excited. I'm actually going to see some other witches and wizards in a proper wizard place. It might take us a while to get there though. Mummy and Daddy say they've never heard of a pub called the Leaky Cauldron._

_I asked Petunia to come with us but she isn't too happy. She said no but Mummy and Daddy are telling her she has to. She's only agreed now because they've promised to get her something too. It'll probably be a new dress or something like that. She loves getting new dresses._

_Anyway, what I really wanted to ask you was do you want to come to Diagon Alley with us tomorrow? It'd really help us because you've been there before and you can show us around and you can show us where the Leaky Cauldron is too because we'd probably get lost. Plus Petunia is bound to still be sulking and the day will be a lot more fun with you there showing me more wizarding stuff. Please don't say no. What are best friends for anyway? _

_Answer quickly!_

_Lots of love,_

_Lily xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

At this point, Severus had taken a deep breath and had run a soft hand over the last paragraph she had written. The part stating they were best friends and, most importantly, at least to Severus, the words 'lots of love'. To Lily, they probably were and were definitely now, empty words. They were meaningless to her. Just as meaningless as the twenty-two kisses that ended her letter. She had always ended her letters to him like that; twenty-two kisses and the words 'answer quickly'. It was almost a standard format that she used for him. Again, empty. But as empty as those words were, Severus still treasured them.

He put the letter down and opened his draw further. He took out all of the letters she had ever written him, scores of them, and fanned them out across his desk. All of them were signed off with twenty-two kisses, lots of love and the words 'answer quickly'. Every letter was written on different papers and parchments but they were all neatly done. Some were written on muggle paper which often had some decorative swirls in the corners or some character of some sort. Others were written on parchment; plain and boring apart from her neat handwriting which took up the entire page. Mixed in between his fan of letters were pictures that had been taken of the pair of them. All but one was moving. The picture that wasn't was a muggle photograph taken by Lily's parents of Severus and Lily in their school robes with Petunia next to them.

The photo was of them in Lily's living room. They were stood in front of the fire place which had pictures of Lily and her sister in frames lined across it. The pictures were of the two girls as small children growing up. If Severus' squinted slightly, he could make them out. In front of the fire place and its several photographs was Lily and Severus in their newly bought school robes which they had just gotten that day. Severus had his arm around Lily's shoulders as she was hugging him with her arms clasped around his waist. They were both grinning broadly. Lily was clearly excited about being in new school robes and Severus was thoroughly pleased that Lily was hugging him. Petunia was to the side of Lily, arms folded and a face that looked as though it had been slapped. Severus had never liked her believing that Lily deserved better as a sister. Still, even though the picture was stained with a miserable Petunia and it was a muggle picture, it was Severus' favourite photo.

He spent the whole of his second period and half of the third staring at that picture, wishing for time to reverse so that he could go back to the day when it was taken. But he knew that wasn't going to happen. It never would. And he would never have the courage again to try and make things up to her. He was in Slytherin. They weren't known for their courage. However, they were known for their cunning.

A plan had begun to formulate in his head already, so, needing to see what he was up against, Severus left his dormitory and that was how he came to be wondering around the school ten minutes before lunch. He wasn't wandering aimlessly though. He knew what lesson she was in and what lesson she would be coming out of in less than ten minutes. So, determined to see and not to be seen, he stood in the shadows waiting. He waited for nine minutes and forty-six seconds, (he counted), before she came out, his plan becoming clearer and clearer in his mind and yet still fuzzy around the details.

When she did come out of the classroom, she was walking with Hestia Jones and Alice Prewett. Behind Alice was Frank Longbottom and behind him was the insufferably cocky and arrogant James Potter. He was with his annoying friends. Sirius Black with his irritating sullen good looks. Remus Lupin, the werewolf, looking extremely harried and ragged, tired and yet still laughing. Then there was Peter Pettigrew appearing behind them, small but with a shining face. Shining with sweat or admiration Severus couldn't tell. All he knew was that these boys deserved no praise.

He watched Lily laughing with her close friends and the marauders as well. (Severus wouldn't class them as her close friends. She had better taste then that.) Her shiny deep red hair cascaded over her shoulders and down her back her warm smile radiating happiness. She looked beautiful, even in large school robes too big for her slim figure. She looked happy surrounded by and talking to her friends and Severus started to have second thoughts about what he wanted to do. The plan for earning Lily's friendship back that had been formulating in his head was starting to diminish. He couldn't do that to her. It would make her miserable. Then he saw her smile at James Potter who smiled back to her. Something was in their eyes and with the burn of a Fiendfyre spell, Severus' plan came raging back. He could do it. It was, after all, for her own good. It was for the sake of their friendship. He could save her. He just knew it.

* * *

Hestia, Lily and Alice were up in their dormitory, all sat on Lily's bed as hers was closest to the window and was bathed in the light of the full moon. By sitting there they didn't have to light a candle to see as they had the natural light of the moon to use. This also meant that they didn't wake up their sleeping dorm mates; Emmeline Vance and Mary MacDonald. In aid of this, they also lowered their voices to soft whispers which were barely audible, even to themselves.

Lily was sat at the top of her bed, hugging her pillow over her stomach and sat with her legs folded to the side in a white cotton night dress. Opposite her, sat at the foot of her bed with her legs outstretched and ankles crossed, in deep blood red pyjamas, was Hestia, Lily's all-time best friend who she didn't know what she would do without. Then, sat slightly to the side of Hestia, more in the middle of the bed in a light pink nightie was Alice Prewett, a very good friend whom she had been growing closer with since Alice had fallen out with Emmeline.

They had been sat talking in soft whispers for almost an hour now. It was twelve minutes past one and they really needed to go to bed as they had school the next morning. Their brains wouldn't be fully alert or functioning enough to take in what they were being taught and the consequence of sleep deprived magic wasn't pretty. It usually ended with someone blowing something up or, in Hestia's case, burning her eyebrows off. (That had happened in their fourth year in a charms class). But every time they, (Lily), said that it was time they got off to sleep, someone, (Hestia), started a new conversation. This time, it was about Alice and Emmeline.

'Do you think you're ever gonna make up?' Hestia asked her in a hushed tone, glancing over to Emmeline's slumbering form which was wrapped in a heavy red and gold embellished duvet along with a hand knitted navy blue blanket with a white rabbit on it.

'I don't know.' Alice replied, genuinely unsure, 'I mean, I thought our fight would only last a week at best but it just kept going and going and now it's just too awkward for either one of us to apologise.'

'But I thought that Emmeline was more at fault then you?' Lily whispered, recalling the conversation she had shared with Alice a few months ago on the topic. From what she remembered, Emmeline had seen something in either tea leaves or a crystal ball, (some silly divination object), that Frank would be unfaithful to Alice. Alice, knowing Frank extremely well by then as they had been dating for a while, had then told Emmeline that Frank would never do such a thing. Then Emmeline had taken offence that Alice put no belief in divination which was, in Lily's opinion, a groundless subject, and Alice had taken offence that Emmeline would rather believe a changeable prediction rather than her which turned out to be more related to Hestia's situation than Alice's. The argument had progressed from there.

'Well,' Alice sighed, 'at the time yeah. I mean, who believes a bunch of wet tea leaves over their best friend? But still, I can't blame it all on her. I was part of the argument too and I know how stubborn Emmeline is, especially when it comes to Divination. And I just feel guilty for choosing Frank over her you know?'

'You didn't choose Frank over her.' Lily said compassionately.

'I kind of did though.' Alice exhaled, once more glancing over to Emmeline who looked so peaceful in sleep. This wasn't unusual. Emmeline, due to her obsession with Divination always gave out a serene atmosphere and always seemed calm. Alice continued, 'She was my best friend for four years and, although she should have believed me over tea, I should have listened to her concerns. But I didn't and I chose my boyfriend who I had only been seeing for a few months. I just think that, if she doesn't want to take the first step and apologise, maybe I should.'

'I agree.' Hestia said with a fully supportive nod of her head.

'You do?' Alice and Lily said in unison. Alice was in hope. She liked the fact that someone thought that she was making the right choice. Lily was in question. She didn't think that Alice needed to be the one to make the first step. She was a firm believer in only apologising when you've done something wrong.

'Yeah.' Hestia said as if it was obvious, 'I mean, no offence Alice but it does kind of sound like you chose Frank over Emmeline.'

'I don't like this side of you.' Lily said offhandedly with a shake of her head, 'You're becoming more cynical in your old age.'

'You're older than me!' Hestia whispered in disbelief with a laugh. She didn't think Lily was being serious.

But Lily was dead serious. She had noticed that her bubbly friend with an annoying exuberance for life was fading away. Instead, she was being replaced by a cynical depressive pessimist who had suddenly stepped out of her dream world where everything was happy-go-lucky. She had become very down to earth and matter of fact with only a small amount of hope. Maybe it had something to do with the war the wizarding world was in, though hardly reported on, or maybe her attitude was still coming from the fact that she had broken up with her boyfriend a couple of months ago because he had cheated on her and destroyed the romantic that she once was. Either way, it was annoying Lily no end and she really wanted her old friend back.

'Anyway,' Hestia continued turning back to Alice and continuing, 'I do think you should apologise to her. Not because it's necessarily your fault but because it's been so long now and it's been proven that Frank hasn't cheated on you and that the tea leaves were about my boyfriend not yours. I say you say sorry and you both move on.'

'I suppose you're right.' Alice sighed.

'I am right.' Hestia said, 'Believe me, if this ever happened between Lily and me and she chose a boyfriend over me then I don't think I'd have the courage to apologise to her, even if it was my fault. And I know that if it was reversed she would never apologise to me because she's stubborn. Not that that would happen between us because neither of us are dating anyone at the minute and we love each other too much.' Hestia looked at Alice's saddened face and she corrected herself, 'Not that you and Emmeline didn't love each other just that…'

'Wrap it up. Wrap it up.' Lily muttered, lamely attempting to hide her words with a cough.

'It's just…' Hestia continued, trying to take Lily's advice and finish what she was saying. The only thing was that she couldn't think of what else to say. Then it came to her like a stroke of genius. 'Boyfriends come and go but your friendships are for life. That's my motto.' she finished proudly nodding her head.

'Since when do you have a motto?' Lily laughed, raising her eyebrows and smiling through her laughter.

'I've always had a motto.' Hestia replied indignantly, 'It just changes a lot. Today its boyfriends come and go but your friendships are for life. Yesterday at breakfast it was eat quickly and don't let Sirius Black steal your toast.'

'But he did steal your toast.' Lily pointed out with one eyebrow raised.

'Hence the motto.' Hestia replied, 'That's not going to happen again.'

Lily smiled and shook her head. 'Yes it will.' she said happily, glad that Hestia had moved on from the serious subject and was now returning to her usual self. Even though Hestia's enthusiasm sometimes annoyed her, Lily was always much happier when she was her bouncy self and not the serious pessimist.

'Not if we don't sit with them at breakfast.' Hestia said, 'Why are we sitting with them at breakfast?'

'Because they were the last seats available.' Lily said honestly. It was a true answer.

The previous morning when they had walked into the great hall, the whole of Gryffindor table was crowded with students eating quickly ready to go to their first lesson. They had been late down to breakfast because Hestia hadn't been able to decide how she wanted to wear her hair and when they got there, there were only two places left at the table. One was next to James Potter and the other was on the opposite side of the table in the middle of Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew. (No one knew why they were sitting a seat apart). So Hestia and Lily had headed over to the available seats; Lily sat next to James and Hestia between Sirius and Peter something she wasn't best pleased about. Her reasons for this became abundantly clear when Sirius stole her toast, something she wanted to avoid and was still rambling on about.

'Well we're going to have to get there earlier tomorrow then.' Hestia said in thought, 'I don't want to be toastless again.'

'Ok.' Lily gave in reluctantly after putting up no fight at all. It would have looked odd if she had. 'We're going to have to go to bed now then.' she stated to a now pouting Hestia.

'Do we have to?' she whined, reluctantly getting off of Lily's bed without waiting for an answer. She knew that Lily was right. It was now half one and it was time to get some sleep. If she didn't she wouldn't get any toast the following morning and there was a chance she would also lose her eyebrows.

The three girls disappeared to their own beds, Lily staying put as she was already there. Alice snuggled straight down into her bed near the bathroom door, pulling her quilt up close around her ears and shutting her eyes, drifting away peacefully. Hestia dragged her feet sluggishly over to her own bed which was just next to Lily's in the round room and flopped down into it. She pulled her covers over her and turned her pillow to the side of the bed so that she was lying down in a right angle. She however, did not close her eyes. She just stared at Lily in her bed.

'Good night.' Lily said as she settled herself under her duvet and put her hands under her pillow. She closed her eyes and began to drift off into sleep, not realising how tired her eyes actually were. Her eyelids closed heavily and felt like they'd have to be peeled open with tweezers or some similar object.

'Lily?' Hestia said from her own bed, her eyes still wide awake.

'What?' Lily replied tiredly, unable to open her eyes. They felt weighted and it was a strain to keep her mind active enough to listen to Hestia. Still, she tried.

'I can't sleep!' Hestia hissed back, sitting up and hugging her pillow to her chest in a similar way to how Lily had done earlier.

'Try.' Lily answered through gritted teeth, feeling herself drifting away.

'But I can't sleep.' Hestia said as she swung her legs over her bed and began to creep quietly over to Lily. Usually when she couldn't sleep she woke Lily up to talk or just slept in her bed with her. No one else knew this, especially the boys of Hogwarts. Who knew what they'd do with this information but whatever it would be, it wouldn't be good news for the girls.

'You better still be in your own bed.' Lily said, her eyes still tightly closed and a small knowing smile spreading across her face.

Hestia huffed and turned around, marching back to her own bed. How did Lily do that? She had been creeping so quietly and Lily's eyes were closed. This was so unfair. She couldn't sleep. Surely she should have some company until she could.

Lily heard the springs of Hestia's mattress as she got back into bed. 'Now go to sleep.' she said to her, her small smile still on her face.

'You're mean.' Hestia muttered as she settled herself back into her right angle.

But Lily didn't hear her. She was now drifting off into a dream filled sleep that would leave her waking up with a smile on her face.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Update on the 10/04/2013**

**Galindaba**


	47. Chapter 46

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Thanks for everyone's lovely reviews and I am glad that everyone is enjoying my take on James and Lily's story. :)**

**Here's chapter Forty-Six!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Forty-Six**

After the Friday prefects meeting, when all the prefects, (bar Remus who had never even turned up, having his excuses made by James), had disappeared, James and Lily were left alone in the transfiguration room. Lily was sat on a chair at the group of tables they had put together for the meeting, reworking on the prefects rota for the week, and James was sat next to her with his feet up on the table playing, as he had the week before, with his snitch.

He had been doing this all meeting, playing with his snitch. Whilst Lily had been running over how everyone's patrols had gone the previous week and giving out the rota dates for the week they were now in, James sat with his legs up on the table paying no attention. He had sat letting the snitch he had stolen from the Quidditch stores get away from him for a few seconds before catching it again quickly with his lightning fast reflexes. It really didn't help the process of the meeting as he was distracting the prefect girls and the Quidditch enthusiasts.

'Why are you a chaser?' the girl who James had given the name Hufflepuff prefect number two last meeting had asked. She was the one who, in the last prefects meeting, had bantered with James about his Quidditch skills after he had fallen off of his chair. Now she was blatantly complimenting him on them. 'You'd make an excellent seeker.'

'Why thank you Hufflepuff prefect number two. Yes I would have.' James had replied taking the compliment immodestly, showing off his arrogant nature once again.

James never answered her question though. He had been asked that question many, many times and he was never able to give them an answer. All he was ever able to say was that he loved being a chaser, being in the thick of the game, but that was never a proper reply to the question. After years of being on the Quidditch team, he just stopped answering them. And now, he had just done the same thing again. Not answering the Hufflepuff girl and just motioning forwards for Lily to continue the meeting which she did gladly, wanting to get it over with as she had a charms essay to write.

The meeting, after James had ignored all comments that came his way about Quidditch and him playing with his snitch, (including Lily asking him politely to stop to which he just stuck his tongue out at her in reply), moved on swiftly. Lily was able to listen to the concerns their prefects had about homework levels, use of classrooms and Hogsmeade visits and take in the dates which they couldn't do for the next rota James and Lily were to compile after they left. When they had gotten through all of this, Lily had been able to tell them to go which they all did gladly, leaving the two head students alone to rework the prefects patrol rota.

As soon as they were alone and all the prefects had gone, James glanced over at Lily and smiled cheekily. 'Hey Evans.' he said, using her last name as he used to do when he used to ask her out every day, 'Will you go out with me?' he asked her.

Lily put down the quill she had just picked up to write the rota with and looked at James. 'We are going out.' she replied confused as to why James was returning to his old methods. Strangely, it felt comforting and familiar. She wouldn't have thought she'd have missed his incessant questioning but oddly, she had. It was strange.

'We've been on one date.' James pointed out, taking his feet off of the desk and leaning forwards so that he was just inches from Lily and staring into her emerald green eyes, 'I'm asking you out on a second date. So, will you go out with me Evans?'

Lily laughed quietly and bit her lip. This was rather odd to her. Yes they had been out on a date and she had already said yes to going out with him but the way he phrased it last time was different. This time, he was asking her in the way he had when they were in fifth year when she had always declined him, usually with a harsh insult. It was odd because she was actually going to say yes to that question this time with no hesitation. 'Ok.' she said with a smile, 'When?'

'One o'clock tomorrow?' James suggested, with a shrug of his shoulders as if he had only just thought of it. That wasn't true though. He had been thinking about what to do for their second date since he had climbed the stairs to his dormitory after their first date. He would never be able to top it but he thought he could keep the same level of intimacy, mystery and amazement going. After all, those three things were what created the excited buzz of dating weren't they?

'A.m. or p.m.?' Lily questioned, wishing it was the latter. She did want to go on the date with James but they were so tired last time and she made silly mistakes and almost let it slip. Something she didn't want to do just yet. She still wanted to see how things went before telling anyone. And by anyone she specifically meant Hestia. She didn't know why but after going on a successful first date with James she was even more nervous to tell Hestia. She thought it was perhaps she was excited and happy and she didn't want Hestia to tear all of that down, especially as Hestia was being so cynical and depressive lately. She wanted to wait until Hestia had returned to her happy-go-lucky usual self.

'Does it matter?' James questioned with raised eyebrows, interrupting Lily's train of thought.

'Well,' Lily started, not wanting to reach a point where James just said 'forget it' even though she knew that that was extremely unlikely to happen as he had liked her for over six years, 'we were just so tired last time and it might be easier to go out in the afternoon. In the p.m.'

'Ok.' James said, a smile spreading slowly over his face, 'How about eleven fifty-nine p.m. then?'

'You are a pain.' Lily said fondly with a little laugh, shaking her head at him and rolling her eyes at his pedantic behaviour.

'I'd get used to it if I were you.' James smiled, raising his eyebrows once in a mischievous way.

Lily sighed, still shaking her head fondly. She returned to the prefect's rota and began to write names in the boxes, with no help from James, her quill scratching along the parchment full of ink. She was fully aware that James was watching her and semi-aware that he was waiting for an answer on their date, but still, Lily continued to write. She was letting him stew for a while. She wasn't sure why she was doing it but she was actually finding his unwavering gaze on her oddly rather fun. She liked the attention he was giving her.

James continued to stare at her waiting for an answer. He knew that she would say yes to him because, theoretically, she already had. At the end of their last date when he asked if they were going to do it again she had said they should. But he couldn't alleviate the doubts that occurred to his mind when she stalled in her answer. They frustrated him to the point that he had to demand a reply. Not in a cruel or harsh way, just demanding.

'You're killing me here Lily.' James said, taking the quill out of Lily's hand and holding it out of her reach.

'Can I have that back please?' Lily asked trying to hide the smile from her face. She knew that something like this would be the eventual result of her stalling and she kind of liked it. In fact she was rather enjoying it.

'You have to answer me first.' James smirked putting the quill down on the table and covering with his hand so that she couldn't grab it. He looked into her eyes and she was holding back a smile, he could tell.

'Eleven fifty-nine p.m. on Saturday then?' Lily asked.

'Perfect!' James replied softly, his happiness uncontained. He leant forwards and quickly placed a soft kiss on her cheek.

Lily was very aware that when James pulled away from her, smiling broadly, that her cheek had flushed at the contact of his lips. Trying desperately to recover with a bit of dignity, Lily simply said, 'What patrol did you want to do? Who do you want to be paired with this week?'

James smirked, pleased he had this effect on her. It took him a few seconds to look away from her flushing cheeks and down to the rota. He glanced over the prefects names she had already put in for patrol. He didn't recognise any of them. There were names on that piece of parchment which he couldn't associate with any faces. He supposed he needed to learn some of them and get to know them. After all, he would be working with them for the whole year and even he wasn't so stubborn as to not learn their names and keep referring to them as Ravenclaw Prefect number three and so on and so forth. However, he knew he wouldn't be able to learn them all at once. Not because he was bad at remembering names or anything like that, just because he didn't want too. It would be boring and tedious and he believed he had much more important things to focus his attention on. He thought he might start with Hufflepuff prefect number two. They had a bit of a rapport going. Her name should be easy enough to learn.

'Which is that Hufflepuff prefect?' James asked Lily, looking over the timetable still but unsure as to why he was doing it. He didn't know what he was looking for. 'The girl who plays Quidditch?'

'Err…that's Megan.' Lily replied a little stiltedly.

'Yeah ok.' James said happily. Megan. He'd remember that…maybe. 'I'll be paired with her.' he continued on, leaning back in his chair.

'You want to be paired with the Hufflepuff Quidditch player.' Lily stated, her jaw slightly tense.

'If that's ok.' James replied looking over to her. He noticed her expression and the corner of his mouth pulled up in a smile. 'You wouldn't be jealous of that would you?' he asked her.

'No.' Lily denied, 'Of course not.'

'There's no need to be jealous.' James smirked, enjoying this. If Lily was jealous it was just another way to prove to him that she actually liked him, something he couldn't quite altogether believe as it was.

'I'm not jealous.' Lily said turning to look into James' glinting hazel eyes. She tried to sound as honest as possible.

'You're totally jealous!' James laughed. This was fun.

'James I will stab you with this quill if you don't shut up about this.' Lily threatened, poking the quill in James' direction. Her eyebrows were raised and she looked deadly serious.

James was still laughing to himself but he saw her expression and gave in. 'Ok fine.' he smiled, 'My lips are sealed.' he carried on to say, miming taking a key out of his pocket, locking his lips and throwing it away.

Lily shook her head and rolled her eyes, a motion which was becoming all too familiar to her when it came to James. She carried on writing the rota, putting James' name next to Megan's for patrol duty for two nights. The other night of James' patrol, she couldn't help but write in with herself. Maybe it was jealousy. She didn't know why it was there, the irrational emotion. She couldn't understand it at all. After all, they had only been on one date and jealousy was an emotion usually reserved for people in a committed, long-term relationship. But she couldn't help it. She supposed it was just a natural human emotion, (that or something else that came with being a red-head like a fiery temper or a stubborn attitude). Well, whatever it was, she didn't like feeling that way. And it really didn't help with James chanting under his breath joyously, 'You're jealous, you're jealous!'. No. That didn't help at all!

* * *

Peter and Sirius were sat in their dormitory waiting for James to return from the prefects meeting. They had all agreed to meet there before sneaking out to the grounds to join Remus for his full moon transformation into Moony. They had been waiting for twenty minutes for him, ten minutes after he said he would be there. Peter was sat on James' bed rolling the Quaffle that James kept by his bed back and forth across the sheets. Sirius was on his own bed, hanging upside down off of the side playing with his beaters bat and James' second Quaffle. He was using the bat to roll the odd shaped Quaffle back and forth on the floor. It was quite a considerable feat considering he was doing it upside down.

When the door opened, Sirius looked up to see who it was and the Quaffle he had been batting around, rolled towards the open door. From where he was, he saw a black shoe stop the ball before it bowled out of the door. Out of his diminished range of vision, due to his upsidedownedness, he saw James bend down and pick up his Quaffle, a great smile on his face as he walked further into the room, carrying the Quidditch ball.

Sirius sat up and motioned for James to throw the ball over to him. James lazily tossed it into Sirius' waiting hands and Sirius caught it with ease, a bored look on his face as he did so.

'Where you been?' Sirius asked James as he stood up and walked over to James' bedside table, putting the Quaffle down on it but keeping his hand atop it. 'We were meant to meet Moony ten minutes ago.'

'Meeting ran long.' James said simply, not expanding on details as, if he did, he would be telling them things Lily didn't want anyone to know just yet.

'Why are you so happy about that?' Sirius asked half suspicious and half annoyed that James' head boy duties had cut into their marauder time. Yes he was very proud that his best friend forwards slash brother had been given the honour of head boy. He was also very confused as to how James had actually been made head boy when his grand total of detentions had surpassed his own. But it did annoy him that he and the marauders seemed to be taking a backseat to what James' new position commanded of him. Earlier that day he had tried to convince him to skip the meeting like Remus had to but James wouldn't hear of it.

'I'm not.' James replied, turning Peter who was sat on his bed and taking his second Quaffle from him.

'You could have fooled me.' Sirius muttered under his breath to which James just rolled his eyes.

Not saying another word Sirius marched out of the room expecting James and Peter to follow him which they did after a prompt by James.

'Come on Wormy.' James said pulling Peter up off of his bed and shoving the Quaffle he still had in his hands under his bed along with the one on his bedside table.

The two boys walked down into the now deserted common room and through the Fat Lady's portrait to where Sirius was waiting impatiently. He didn't like being late to things he enjoyed. Hogsmeade trips, full moons and kitchen visits were at the top of his list of thing he hated to be late for. Classes, tests and homework assignments he couldn't care less about. They weren't even on the list.

'Calm down Sirius!' James sighed as they started to walk at a moderate speed down the corridors as if they owned them, 'He's a werewolf it's not like he had a watch on.'

Sirius didn't answer James and so they walked through the castles corridors in silence. Peter was stood timidly between James and Sirius, glancing back and forth quickly and nervously between them both. They weren't talking to each other. James strolled casually along, his hands shoved deep into his pockets. Sirius walked next to him, his hands also in his pockets but he seemed less relaxed than James was. He seemed rather tense and ticked off, especially at the fact that James seemed to think they had all the time in the world to reach Moony. They didn't the sun would be rising soon. It didn't stay down forever.

After a silent walk through the cold and empty school, the three boys reached the grounds and made their way over to the whomping willow. The tree was flailing its limbs around violently looking, as it always did, as if it would be able to decapitate someone in seconds. It probably could. When they reached it all three of them looked around to ensure that no prying eyes were watching. As soon as they were sure that no one was and that they were alone, Peter and Sirius transformed into their animagus selves; Rat and dog respectively. Wormtail and Padfoot. James wouldn't be able to transform until half way through the tunnel as his animagus form, a stag, was too big to fit through the tiny gap. It was the antlers that did it.

Wormtail, as a small brow rat with tremendously scruffy fur like a shoe brush which he was sure his mother wouldn't approve of, scurried forwards and pressed a knot in the tree trunk at the roots. Immediately the vicious branches of the whomping willow stopped waving and it was completely still. When it was unmoving like this, it was almost possible that it could pass for a normal tree. After the tree had frozen, Wormtail hurried into the passage way that had opened up followed by Padfoot and then James.

Usually, as they went through the tunnel, James crouching behind Padfoot and Wormtail, Padfoot would turn and whimper at James almost begging him to turn into a stag. It was so there was no threat to James' safety if Moony, as a werewolf, caught a whiff of them. Today, he didn't. He was still annoyed with James for making them wait to make the excursion for the full moon. Deep down he knew he shouldn't be mad at his best friend for trying to fulfil the role her had been given by Dumbledore and he would most likely, if not definitely, forgive him when the four animals went outside. At the minute though, he wasn't in the mood to. Also, he couldn't help but feel that the fact that now both James and Remus had responsible positions made him feel a bit left out at time. Sure he had Peter but in his opinion, that was hardly anything to rave about. Peter was dull.

They reached a wider expanse of the hidden tunnel and, almost without effort, James transformed into a magnificent stag. His antlers rose out of his head and touched the roof of the crumbling muddy passage way. They carried on forwards as if nothing had happened but secretly, Padfoot was pleased that Prongs had finally transformed. He could stop worrying that a fully grown and blood-lusty werewolf would come bounding down to try and attack them.

Soon, they were coming out in the Shrieking Shack. It was a dusty wooden building with cobwebs and spiders everywhere. A few rats scurried about, all curious about Wormtail, rushing up to sniff him then rushing away again when they realised what he really was. The wooden panelling of the Shrieking Shack's walls had claw marks trailing down them. Splinters were falling down and, on some panels, large chunks of the mould ridden wood were now hanging off. Several chairs lay around broken, the legs torn off violently each with its own array of bite marks and scratches in them. Trailing along the floor were feathers and pieces of fluff which presumably came from the shredded pillow that now lay devoid of filling near the door into the bedroom. The surroundings of this derelict building were all too familiar to Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs and, knowing what would happen next, the three Animagi stood still and waited.

Charging out of the bedroom door bounded a fully grown werewolf. It was a long and thinning being with a tufted tail, crumpled snout and glaring yellow eyes which flashed about constantly. There were fresh scratches along its back and a deep bite which was bleeding furiously on its right forepaw. Moony had been attacking himself again. It stopped in front of the three animals across the broken hall and barred its teeth in a growl, stood ready for a fight. However, it was not attacking and not retreating. It was just unsure. They seemed familiar.

It took in the three animals and their forms to determine whether or not they were a threat to him. First he looked at the large stag with gleaming hooves and trusting hazel eyes. His antlers grew majestically out of its head. Then he looked over at the smaller but still quite large black scruffy furred dog with silver grey eyes which glinted playfully. Lastly he glanced at the small rat with its tufted brown fur, long pink tail and nervous pinprick eyes which shined like tiny beetles. The werewolf stood opposite the three animals for a few minutes, slowly gaining recognition. When Moony finally understood that the three animals meant no harm to him and that they were really his three best friends, he sat down and relaxed, his teeth no longer barred and his yellow eyes no longer flashing. He was, for all intents and purposes, sedated.

When it was clear that Moony wasn't going to attack them, Padfoot bounded over to him and wagged his tail happily, leaping up and tugging at his ear playfully. Moony swatted him away with a long clawed paw, careful to keep his touch soft so that he didn't hurt his friend. Wormtail scurried around Moony's and Padfoot's feet as they good-humouredly played around. Prongs watched them for a moment and scuffed his hooves in amusement. He watched his friend's antics with amusement and after a few seconds walked gallantly over to the loose panel at the back of the shack. Using his antlers, he shifted it joltedly to the side to show a gap to the outside world which was just big enough for them to go through.

The four animals exited the shrieking shack and walked away from the town, Padfoot and Prongs making sure that Moony was between them both the whole time out of a precautionary measure. They climbed up the caved rock face which was the backdrop to the small town and a common sight in Scotland. They climbed slowly, for the rocks were uneven and, at times, slippery with the dew of the night, until they reached the top. From there they could see everything. They could see the Hogsmeade village down below; some lights were lit around the outskirts where people were settling down for the night but the main stretch of the wizarding village was black. They could see the black lake; its icy surface still as a glacier and reflecting the bright light of the full moon. And they could see Hogwarts; the turrets and towers of the grand castle jutted out from the landscape like thorns. Just like Hogsmeade village, some lights were visible in the windows where the candles had yet to be blown out. From the top of that cliff, everything looked beautiful and picturesque.

Moony howled at the large full moon, that old werewolf cliché. Padfoot and Prongs let him, standing by undisturbed by the loud salute to the moon that Moony was giving. Wormtail was less natural about Moony's howl and he scurried behind Prongs' hooves to hide. He would have hid behind Padfoot's paws, which would have made more sense to do as he was closer to him, but last time he did that Padfoot had kicked his tiny little rat body a small way across the rock face. Afterwards, when they were in human form, James had asked Sirius why he had done that but he simply replied that it was an accident. James had accepted this but Peter always suspected that that wasn't the case. Nevertheless, he was a more cautious afterwards.

After Moony had finished howling, as soon as the bright full moon disappeared behind a mist of clouds, Padfoot and Prongs led him down over the other side of the rocky mountain and into the expanse of forest that covered the ground below. Wormtail followed them as they passed the caves and crevices and walked into the woods. He was always behind them as he scurried along, following them across the undergrowth and through the heavily dense trees. He enjoyed following them but sometimes, he couldn't help but wish he was a bigger animal like Padfoot or Prongs so that he was more involved in transporting Moony safely from the shrieking shack to the woods. He guessed that would never happen though.

As soon as they were in the thick of the forest the four animals dashed about and played. Wormtail soon lost Moony, Padfoot and Prongs as they ran off excitedly into the woods and so stayed in the bushes where he was sure they would come back by when they were all to return to the shrieking shack. Padfoot, who had forgiven Prongs by now, raced him through the trees, both of them diverting themselves around trees and jumping over roots. Moony raced off ahead of them and, creating yet another obstacle, turned back and weaved in-between the pair of them. They were having a lot of fun darting about and loving the freedom that being an animal gave them. It was a freedom which couldn't be explained. It needed to be experienced.

Quickly, Moony and Padfoot were ahead of Prongs by a long way, such a way that he slowed down giving up on all attempts of catching them up. They would turn back and come and find him soon, probably only when the sun was rising and it was time to go back to the shrieking shack but soon enough. He stopped and turned around catching a smell in the air. It was an enveloping smell that all creatures respected. It was intoxicating. Prongs walked around the tree, certain that the source of the smell would be around somewhere. Sure enough, after walking past and around a couple of giant fat oak trees he came face to face with the brilliant creature.

James lowered his head so that his antlers were pointing forwards in a bow and his stag body mimicked the gesture as well. When he came out of the bow, from the look in the other creatures eyes and he knew that his gesture was well-received. He knew he was accepted. He trotted forwards to meet the beautiful beast in the middle of the clearing and they circled each other twice before it grazed its head gently along the side of Prongs' face, careful to avoid his antlers. Together, the two easily communicated to each other and, under the suggestion from Prongs, ran a little ways together. They were both majestic in their strides and, to anyone looking, they would have to agree that there was nothing so beautiful as a stag and a unicorn galloping off into a sun-rising lightened woods.

* * *

The next evening, you could find Lily sat with her two closest friends in a heated debate with Alice's boyfriend.

'That's true though.' Frank Longbottom said to Lily. He was sat on the sofa leaning forwards on his knees and talking to Lily across the small table that was between the old red sofa and the fireplace.

She was sat on the floor leaning on this table shaking her head. 'No it's not.' Lily replied stubbornly, 'And even if it is, why would a muggle need to take those tests anyway.'

'Maybe they just want to learn about magic.' Alice suggested with a shrug of her shoulders. She was sat on the arm of the sofa next to her boyfriend. Her arm was around the back of the couch.

'But they'd have to know about magic first to actually take the test.' Lily pointed out, knowing that she had them cornered then.

They had been discussing W.O.M.B.A.T's; Wizards' Ordinary Magic and Basic Aptitude Test. They were written tests used by the Ministry of Magic which tested whether the person sitting it was able to exist safely in the wizarding world. They were mainly used when someone was interviewing to go into a chosen career such as an auror but there had been the odd occasion where someone elected to take the test themselves. There were also known instances when the test was used to rehabilitate a petty criminal who had stolen a book or something from a small shop. These tests were taken by wizards and witches. This information was known by everyone in the wizarding world which was why Lily had found it ridiculous that Frank had been arguing that muggles could also take this test.

'Maybe the test is taken by squibs.' Hestia put in casually. She wasn't really interested in this conversation at all. She was sat out of it in fact, sat a little way out of the group. She was in a large poufy armchair placed at a right-angle from the couch, with her feet up on the coffee table, painting her nails in a bright glittery pink. She was always painting her nails.

'But squibs aren't muggles.' Lily said, knowing, once again, that she was right, 'They know about the wizarding world because they're a part of it already. They don't need to take the test. It makes no sense for a muggle to take the test because…well…how would they find out about it anyway?'

'Well,' Frank began, thinking his response through quickly, 'maybe the muggles have a relative in the wizarding world and want to be a part of it too. Like your parents. They could take the test. There's no magic involved because it's a written exam so technically, that would be an example of a muggle taking the test for a specific and logical reason.'

Lily paused, not liking the fact that she had been defeated. She knew she had lost and she didn't like losing. She ran through her thoughts for a retort but could only come up with, 'Well my parents would never take that test.'

'That doesn't change the fact that muggles can take that exam.' Frank replied, leaning back so that his head rested on Alice's' arm.

'I think he's got you beat there Lily.' Hestia commented offhandedly in a monotonous tone. She blew on her nails and didn't look up to Lily who was now glaring at her through narrowed eyes not liking the fact that her best friend had pointed out her loss.

'That I do.' Frank smiled triumphantly.

'Ha!' Alice laughed once, also smiling triumphantly that her boyfriend had talked down Lily Evans.

'Don't laugh at me!' Lily said, shaking her head at Alice in a mock whine.

Alice simply smiled at Lily and slid off from the arm of the sofa and into Franks lap. She put her right arm around him so that it was resting along the back of the sofa and Frank put his left arm around her waist.

Even though Lily was still a bit miffed that she hadn't won the argument, she had to admit it; they made a cute couple. She watched them just sitting and talking together, for they were now in their own conversation, and couldn't help but let her mind wander. Maybe, soon, she and James could be like that. She didn't want it to happen straight away. She wasn't ready for that. After all, they had only been on one date and their second one was tonight. Plus she still didn't want to tell Hestia or anyone else for that matter because she was nervous of being judged etcetera. It was silly really. She was a Gryffindor, the house known for bravery and she was scared to tell her best friend about something which, thus far, had been making her happy and giddy with excitement.

Lily shook the thoughts out of her head and glanced up at the portrait hole which had just swung open. In walked Mary MacDonald with Emmeline Vance. As soon as she saw their dorm mates Lily whispered Alice's name to capture her attention. Once she had it, she motioned her head in Emmeline's direction and suddenly, Alice's face became nervous.

She stood up from Frank's lap and he watched her go with a little confusion. She hadn't told him that she had planned to apologise to Emmeline today. She had been stealing her nerves all day waiting for this moment. It was nerve-racking for her and she wasn't sure why. Still, she went through with it.

'Emmeline?' Alice said in a questioning tone as she stepped in front of Emmeline and Mary, 'Can I talk to you please?'

Emmeline looked at Mary who shrugged. She looked back to Alice in an extremely serene way, her expression calm releasing a small smile. She said nothing.

Alice took this as a good sign and continued. She didn't let Mary's continued presence put her off. Instead, she powered through. 'Emmeline I wanted to apologise for this fight we've been in. I know it has gone on far too long and I wanted to say that I am sorry.'

There was an awkward silence. Alice waited for a reply and nothing came. Emmeline stared tranquilly at Alice giving no clue as to whether she was accepting her apology or not. Frank still looked confusedly at his girlfriend, wondering why she was the one apologising because, from the story she had told him, he believed it should be the other way around. Mary was staring at Alice with pursed lips, blinking slowly in annoyance every so often. Lily was looking at the three girls in the middle of the common room with nervous anticipation. Hestia was still painting her nails. She wasn't paying attention. Obviously painting her nails was more interesting to her.

After a minute of nothingness, Alice felt the need to continue. 'I really am sorry Emmeline and, I know that we probably won't be as close as we were before because, let's face it, we're teenagers and our opinions, tastes and things change so quickly we probably don't know each other that well anymore, but I would still really like to be friends with you.'

Still there was no reply. Alice was just stood there extremely uncomfortable. She looked over to Lily, who had helped her earlier that day giving her suggestions of what to say and calming her nerves, asking her silently what to do. Lily replying expression was really of no help to her as she also had no idea what to do. Any scenario she had picture had had Emmeline using words. So Alice just ploughed on.

'I should have…I don't know actually. I don't know what I could have done. I know how much you believe…how much…I know that you really value divination and I should have at least…' Alice drifted off not really sure what to say next. She didn't think she should have done anything different than what she did. After all it was proven that Emmeline's prediction from Alice's tea leaves was false and pertained to Hestia instead. Alice had nothing more to say so she just reiterated her original apology. 'I'm sorry about this fight and how long it's gone on for. I'm really sorry.'

Finally, Emmeline said something. She tilted her head slightly to the side and smiled. 'Thank you.' she said softly in a serene manner. This was all she said before she and Mary walked around Alice and up to their dormitory.

Alice stood still, unsure as to whether Emmeline's acceptance of her apology meant that they would now be friends again. She turned to look at Lily for opinion but it seemed that she didn't know either as all she did was shrug. With nothing else to do Alice walked back around to the sofa and flopped down depressively next to Frank who put his arm around her comfortingly.

'That went well.' Hestia said, still painting her nails. As she hadn't paid any attention to the one-sided conversation held by Alice and Emmeline, she fully believed her statement was true.

Alice turned to glare at her, as did Lily. Frank was trying to smother a smile.

Hestia suddenly felt the eyes on her and, for the first time since she had sat down and had begun to manicure her nails. She looked around at her friends slowly and confusedly. 'What?' she asked.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	48. Chapter 47

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter Forty-Seven!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Forty-Seven**

Lily walked down the steps of the spiral staircase which led from the girl's dormitory. She was moving quietly to make sure that no one could hear her. If anybody woke up they would catch her and that was the last thing she wanted. Plus, if they saw what she was wearing, they would definitely know something was up. She was in a knee length black dress which clung to her slim figure, outlining her curves. She had small black heels on and her hair was loosely curled and pushed back by a thin, black headband. Her small heels made it quite hard to be quiet but she managed it. Even James didn't hear her walk down the stairs.

He was leaning against the back of the sofa with his hands in his pockets. He was looking up at the ceiling with odd concentration.

'What are you doing?' Lily asked walking up next to James and looking up at the ceiling as well.

'Counting the ceiling tiles.' James replied, still looking up to the roof of the common room.

Lily looked confused. 'The ceiling has no tiles.' she pointed out.

'That's probably why I never got past one.' James smiled nodding his head in realisation. He then looked away from the ceiling to smile at Lily but instead his eyebrows raised and his jaw dropped down slightly in surprise. 'Wow.' he said simply.

'Thank you.' Lily replied, a slow pink blush creeping into her cheeks, 'See, this is how I dress for a date. Not in my pyjamas.' she continued, referring to their first date where she had worn her pyjamas all morning.

James was still trying to find words. He had never seen her dressed up like that. Even for her birthday party, for which she looked beautiful, she hadn't quite dressed up as lovely as this. He was finding it difficult to think coherently. 'Wow.' he just said again, repeating his initial statement.

'You said that already.' Lily said, hoping that James would actually be able to say more than one word on their date. It would be pretty boring if that was his reply to everything.

'I did, didn't I?' James blinked, his thoughts returning to usual and thinking ahead to what he had planned. 'Yeah. You're gonna want to change.'

'What?' Lily demanded, not believing that the reaction she had got had changed so quickly. Unless she had gotten the wrong impression when he said 'wow' before. She had thought he had said 'wow' as in 'wow you look amazing'. But perhaps not. Maybe when he said 'wow' he really meant 'wow what on earth are you wearing. You look hideous. Why am I dating you?'.

'Lily?' James asked.

Lily looked up not really realising that she had drifted off into her paranoid mind. 'Yeah?' she replied.

'You might want to change.' he repeated, clarifying his reasons, 'It's cold where we're going and if you stay dressed like that you're gonna be going out with someone who won't be able to say more than the word 'wow' for the entire time.'

Lily swallowed a smile. So she had been right about the wow. She wasn't quite sure why but she was more pleased about being right about that then she had been when she received the original wow. Maybe it was because she had lost the argument with Frank earlier that evening. Either way, she really loved being right.

She looked at what James was wearing for a clue as to what the dress code was for their date. It seemed a bit silly that there was a dress code but that's what there was. She saw that he was wearing a deep blue jumper and some jeans. He didn't look as classy as he had on their last date, for which he wore a black shirt and black trousers, but he still looked very handsome. How did he manage that? It was the hair. She was sure it was the hair. It gave him a rugged handsomeness. It was so annoying but she liked it.

Turning to go back up to her dorm room with a sigh she went to change. She took what he was wearing as initiative and guidelines. She also donned some jeans and pulled on a soft, thick, grey knitted jumper, taking extra special care to be quiet so that she didn't wake anyone in her dorm up. She then slipped on her trainers which would make slipping out quietly a lot easier. She went as quickly as she could and rushed back down the spiral stairs to meet James.

'Ok. Ready.' Lily said excitedly.

'Great.' James said, taking her hand, entwining his fingers through hers and leading her out of the common room. They climbed through the portrait hole and past an extremely groggy Fat Lady who, luckily, wasn't awake enough to realise what was happening.

'So where are we going?' Lily asked as the pair walked up a staircase together to reach the higher part of the school.

'Well,' James said flashing a smile at her, 'I thought I'd impress you with my astronomy skills.'

Lily laughed disbelievingly, She thought back to their O.W.L astronomy class a couple of years ago, remembering that he had spent the whole time playing 'I spy' with Sirius Black through the school telescopes. She remembered. Not the information on the subject in question as she had emptied her head of it, forgetting it in order to make room for the Ancient Runes information she needed. But she could remember that and them because it had really annoyed her at the time. 'You have no astronomy skills.' she said shaking her head.

'Which will make it all the more impressive when I tell you which star is which.' James replied happily.

They climbed the stairs up to the astronomy tower, James making sure that Lily was ok on them as they were extremely narrow and kind of slippy. At the top, he opened the door for her and let her walk in first. He saw her smile around at the picnic he had laid out for them. This time, he had actually brought substantial food for them, not just sweets. They had discussed it earlier in the day and both had agreed to skip, or just eat very little at dinner so that they could eat together. James had nicked everything in the basket from the kitchens. Well, the house elves helped.

The two sat down and James unloaded part of the picnic out onto the blanket he had laid onto the floor. The pair began to eat ravenously having not eaten since earlier that evening. They were both quite hungry, hungrier than either one had expected themselves to be. Their conversation was sparse at first and revolved around the food they were eating.

'Gross.' Lily said, pushing a small bowl of fruit towards James, 'Why did you bring raisons?'

'Because,' James said, popping one into his mouth and laughing at Lily's reaction when he did so, 'you said you liked fruit. When we went to that diner in the summer and you pulled that fruit out of your drink I asked if you liked fruit and you said you did. So I brought some fruit.'

'Yeah but raisons aren't fruit.' Lily said, looking at the offending fruit in question. She couldn't stand the tiny wrinkled brown lumps.

'Yes they are.' James chuckled, eating another one of them, enjoying Lily wrinkling her nose in disgust at the raisons.

'They're mouldy grapes!' Lily retorted, believing her case to be iron clad.

'Do you like any fruit?' James asked, suddenly starting to rummage in the picnic basket.

'Yes.' Lily replied.

'Prove it.' James smiled daringly back at her. He pulled out a pear for her to have and held it out for her in the palm of his hand.

Lily stared down at the pear. She didn't like them either. But that didn't mean she didn't like fruit. She did really. She just didn't like it in her drinks or dehydrated. Or pears. Or bananas. She couldn't stand them either. Too mushy. She didn't like peaches either because they were furry and she didn't think it was natural for a fruit to be that furry. Other fruits that made the list were blueberries, oranges, lemons and pineapples because they were too watery, stringy, too sour and sometimes spiky respectively.

James watched her face for a couple of seconds and smiled with a fond shake of his head. 'You don't like pears either do you?'

Lily shook her head slowly, biting her lip. 'But I do like other fruit.'

She went on to tell him that she did like other fruits such as strawberries, apples, raspberries and grapes, all the while thinking this was an extraordinarily weird conversation to have on a date. Still, she guessed that this was the way really close couples got to know each other, how they got to know every single thing about one another so that they knew each other inside out. It was kind of strange but also incredibly sweet that James continued to listen intently to her talk about which fruits she liked or despised. He was drinking it all in as if he wanted to know everything about her strange opinions on fruit. Much to Lily's surprise, they were able to make this in depth conversation on fruit last for twenty minutes. It was only when they topic was exhausted that they moved on.

James leant back on the blanket and announced that it was time for him to dazzle Lily with his extensive knowledge of the stars, constellations and astronomy. They looked up at the sky through the open roof of the astronomy tower. James pointed at random bunches of stars and told Lily the names of the constellations. He told her about the group of stars named Orion and some select stars like Sirius, (the star not his best friend although Sirius would have pointed out that there was no difference), and then the planet Jupiter.

After he had finished his spiel on stars Lily turned to him in surprise and said, 'You really know your stuff. What's that one?' she asked pointing up to a small cluster of stars over to her right. As she couldn't remember anything she had learnt in astronomy a couple of years ago, Lily believed what he was telling her thinking maybe he did.

'That's Mars.' James said confidently.

Lily started to suspect something here. 'Really?' she asked him. She didn't remember a lot from Astronomy but she did remember that Mars shone red in the night.

'No idea.' James conceded with a sigh, 'I've just been making it all up. I don't really know anything about Astronomy. Learnt it all for the O.W.L's, got an O in it and then forgot everything I'd learnt.'

Lily laughed at him. 'Same here.' she said.

'Oh yeah! I forgot you'd taken Astronomy.' James recalled now rather embarrassed and thinking that his idea to impress her with astronomy was completely idiotic. He was kicking himself mentally.

'It was compulsory.' Lily reminded him still laughing quietly. It was rather funny actually. The fact that they had both taken astronomy for god knows how many years and had forgotten everything there was to know about it was funny. What was even more ironic was the fact that they had both gotten O's in it, the top mark, and now knew nothing on the subject. Then there was the added bonus that James had tried to impress her with all the knowledge he didn't have anymore, making a bit of a fool out of himself. Not that he minded. He liked playing the fool. Still, for Lily, it was like the icing on top of the cake.

'Don't know why.' James said, leaning back onto the blanket and resting on his elbows, 'Completely worthless subject.'

Lily smiled at him as he threw a raison up into the air and caught it in his mouth, showing off. After a couple of seconds he smiled cockily back at her and she remembered something that she wanted to ask him. She hesitated at first thinking it over but in the end, decided to go ahead. She reasoned that they were meant to learn about each other on dates and she wanted to learn about this.

'James?' she started, his name dancing on her tongue, 'What did Severus mean at the Quidditch pitch the other day?'

James paused a little and took a deep breath, looking slightly confused. 'Who's Severus?' he asked her daringly.

Lily tilted her head in exasperation. 'Snape?' she said.

'Oh yeah.' James nodded slowly, 'Forgot his name was Severus.'

'That's because you always called him Snivellus.' Lily replied through a slightly tense jaw. She wasn't his friend anymore but she still hated the fact that he was called that ridiculous name. She also hated that the boy she was dating was the one who made up the name and had constantly bullied Severus with it.

'Oh yeah.' James said with a fond remembrance for the taunting name. Then he caught sight of Lily's face and his happy expression dropped. 'Sorry.' he said.

'Anyway,' Lily pressed on, letting it go. After all, she couldn't hold his past against him too much. He had changed. She wouldn't be going out with him if he hadn't. 'What did he mean when he said 'you know what I'm capable of'?'

James looked away for a second, trying to think of a reply. He knew exactly what Severus Snape had meant when he had said that. He had been referring to that blasted charm that he had invented. The charm that he had used on Avery in potions and on James out on the Quidditch pitch one day earlier that year. He remembered Lily's reaction when she had seen Severus use the spell on Avery. She had hid her face in his chest, unable to bear looking at the damage he had caused. He didn't want her to look like that again. The burying her head in his chest thing he liked, but her scared expression when she pulled away he couldn't stand to see again. It scared him that she had been scared. Plus, he hadn't even told Sirius, Remus or Peter what that meant, his three closest friends in the world. They hadn't heard the comment but they had seen the blood from that day. He wouldn't tell them how he'd got it.

'You know,' James said reaching over the small distance between them and drawing a number two with his index finger on her left arm, 'We've been on two dates and both times you've managed to mention Snape.'

'I have?' Lily replied uncertainly, thinking back to their first date, trying her hardest to ignore the butterflies that were flying around in her stomach as he touched her. She did mention Severus' name on their last date. She remembered. She mentioned it when they were talking about their friends.

'Are you still friends with him?' James asked her curiously.

'No.' Lily said certainly this time. She never wanted to be friends with Severus Snape again. She was so relieved that their friendship was over she couldn't put it into words. But she did want to know something. 'Would it matter?' she asked.

James took a deep breath and smiled at her. 'No.' he shrugged, 'It's your choice. You choose your own friends. I'm just happy you chose me to date.' He leant over and kissed her on the cheek noticing the small pink blush that crept up when he pulled away.

After James had kissed her softly on the cheek, inhaling the smell of him, the subtle smell of beech wood, her question about Severus was forgotten.

Noticing that her mind had been wiped clean from the uncomfortable topic of Severus Snape, James thought quickly to change the subject. 'So,' he said, 'I'm curious. What did you do before you came to Hogwarts?'

'I went to school.' she said in an answer, and that started up a long conversation.

James asked her more about the school she had gone to in the muggle world and she told him all about it. She told him about the subjects they had been taught and the teachers she had had. When James asked further on these she explained what every subject was. How maths was similar to the basics of the wizarding subject of Arithmancy. And how English was the study of books, reading and writing. Then there was art, history, science and P.E, the last of which James took particular interest in. She wasn't completely surprised as he was a Quidditch fanatic which was a wizarding sport and, to be stereotypical, a boy. So she told him about all the muggle sports she had been forced to play at school. Football, netball, tennis, badminton and then there was athletics as well. She hated every single sport they had to play but James found them all fascinating to learn about, unable to keep the arrogant opinion that he would 'rule at all of them' to himself.

After he had shown his old self-love and she had rolled her eyes, she went on to tell him about the friends she had made at primary school and that she still kept in touch with a few of them only they didn't know she was at Hogwarts. They thought she was at a private boarding school which wasn't altogether false. James asked more about her old friends and she shared some anecdotes about them with him like the time they had snuck into the reception classroom when they were in year three and her friend got stuck in the doorway of the little playhouse that was in there. How they used to make up strange stories by going around in a circle and saying one line each. And she also told him how when they all went on a school trip to see the seals and she had almost broken her friends hand by squeezing it so hard because she was scared of the boat.

After Lily had shared this, James asked her how she had coped when they first came to Hogwarts and had had to travel across the lake. She replied a little quietly that she had squeezed Severus' hand and then moved on quickly to ask him what he had done before Hogwarts.

James told her that he didn't go to school like she did and how it was his mum and dad who were supposed to teach him how to read and write. Then when Lily had questioned the 'supposed' in his statement, James laughed and told her that they were unable to get him to sit still and stop messing around long enough to do so. He told her many stories about the ways they had tried to teach him and the methods that they had tried but never succeeded in. He told her that in the end, they had resorted to sticking him to the chair, practically tying him up and getting his late uncle to teach him. When Lily asked if it had worked James nodded seriously and said it was the only thing that would because, at that point in his childhood, he was quite scared of his uncle. James' reason for this was that he had huge crazy eyebrows to which Lily laughed endlessly at.

When she stopped laughing James told her about one of his first pieces of accidental magic when he made his uncles eyebrows disappear off of his face and reappear on his knuckles so he could see how scary they were for himself. When Lily asked him what other accidental magic he had done as a child he told her a few examples. He told her about the time his parents had been called into work when they had promised to take him to a Quidditch game and he had made all the door handles in the house disappear. His parents hadn't been able to reverse it for a couple of hours and were late to work. Then he told her about the time he had changed his vegetables into sweets because he didn't want to eat them and the time he had changed the yolks in all of the eggs into Snitches.

Lily then told James about the accidental magic she had performed in school and how she had no idea what had happened at the time. She told him about the time that one of the boys in her class had teased her mercilessly about her red hair, a focal bullying point, and how she had lost her temper. How they had gone outside for break and when they all came in again for lessons, everybody in the class had Lily's red hair. Nobody teased her again after that. She also told him about the way she used to manipulate flowers and nature and James was extremely impressed that she had been able to control her powers from such an early age.

They went on to tell each other various anecdotes about their childhoods. James' stories were full of magic, explaining about the toys wizarding children had like toy-broomsticks and exploding snap cards. When he was telling his stories, he detailed the people in them and the objects as much as possible but never went into explicit detail about his family home and the sheer grand scale of it.

Lily's stories, though not inherently magical to Lily, fascinated James. The stories she told him took place in the summer holidays as she was at school for the rest of the year. She told him about the muggle toys that she had had as a child. The dolls she had owned and the teddy bear collection she had along with her countless books which could probably make up a library of their own. When she had said this James said he would like to see that one day. This made Lily smile and blush, drawing the conversation they were having to a close. Just as well really. It was now four o'clock in the morning and James had a Quidditch practice to run later that morning.

They packed the remains of their picnic away and strolled hand in hand back down to the Gryffindor common room, stopping once again, as they had done on their first date, where the spiral steps to their dormitories began.

James looked into Lily's emerald green eyes, tucked a strand of Lily's deep red hair behind her ear and slowly leant forwards kissing her cheek softly. He whispered good night as he pulled away, his warm breath tickling her cheek and went up to his dormitory to get some sleep ready for his Quidditch practice.

Lily watched him go, her cheeks blushing hotly and a smile on her lips. She had, as before, had a great time, (aside from the awkwardness surrounding the Severus Snape topic). Her smile was kind of half-hearted though, and even though she had gotten to know more about James in the wonderful four hours they had spent together talking, there was one thing she hadn't learnt. Why hadn't he kissed her yet?

* * *

'I don't want to touch it though.' Hestia whined, stepping away from the dragon dung fertiliser that was sat in a pot on the table in front of her. She looked at it with disgust, wrinkling her nose at the smell of it. She would never understand why wizards needed to use such a revolting type of soil to make their plants grow better. She would never understand why people needed to grow plants at all. Yes there were some benefits to certain plants that they had learnt about in Herbology such as mandrakes. She also knew that the plants they grew had magical properties that were used in potions and pastes. But it didn't stop her thinking this subject was pointless and wondering why she had elected to take it in the first place. She hated gardening and everything that went along with it. And that definitely included a certain fire-breathing animal's faeces.

'You have to touch it Hestia.' Lily sighed, digging a small hole in the pot of fertiliser that she had been given. She had no problem with the task they were assigned. They had gloves and she didn't mind gardening. It was sort of calming to her.

'But I don't want too!' Hestia continued to moan, 'I've just painted my nails! They'll get dirty!'

'You've got gloves on!' Lily pointed out incredulously, 'Just do it!'

'Fine.' Hestia replied reluctantly and very moodily. She stepped forwards to the pot and wrinkled her nose at the smell of it again. There was no denying it. It smelt exactly how it sounded. The words on the bag weren't lying. It was definitely dragon dung.

'Eww.' she complained, tenderly putting a gloved finger on top of the fertiliser and making a small hole before leaping back in shock. 'It moved!' she told Lily insistently, 'I swear it moved! Eww!'

'It's not moving!' Lily said, 'We go through this every time! Just dig the hole.'

'I can't! You do it for me?' Hestia insisted pulling out her best puppy dog face.

Lily sighed and, as she had finished digging her hole in her own pot of soil, she consented to do the same for Hestia.

'Thank you!' Hestia smiled happily, extremely elated that she had gotten her own way and didn't have to touch the dragon dung anymore.

As Lily dug Hestia's hole for her, Hestia continued to talk, changing the topic to the Hogsmeade visit that was set to go out that Saturday in three days' time.

'So, remember in third year when we had transfiguration with the Ravenclaw's and there was that one boy who could only turn his goblet into a budgie when we were meant to turn them into crows?' Hestia asked Lily, continuing on when Lily nodded her head. 'Well, I'm going to Hogsmeade with him on Saturday so I can't go with you and Alice. Is that ok?'

'Well look who's suddenly become very popular with the boys!' Lily mocked with a teasing smile to Hestia who was now leaning on the table to the side of her.

'I've always been popular with the boys!' Hestia defended.

'No you haven't you've had one boyfriend and that was only at the end of last year!' Lily said in reply, making the hole she was digging in Hestia's flower pot a bit bigger and very conscious about mentioning what had become a taboo subject between them. It had led to unpleasant things.

'That doesn't mean I was never popular with the boys.' Hestia argued, 'Just means that they weren't very popular with me until then. I was too busy studying.'

Lily gave Hestia a look of derision with a smile on her lips and eyebrows raised.

'Fine.' Hestia resigned, 'I was too busy painting my nails. Better?'

'Much.' Lily said, passing Hestia's pot back to her and moving back to her own so that she could pour the fertiliser potion over the dragon dung to give the plant maximum assistance to grow nice and big.

'Anyway,' Hestia continued, returning to her original point, 'I can't go to Hogsmeade with you this Saturday.'

'That's ok.' Lily said sincerely, 'Go have fun on your date.'

'Don't get me wrong though,' Hestia said with a sly smile, 'You still owe me a butterbeer!'

* * *

It was Thursday night and all the students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry were in bed. The only two students out of bed were the head girl and the head boy. For the first time since they had gotten back to school though, the two students actually had a legitimate reason for being out of bed so late. They were on patrol this time, not sneaking off for a secret date. At least not yet.

'So you put us in for a patrol together.' James smiled, taking Lily's hand and holding it as they both strolled leisurely down the corridors of the empty castle.

'Obviously.' Lily said, pulling her hand away from his reluctantly. It wasn't that she didn't want to hold his hand it was just that she was worried of running into people on their patrols. She didn't want anyone to see them as anything more than the head students of the school doing their duties.

'Is this because you were jealous?' James teased with a smirk at Lily, referring to his comment when they had been making the rotas for the weeks patrol.

'I wasn't jealous.' Lily said succinctly as they turned a corner, ignoring the smirk that James was still flashing her way.

'Yeah ok.' James said in a placating manner.

'So how were your patrols with Megan?' Lily asked James trying to be nonchalant about the question even though she was anything but.

James could tell and smiled at her words. 'You mean patrol.' James corrected, causing Lily to stop in her tracks and look at him in question. James continued. 'Actually it was more like ten minutes of one patrol. She was boring so I ditched her and went to the kitchens with Sirius.'

Lily sighed in half exasperation. Half because there was a part of her which liked the fact that he ditched the other girl. She knew it was only a patrol but it still made her smile inwardly. This still didn't stop her berating James for shirking his responsibilities.

'You're not meant to ditch patrols.' Lily said, 'Especially to go sneaking around the school,which is exactly the kind of behaviour that you're meant to be patrolling to stop.'

'Well then,' James said, taking a step towards her with a mischievous grin, 'Me and you are going to get in a lot of trouble.'

Without a response from Lily, James grabbed her hand and dragged her through the corridors. He ignored her whispered protests that someone might hear them or see them only listening to her quiet badly muffled laughs which urged him on. He led her down flights of stairs and through corridors, their footsteps echoing around the empty halls of the grand castle. It was only when they reached the grand doors of the great hall that he pulled them to a stop.

'What are we doing here?' Lily asked him curiously.

'Our third date.' James smiled, bobbing up and down on his heels excitedly,

Lily raised her eyebrows. 'Nice to know about it!'

'I have to run all my date plans for us by you?' James asked her. It was a rhetorical question so he wasn't really expecting an answer. The only thing was Lily had an answer for him.

'If you want me to go on these dates then yes you do.' she replied.

'But you are on a date with me.' James said mischievously.

'I could leave.' she said in return. She wasn't mad at him for doing this just a little caught off guard and a tiny bit worried that they might get caught. That would be really bad. Lily wasn't ready to tell anyone that they were dating yet. It was too soon. Plus, even though they had had great times on their last two dates, who was to say that things would continue this well? She didn't think she could deal with the added pressure and plus, she liked the secret aspect of how things were. It definitely took the pressure off and adding pressure to her life was the last thing she wanted in her N.E.W.T's year.

'You won't leave.' James said with a knowing smile, 'I know you Lily Evans and once your curiosity is peaked you have to know what's going on.'

Lily thought about this for a second. It was true. Curiosity was one of Lily's downfalls. Her mother always said to her that 'curiosity killed the cat' to which Lily would reply 'well I've used up all my nine lives then and then some'. When Lily's interest was caught, she had to know what was going on. If someone started a race, she'd have to know who won. If someone gave her a present she'd have to find out what it was and if someone started a story she'd have to hear the end of it. It was just who she was. It was probably also the reason why she read so many books. Just reading the blurb off of the back cover wasn't enough information to see if she would like it. She would have to read it cover to cover and then, and only then, would she decide whether it was worth reading.

However, she didn't always view her curiosity as a downfall. It was how she had gotten to know James over the past year. He had peaked her curiosity when he had told her he was full of surprises, a statement which he had never gone back on. Her curiosity hand been further intrigued when Remus had had a go at her for never giving him and his friends a chance. She was grateful for this and was grateful for her curiosity. It wasn't always a bad thing. But then again, there were moments when she cursed her mind for the 'need to know' complex she was born with. This was one of those moments.

Lily sighed and gave in, knowing James was right and that if she walked away now she would forever wonder what could have happened on this impromptu date. 'Ok.' she conceded, 'What have you got planned?'

James visibly relaxed. He had become rather tense while she hesitated and had been hoping that he hadn't screwed things up with her because of his arrogance in thinking she would willingly agree to ditch patrol duties for a date. He winked at her and then opened the doors to the great hall. He took her hand once more and led her up to the high table where the teachers usually sat.

At the top of the great hall, where Dumbledore usually sat and resided over the large school meals, James had lit a few candles and laid out some snacks for two. He had put out some bowls of jelly, his favourite, and exploding strawberry bon-bons because he knew they were Lily's favourites. Along with these he had got an assortment of sweets that they could share like Bertie Bott's every flavour beans and some ice mice. He had thought that as they had both eaten dinner already, all they would really want was some extra dessert. He knew this would be a hit because he knew that Lily had a sweet tooth.

The two sat down behind the table, Lily needing a bit of convincing by James at first as she didn't think that they were allowed to do so. It was only when James assured her that he had done it numerous times and hadn't gotten into trouble that she did so, albeit a little reluctantly. Still, she couldn't deny that this was worth ditching patrols for.

As they both had a lesson the next morning, (Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall. Not really a good idea to be sleepy in her lesson), this date was a lot shorter than their last one. After only a couple of hours, in which they talked about Hogwarts and N.E.W.T's and some of their favourite things like books and music, Lily told James that they should probably call it a night. However, James did manage to persuade her to stay for an extra half an hour, asking her more about her family and what she did at her muggle primary school. After a few more amusing anecdotes from Lily's childhood, she managed to convince James that if they didn't go to bed now, McGonagall would most likely curse them both when they fell asleep in her lesson the next day.

Chuckling at this image, James agreed that it was probably a wise idea to get some sleep, especially as it was almost two in the morning. He sighed, smiled mischievously, got up and offered his hand to Lily in a strange bow. Curious as to what he was doing, Lily took his hand and was immediately whisked into a ridiculous waltz around the teachers table, down the centre of the great hall and around the house tables. James twirled them around endlessly in circles, having no idea how to dance properly, and hummed the Hogwarts School song for music. Lily was laughing breathlessly, carried away in the motion of it, loving the tight but comforting grip that James had adopted around her waist. She was still laughing when he suddenly pulled them to a dramatic halt at the doors of the great hall, and dipped her down like the dancers always did in the cheesy movies Lily used to watch back in the muggle world.

'Aren't I a good dancer?' James asked arrogantly, smiling as he brought Lily out of the dip and twirled her under his arm until they were standing side by side, hand in hand and ready to walk the halls of the school back up to their common room.

'No.' Lily said simply, still laughing at the very fun end to their date.

'I'm wounded!' James said dramatically, holding the hand that was clasped to hers up to his chest dramatically.

Lily smiled fondly at him, feeling his strong heart beat beneath his school shirt for a couple of seconds before her brought their hands down and swung them absentmindedly between them. 'I'm glad you made me do this.' she said sincerely.

'I didn't make you do anything.' James replied honestly, smiling down at her and taking in her emerald green eyes. He loved her eyes. They always shined.

'Yes but you knew that once you told me that you'd arranged something I'd do it.' Lily pointed out, 'I'm too curious!'

'Yes you are!' James replied grinning. Still holding her hand, moved his arm so that it was wrapped around her waist, hugging her to his side. 'But think of all you've managed to get out of me tonight!' James reminded her, referring to the moment in their date where Lily had tried to get him to tell her his favourite childhood story.

'I know!' Lily smiled, thinking over how she had finally got him to spill the beans by looking up at him through her eyelashes and sadly pouting slightly. It worked and he went on to tell her. She had to remember that. 'Who knew that your favourite childhood story was about a hopping cauldron?'

'It's a cauldron with a foot sticking out of it. What's not to love?' James laughed as they turned the corner into the corridor which had the entrance to the Gryffindor common room along it.

'It's not real though is it?' Lily asked as they fast approached the portrait of the Fat Lady who was snoring loudly.

'Actually, most Beedle the Bard stories are.' James said before muttering the password to the Fat Lady who non-committedly waved them in. She'd have let anyone in at this point, James was sure of it. When they were over the threshold of the portrait hole, James continued. 'Not sure which ones are and which one aren't though. All I can say is that I hope The Warlocks Hairy Heart isn't.'

'Why?' Lily asked, turning to face him now as they were at the bottom of the spiral staircases which led to their respective dormitories.

'Because that is the most gruesome story Beedle made up.' James replied, 'My mum didn't tell me about it till I was nine. Even then I wished she'd have waited a bit longer.'

'You're going to have to tell me about that one next time then.' Lily smiled.

James smiled at her in return. 'Perhaps I will.' he said before continuing with a whispered, 'Good night Lily.'

He leant forwards and tilted her chin upwards slightly. Lily's heart began to race as he came closer to her. She closed her eyes and he kissed her…on the forehead.

She stood there in disbelief as James smiled down at her once more and turned to go to his dorm room. On the forehead? Seriously? This was their third date. Surely he should have kissed her by now? She was sure that he should have unless he didn't want to. Did he not want to kiss her?

'Do you just not want to kiss me?' she said after him.

He turned around to look at her with a small surprised smile on his face. 'Excuse me?' he questioned.

'Well,' Lily began, trying her hardest not to sound bossy or clingy or anything she thought he might find unattractive in her, 'it's just that we've been on three dates now and you've kissed me numerous times on the cheek and now even on the forehead which makes me wonder do you just not want to kiss me?'

'I thought we were going to take this slow.' James replied and Lily couldn't read his expression.

'Slow yes not snail's pace though!' Lily said, 'Seriously James, most people kiss on the first date and this is our third and you still haven't-'

But Lily couldn't finish her sentence for James had pressed his lips to hers. After a second of realisation of what was happening, Lily began to kiss him back. Their kiss was passionate and hungry as if they had waited a lifetime to feel one another's lips upon their own. Their lips moved together as if perfectly matched, softly and yet with a burning desire. James' right hand was in her fiery red hair, gently pushing her lips closer to his, searching for permission, which was soon granted, to deepen the kiss. His left hand started on her hip before softly tracing up her curves to her waist and then round to the small of her back, pulling her towards him in a bid to get closer to each other. Also in aid of this, Lily stood on the tips of her toes, giving him better access into her mouth, reciprocating enthusiastically, and winding her arms around his neck, one of her hands making its way into his tousled hair that he was forever messing up.

How long their first kiss lasted they didn't know. It could have been seconds, minutes or hours before they broke apart gently, both their hearts racing and both a tad out of breath.

'You were saying?' James prompted with a delicious smile after a couple of seconds, now holding Lily in his arms which were resting around her waist, his hands clasped together relaxing on the small of her back.

Lily's arms were still wrapped around his neck. Biting her lip she was unable to hold back her smile and a small happy laugh. Not really knowing what to do now, she simply said, 'Good night', stood on her toes once more, and softly pressed her lips to his for just a couple of seconds before withdrawing. She then turned around and, still smiling, unable to wipe the happiness from her face, climbed the spiral staircase to the girl's dormitory.

James sighed happily and watched her go. At this moment he wanted nothing more than to punch his fist up into the air in triumph for he had just kissed the girl he had had his eye on from day one. And what a kiss! But he didn't do this. Mentally yes, he was punching and kicking the air ecstatically, but not in real life. Instead he put his hands in his pockets feeling extremely elated, turned to his right and casually sauntered up the staircase to his dormitory unable to stop grinning. He was going to have sweet dreams tonight.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Next update on 18/04/2013**

**Galindaba**


	49. Chapter 48

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader! Sorry about the late update. Had some problems with the universities internet. This will be the last update for probably a good couple of weeks because I have assesments to do and lines to learn so, when they are finished or I have time, I will update. I promise it won't be too long a gap though.**

**Here's chapter Forty-Eight!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Forty-Eight**

Severus Snape was spending a free period in the library, a place specifically built for the purpose of study, revision, extra work and homework. Any teacher at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry would surely commend him for spending his own free time this way. However, if they knew his reasons for being there, they would be less than impressed for his motives were not admirable to say the least. In fact, they were downright despicable.

He was there to carry out the first stage in his plan. His plan to try and make, to force Lily to see reason. To save her from the careless friendship and alliance she had made with James Potter and his gang. To break the toxic bonds she had made with her other friends, Hestia Jones and Alice Prewett, the girls whose words had poisoned her against him, he was sure. If he was able to do this, to isolate Lily from these people who had turned her against him, she would soon see that he, Severus, was the only one who truly cared. He was the only person who knew her; knew what was important to her and knew what she cared about. He was the only person who understood why she was the way she was and he was the only person who knew what made her tick. He was her only true friend. Knowing this information about her meant that he knew what he would have to do to discredit her so-called friends. He believed he knew how to break her trust in them. All he needed to do was be patient whilst he implemented his plan to do so.

First, he was going to break her trust in James Potter. If he broke that bond then all ties Lily had to that group of insolent boys would be broken. He just needed to show Lily that James Potter hadn't changed. He needed to show her that James Potter was still and arrogant, obnoxious git who didn't deserve her friendship. He had a plan to do this. Today would just be the first step in his plan to discredit Potter. It would also show Lily that James Potter didn't and would never understand Lily's past. It would show that James Potter had no respect for Lily's family ties. You see, Severus' plan was to use Lily's troubled relationship with her sister as ammunition. He was going to do that by stealing something that was extremely close to Lily's heart for it reminded her of a happier time. It was a simple bracelet.

The bracelet that Severus was going to steal was given to Lily when she was nine years old, before she knew she was a witch. It was given to her by her older sister Petunia Evans at a time when they were thick as thieves, best friends and sisters through and through. When Petunia had made it for her, it was three bright strands of brightly coloured purple cotton entwined together in a pattern of knots and braids. Severus remembered Lily telling him about when they were shopping for their school supplies in Diagon alley ready for their first year at Hogwarts…

'_Oh my God!' Lily gasped, rushing over to another stand in the famed wizarding book store Flourish and Blotts, 'Mummy! Mummy look!'_

_The book store was heaving with customers. It was only small and Severus suspected that it had reached full capacity. But that didn't stop more people trying to squeeze their way in through the tiny door. It was packed with children and adults; all there for the same purpose he was - to buy Hogwarts school books ready to start the new term afresh. Most of them, in fact the vast majority of them, would be searching for new books with the least amount of damage on them. Damage caused by frequent handling. Severus wasn't though. He had been searching through the second hand books near the back of the shop. Books which had been donated after past Hogwarts student had done with them, discarding them like tissues. Still, their used tissues benefited him and meant that he was able to buy all his books and still have enough left over for an ice-cream._

_He didn't mind buying his books second hand. Most his stuff was. He had tattered school robes at home which had belonged to his mother. Robes which she had altered to fit him. Still, this didn't hide the fact that they were girls robes. Some of his daytime clothes were hers too. A few cardigans and shirts. But he was used to it. He had been used to it from the moment he was born. People in both worlds, gawping at him for his unusual look and whispering things behind his back, making fun of him. The muggle kids' insults were worse because he knew he was better than them but they would never know it. That's why he felt so lucky that he had found Lily. A girl so sweet and caring. Not boastful that her parents had earned a decent enough wage to buy her brand new school things and not the least bit interested in Severus' tatty appearance. She saw who he was underneath and that's what made her so special. She never judged a book by its cover and that was why Severus loved her. Right from the beginning._

_He could spot her now. Her deep red hair which was cascading down her back, a bright smile lighting up her face and her emerald green eyes sparkling at this new and glorious world that Severus was showing her. A world her family would never fully understand. It was a world which he alone shared with her._

_Severus spotted her family in the crowd. They were plain and boring next to the exuberant Lily but, as Lily came as kind of a package deal with them, (they were a close family…kind of), he had to put up with them. He watched Heather Evans, followed by her husband Richard Evans and their extremely sullen teenage daughter Petunia Evans, walked over to a very excitable Lily. She was jumping up and down on the spot, a great big grin spreading across her face as if she had never seen anything so amazing in her life. Severus loved her smile and went over to join the family to see what Lily had found._

'_Mummy!' Lily said, shoving the book she was holding right under her mother's nose, 'It's called _Saucy Tricks for Tricky Sorts' _see!' Lily continued, pointing to the title of the book happily._

'_I can see that.' Heather said, putting the book back on the stand._

_Lily picked it up again. 'Can I have it please mummy?' she asked her mother sweetly, fluttering her eyelids at a very tired woman._

'_No sweetheart.' Heather sighed, 'We've already bought you seven books which aren't even on your school list. I'm sure you can manage without a book of spells on sauces and whatnot.' she finished, squeezing her daughters shoulder and walking back over to the other side of the store where Petunia had wondered off sulkily._

_As soon as she had gone, Lily's father took the book out of her hands and winked at her. 'I like sauces.' he said before he walked away up to the counter to buy the book for his favourite daughter. He knew he ought not to have favourites but he couldn't help it. Lily was his jewel._

_Lily smiled after her father and Severus leant over to Lily to whisper, 'He does know that's not really a book on sauces right?'_

_Lily laughed, 'No.'_

_Severus laughed as well. He followed Lily as she veered off to look at the book stand that her mother and sister were stood in front of to look at the books behind. As they were stood there, they overheard Heather telling Petunia off._

'_Do stop sulking Petunia!' Heather said, 'Can't you just be happy for your sister?'_

'_Why should I be?' Petunia sniped, 'She's a freak and so is her friend. I can't believe my sisters a freak!'_

'_Petunia Evans don't call your sister names!' Heather disciplined, 'You should be extremely proud of your sister!'_

'_Well I'm not!' Petunia yelled at her mother before running out of the store. Heather followed her, determined to tell her daughter off for making such a scene in public, wizarding or not._

_Lily looked away sadly as her sister stormed away from her. She shifted uncomfortably and absentmindedly thumbed through the book in front of her, taking no notice at what she was looking at._

'_Don't worry about her Lily.' Severus said to her, staring after her horrible sister with a sneer on his face, 'She's the freak.'_

'_No she's not!' Lily protested, walking away from Severus to another stand in the crowded book store._

'_Yes she is!' Severus said as he followed her, 'She's the one who's-'_

'_Don't talk about her like that Sev!' Lily whispered forcefully, tears brimming in her eyes, 'She's right! I am the freak and she'll never be proud of me! She's my sister and she'll never be proud of me!'_

_Severus looked around uncomfortably. Lily's tears had started to spill from her eyes and she was starting to attract a little bit of attention from other people nearby. He saw a girl with frizzy blonde hair and her balding dad staring at them. Severus took Lily's arm and pulled her around a few of the book stands until they were hidden behind a tall stand displaying thick heavy books entitled _Magical Hieroglyphs and Logograms.

'_She's only ever been proud of me once!' Lily sobbed, wiping her nose on her hand, 'Even then she wasn't proud she was just thankful!'_

'_What do you mean?' Severus whispered quickly, wishing Lily would stop crying. It made him really uncomfortable when people cried even if the person who was crying was the person who he loved most in the world. But she was crying loudly. They were hidden from view now but people could still hear her. He wished she would stop._

'_I was nine and it was her birthday present.' Lily began, sniffing again, 'Mummy and Daddy thought it would be nice to redecorate her room for her birthday and they decided they wanted to do it all red. We couldn't afford to do it all at once so mummy and daddy decided to start with the wallpaper. They'd picked it all out and everything. But when they showed her it I saw her face. She didn't like it, she doesn't like red. So I saved up all my pocket money and I went and bought some purple wallpaper for her. Then, the day the decorator came I switched the wallpapers so that he would do her room in purple instead of red. Mummy and Daddy were really mad with me because they'd spent a lot of money on that wallpaper but Tuney was really happy.' Lily sniffed again after her little monologue and then held up her left wrist. 'She made me this afterwards.' she continued, 'Three shades of purple to show that, as sisters, we always know what the other wants and we are as close as the threads and she was proud…well…thankful towards me. I've never taken it off and I never will. If I do…it'll be like losing that bond we had.'_

And true to her word, for as long as Severus had known Lily, she had never taken that bracelet off even though it could hardly be called a bracelet anymore. It was threadbare, hanging on by a ragged and thin strand of cotton. The three purple colours had now meshed into one dirty strand of muggy brown thread. It was almost falling off as it was. Lily had been worried about losing it for years but never had. Severus had never understood why she had never magically reinforced it or cleaned it but now he was grateful she hadn't. Thanks to her wanting to keep it exactly how Petunia had made it, it would be all too easy to severe the broken thread. He just had to be extremely careful when doing it.

He crept around a couple of book cases and peered round the one he stopped behind to look at Lily. She was writing furiously, a smile on her face filled with concentration. That smile meant that she was almost finished writing her essay. Whenever she was happy with an ending she would smile like that. This meant that Severus only had a small amount of time to carefully cut the thread. He took out his wand and crept a little closer to where Lily was sat. He managed to sit at the table just behind Lily, less than a few feet away. Biting his tongue in concentration, Severus pointed his wand at Lily's wrist, squinting his eyes in concentration for if he didn't focus, he could end up slicing her wrist instead. He muttered, '_diffindo' _and almost immediately, the strand of cotton fell apart. However, it didn't fall off of her wrist. Severus would have to wait for her to move for that to happen.

After five minutes, she gathered her stuff and left the library, presumably to go to the potions class that started soon which Severus also needed to go to. Before he left to follow her there though, he walked over to the table she had just left to check if her bracelet had fallen off as she had taken her things. It hadn't. He followed the route she had taken, making sure he was far enough away from her that she wouldn't feel his presence behind her. He spotted the bracelet caught on the sleeve of her robe. He watched it hanging, wondering how he was going to get it off her properly. Thankfully he didn't need to think of a way to do this as when she reached behind her to sweep her beautiful red hair out of her face, it silently dropped onto the floor. She noticed nothing.

Severus let her walk a few feet away before rushing forwards and picking up the bracelet. He clutched it in his hand tightly, his balled up fist ensuring that it wasn't visible to anyone else. He swept down the corridors quickly, his black robes billowing out slightly behind him as he went, his greasy curtained hair doing the same. He rounded the corridors of the school, younger years moving out of his way as he made it down to the dungeons.

Once inside the class room, he surveyed the scene. Lily had sat down next to Sirius Black, her new potions partner for the year, and was rolling her eyes at him. He was kneeling on his chair and practically hugging the table in front of him, shouting loudly about it being 'home sweet home'. James Potter was on the table next to Lily's and he was laughing at Sirius, throwing screwed up pieces of parchment at his head, calling him an idiot. Remus Lupin was sat next to James Potter reading a book but also absentmindedly handing him pieces of parchment to use. Severus hated those three boys and the fact that Lily was only rolling her eyes in a fond manner and smiling hit him like a knife in his side. The Lily he knew and loved would have shouted many insults at them all by now for being so childish. But no matter. Severus would have his Lily back soon. This was only the first step in achieving this.

He walked past James Potter's and Remus Lupin's table to get to his seat, slyly brushing past James' bag as he did so and slipping Lily's bracelet inside. He smiled to himself as he made his way to his table and sat down, getting out his potions book and setting it down. Taking a deep breath, he looked at the scene in front of him again. It wouldn't be like this soon. Soon things would be back to the way they used to be. Lily would think that James Potter and his gang didn't have any concept of family and what it meant. She would think that James Potter stole her bracelet for a laugh and once again see him as the self-obsessed, obnoxious, arrogant toe-rag that he was. She wouldn't like the marauders anymore which would mean that she would once again turn to Severus; her only true friend.

* * *

That evening as James Potter sat down to dinner with his friends, a short way away from Lily Evans, he shot her a wonky smile and a wink. In return, she gave James a winning smile, blushing quietly as she did so. Both of them were thinking back to the previous night when they had shared their first kiss. None of their friends knew this however. Their friends, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew for James and Hestia Jones and Alice Prewett for Lily, knew nothing. They didn't even know that the two were dating as both of them had spun different stories to their friends about moving on from a crush or focusing solely on N.E.W.T's. That's why it was a relief that nobody noticed them smile at each other. That's why it was a relief that nobody else had shared in this moment. James would soon come to wish that someone else had though; namely Hestia Jones.

'Would you do something for me?' he heard Hestia ask Lily as she quickly sat down next to the red head. James could hear an unmistakable urgency in Hestia's voice and wondered what it was all about. He spooned things out onto his plate quietly, listening into Lily and Hestia's conversation whilst ignoring the one that was going on in his own circle of friends.

'Depends on what it-'

'No time for sarcasm here Lily!' James caught Hestia's voice cut across Lily's. He glanced across to the two girls. Hestia's back was to James, showing off her straightened brown hair, and Lily was facing him, her emerald green eyes focused on the girl in front of her. He could see her shocked face clear as day staring at her best friend's rudeness. James heard Hestia continue.

'Would you do something for me?' she said, that same urgency still present in her voice.

James saw Lily hesitated. He could tell she did not like the fact that she was being asked to decide to do something when she didn't know what it was she was being asked to do. He watched her bite her lip and glance around in thought. Suddenly she was looking straight at him so James, who's eavesdropping had been unnoticed by his friends thus far, simply gave a small shrug. Still none of his friends noticed him. Lily looked at him hesitantly but James couldn't figure out why. She then turned back to Hestia who hadn't seemed to notice anything. Then, from the look Lily then gave Hestia, James couldn't help but get a bad feeling. Now he understood what Lily's hesitant expression. She had obviously seen something in Hestia's face which was cause for concern. He couldn't be sure though as he couldn't see Hestia's face but then again, the look Lily was giving was proof enough.

He watched her pause a tiny bit longer before hearing her say with a resigned and reluctant sigh, 'Fine. What do you want?'

'I need you to go on a double date with me.' Hestia announced, causing James, who was pouring some pumpkin juice into his goblet, to suddenly spill some over the table. He was right. That look was cause for concern.

'Dude!' Sirius yelled loudly, shifting in his seat to make way for the small stream of pumpkin juice that was now dripping off the table and onto the small space on the bench that he had created between himself and James. He picked up his hand, which James had also spilt some pumpkin juice on and looked at it in disgust. His expression quickly changed though and he started to happily suck the juice off of his now sticky fingers.

'Sorry.' James said quickly setting down the pitcher of juice he was still holding and whipping out his wand to wipe up the liquid he had just spilt. He hadn't meant to spill it. He wasn't clumsy; his Quidditch reflexes made sure of that. He just hadn't expected to hear what he just did. As his wand ran over the puddle of liquid, the pumpkin juice disappearing as soon as his wand had passed over it, he continued to slyly listen in to Lily's conversation. He was extremely curious to know how she would respond to this proposition. He knew she didn't want people to know they were dating just yet but would she really go so far as to agree to go on a date with someone else just to avert suspicion? Surely not.

'Well…' he heard her begin. He watched her discreetly out of the corner of his eyes. He saw her bite her lip once more and begin to draw circles with her finger on the dinner table, something he noticed she did when she was in an uncomfortable situation or one that made her nervous.

'Why?' she asked eventually.

James snatched a quick terse breath, knowing that this meant that she hadn't been able to find an excuse in that clever little mind of hers not to go one a double date with Hestia. He was now starting to have a horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach. This feeling had distracted him from his surroundings meaning that he hadn't noticed that Sirius, Remus and Peter were now also eavesdropping on Lily and Hestia along with watching James with curiosity. The same curiosity he was watching her with. He was gripped his fork tightly as Hestia gave her reasons for needing Lily to go on a double date with her.

'Because,' Hestia said, starting to talk fast, obviously desperate for a quick reply, 'Sean's friend really likes you and-'

'Whoa wait!' Lily interrupted, 'Who's Sean?'

'My date for Saturday.' James heard Hestia explain. She continued to talk quickly. James had never thought it possible for someone to talk that fast and it was hard for him to catch every word but he tried his hardest and got the gist.

'Anyway,' Hestia went on, 'his friend really likes you and Sean asked me if I could ask you if you wanted to go out with him but I got kind of excited about the whole idea of us going on a double date together and as you said you were over the whole Potter thing I kind of already said yes.'

'Potter thing?' Sirius whispered to James, leaning a bit closer to his best friend to ask the question quietly. That way no one but him and Remus and Peter could hear.

James turned to his friends, now extremely aware that they had been listening to the conversation and watching him. He tried to act nonchalant. 'No idea.' he said quietly, shaking his head and relinquishing the tight grip he had on his fork, realising that that would be a key give away to how he was actually feeling in this topic. He then began eating his dinner slowly. He focused on his plate full of dinner but his eyes kept darting back to Lily and Hestia. If he didn't know that Remus, Sirius and Peter were definitely watching him, he wouldn't have bothered to try and be so subtle. But he did. It was partly to avert suspicion from his already suspicious friends and partly so that he could continue to watch and listen to what Lily had to say. Remus, Sirius and Peter also continued to listen, knowing that James was only actually pretending not to eavesdrop. They weren't stupid.

'You already said yes?' James heard Lily hiss madly at Hestia, 'What were you thinking? I don't even know who this person is!'

'It's Joshua Hunt.' Hestia replied, 'He's that really handsome one with the blonde hair.'

'Not as handsome as me!' Sirius whispered to his friends only to be shushed by Remus who was quite intrigued on this subject. He knew that James had no plans to ask Lily out again, he had told him that the first weekend they had been back at Hogwarts but Lily's behaviour from the Hogwarts express had suggested that she still rather liked him. Personally he thought James was being foolish not asking her out again but it was his decision. However, from James reaction to this conversation, he suspected that he was starting to regret that decision. Maybe this would change his mind.

'Well…' the four boys heard Lily begin. It was almost like a drama. The four boys were waiting with baited breath for Lily's response. But only James knew of the real drama in this situation. 'I'm sorry Hestia but no. I don't want to.'

Across the table, James smirked down at his dinner an expression which didn't go unnoticed by Remus who just rolled his eyes at James behaviour. James however, didn't notice that he had been noticed. He thought he had hidden it quite well and was appearing as if he had no interest in this matter. But what he thought he had shown and what he had actually shown were two different things. This didn't affect what thoughts were whirring around in his head though. In his head he was happily thinking that Lily was obviously having a good time dating him and only wanted to date him. She had said no to a date with someone else. That had just made his day. But it was about to be broken down again.

'Tough.' Hestia said, 'You have to. You said you would do me a favour and I already said yes so you have to go and if you say no I'll hide all your books! And you know I'll do it!'

James' expression dropped. As much as he hated to admit it, that was a very good move on Hestia's part. If there was one thing he had learnt about Lily over the past couple of weeks through their intimate dates, was that she didn't like to be without her books. He had learnt of the huge collection she had at home, which had spread from her room to the attic and living room, and those she had brought with her. She wouldn't want them taken away from her. If she was to stop this from happening she had only one choice. And even though he knew what was coming, her words were still a knife stabbing harshly into his side.

'Fine!' Lily resigned, the tone in her voice portraying the obvious fact that she didn't want to go. It was layered with her feelings of reluctance and annoyance at being practically blackmailed into something she didn't want to do. '_One_ date.' she continued, making it abundantly clear that that was all she was going to do, 'But it's under protest and I'm _definitely _not happy about this.'

'Yay!' Hestia said happily, leaning forwards and hugging her friend thankfully. She rocked back and forth in her hug with Lily, not letting her go for a long second even though it was clear that Lily wanted her to release her grip.

James put down his fork and averted his gaze from Lily's who was trying to look at him apologetically. He reached forwards and picked up his goblet of pumpkin juice breathing deeply and trying to calm himself. The knife in his side was now melting and he couldn't help but start to become a little bit mad at the situation. He knew inevitably she had no choice but it still didn't stop him being ticked off.

'Are you alright?' Remus asked him with raised eyebrows, knowing that he wasn't.

'I'm fine. Why?' James said in a counter question.

'Because,' Sirius started to explain, 'Evans has just said she'll go out with someone who's not you even though you've asked her loads of times but she's always said no-'

'I get it!' James interrupted him, 'But I'm fine. Really.' James shrugged, taking a sip of his juice. As he drank he looked over the top of his goblet to Remus who still had that same expression on his face. The expression that read, 'come on. Really?'

'I'm fine.' James repeated, putting down his goblet and going back to his dinner, 'I told you I was focusing on my N.E.W.T's this year. She can date whoever she wants. I simply don't care.'

* * *

'All right. I care!' James said, throwing his bag onto the desk in the transfiguration classroom where they held their weekly prefects meetings, half its contents spilling out onto the floor as it slid across the desk. Books, quills and ink pots clattered nosily onto the hard stone floor.

Lily followed him into the room and closed the door behind her. She took out her wand and cast a quick charm to lock the door just to make sure no one would walk in on them talking about something that she didn't want anyone to know about just yet, especially as people were already gossiping about her and Joshua Hunt, something which she blamed Hestia for fully. And if anyone heard her talking to James then they would start gossiping about them instead. And people would have a lot more ammunition on that topic thanks to her years of rejecting him. It was something which she just couldn't handle at this precise moment. She hated people talking about her anyway. Didn't they have anything better to do with their lives?

'James it's not a real date!' Lily said trying to placate him. She wasn't denying the fact that he had every right to be upset but she just had to try and make him see it her way. She went over to the other side of the classroom where he had thrown his bag and started to gather up his things and shove them back into it for him.

'Sounds like a date to me.' James mumbled, kicking the desk miserably before turning around, his back to Lily, and leaning back on it with his arms folded and ankles crossed.

Lily finished pushing things deep into his cramped bag and put it on the desk. She then walked around to stand next to him, putting her left hand on his right shoulder and running it once down his arm soothingly until it was placed just above his elbow. 'Look,' she began, looking at her hand on his arm, 'it's not a real date. You and I both know that I am dating you.'

'Yeah but Jones thinks it's a real date.' James continued to say, refusing to see her side of things, his words becoming faster as he went on, 'Jones' date thinks it's a real date and your fake date who's a real date thinks it's a date so it's obviously a real date!'

'James can you please stop using the word date so many times?' Lily laughed, trying to lighten the mood, 'I got none of that.'

'It's a real date!' James said slowly, turning his head to look at her. His arms were still folded. He looked a little bit like a naughty child who couldn't get his own way. He had a slight miserable pout on his face and his eyes kept flickering to the floor. It was as if someone had just taken his favourite teddy bear off him or something.

'No it's not!' Lily sighed exasperatedly leaning on the desk next to him, her hands behind her in support.

'Yes it-'

'Will you shut up a minute and just let me talk please?' Lily interrupted, hitting James on the arm in frustration. If he just shut up it would be a lot easier to explain her side of things. Why she thought that going on this fake date would help her and James in the long run.

James heaved a sigh and carried on looking down at the floor for a couple of seconds his foot jiggling a little bit, slightly agitated and impatient. In the end he looked at Lily at gave her a look which said, 'fine I'm listening.'

'First of all,' Lily said, looking into James' eyes and once more placing her hand on his arm just above the elbow, 'as long as we both know that this date is not in the slightest real, we are ok. Ok? Just because Hestia thinks it's real doesn't meant it actually is.'

James nodded slowly. He was breathing deeply and his moved his tongue to press against his cheek to stop himself saying something he would regret. Instead, he stayed quiet and let Lily continue, hoping that he could bite his tongue long enough to let her finish.

'Second of all,' Lily continued, 'you have nothing to be worried about or jealous of-'

'I'm not jealous.'

'-because Hestia's 'that really handsome one with the blonde hair' statement is not true.' she went on to say, ignoring James' interruption from before. 'He's not even that good looking.'

'Oh please!' James said, 'He's a god!'

'Do you wanna go out him?' Lily replied, finding this comment by James to be a little weird. She heard him sigh again in frustration. When she saw his motion to continue though, Lily carried on. 'All that's going to happen is I go out to dinner with Hestia and a couple of other people. Afterwards I will tell Hestia I don't see it working out and then it will all be over and I can start thinking of ways to…to tell her we're dating.'

There was a slight silence where a smile grew across James' face. She was ready to tell. Well, not tell but think of telling and that was as good as. 'Really?' he asked her. Pulling her round to stand in front of him and face him. He had his arms loosely around her hips and she placed her hands just below his shoulders.

'Yes.' Lily smiled at him, 'I promise that after I pretend to go out with Joshua, I will start to think of ways to tell her.'

James' smile dropped. 'Joshua.' he said as if the name was disgusting, 'That bugs me. His name had to start with a J. He had to take that from me too.'

'Yes because he can control the letter his name begins with.' Lily mocked with a playful frown, 'He did that just to bug you specifically.'

'You're making fun of me.' James said, pulling her a bit closer to him, an annoyed smile growing on his handsome face.

'Yes I am.' Lily smiled staring into his grinning hazel eyes. She tipped his head up a little bit with her forefinger, paused for a slight moment and then softly leant forwards and pressed her lips to his. When she pulled away, she saw him smirking.

'How long you been waiting to do that today then, eh?' he asked her, his cheeky smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

Lily sighed and rolled her eyes. 'You're such a child!' she said, hitting his shoulder gently again as he pulled her closer towards him, a little bit annoyed with him for ruining the moment.

'But you have haven't you?' he continued, still smiling broadly, a teasing twinkle in his hazel eyes, 'Its cause I'm such a good kisser isn't it?'

'Will you shut up?' Lily asked him with exasperation, raising her eyebrows at him as he stood up, his arms still wrapped around her hips.

James moved his hand to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. This time he was the one to initiate a kiss, obviously as a way to prove his own theory about his own skills at kissing. He lifted her head slightly and bent down to meet and cover her lips with his, kissing her softly. His hand moved into her hair as he deepened their kiss, his tongue moving into her mouth. Lily responded and moving her right hand to tangle itself in his messy hair, her other arm, hanging over his shoulder. He pulled away gently after a few seconds and smiled at her as a slow blush crept to her cheeks and a small smile started to show on her lips.

'See?' he said, nodding his head proudly as she shook her head at his way of proving a point.

'No.' Lily replied impertinently unfolding herself from James' arms and shaking her head once more. She would never tell him because his head was already big enough as it was and she didn't wish to inflate it any further, but he was a very good kisser. Now she'd never actually kissed anyone else the way she kissed him and didn't have a frame of reference but even she knew what a good kiss was. It was a natural instinct she supposed. And James was a good kisser. But she couldn't be thinking about that at the moment. She couldn't really allow herself to be distracted by him at the minute because the prefects would be arriving soon and they hadn't started the patrol rota yet.

She was all business now. Lily could go from naught to studying, work or, in this case, business, in less than sixty seconds. She dragged James over to the table so that they could start work on the rota.

'So,' she said, getting out the timetable and setting everything up ready to write, 'which patrol do you want?'

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**Thanks for reading**

**Galindaba**


	50. Chapter 49

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader! **

**Here's chapter Forty-Nine!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Forty-Nine**

Lily woke up the next morning with a knot of dread in her stomach. She reluctantly opened her eyes and let them adjust to the light that was now flooding into the dormitory. Then, with a sigh at the events that she knew must transpire that day, she sat up and rubbed her eyes with her left hand, yawning as she did so. When she opened her eyes, she spied her wrist and brought it down to rest on her covers, looking at it with a deep curiosity. Something was wrong with this picture. She stared down at her own wrist, tracing the one visible vein with her forefinger. She felt her pulse beat beneath her fingers, slow and steady, and that was when she realised what was missing.

Her eyes widened worryingly and she jumped out of bed quickly. This alerted Hestia to a problem as Lily usually never wanted to get out of bed. She had often said that she would stay in her pyjamas all day if she could. This was why Hestia knew something was wrong. She watched Lily tear apart her bed covers, throw her pillows on the floor and search under and around her bed chaotically. It was only when she knocked the candle lamp off of her bedside table though, the small wax candle bursting free from its glass cage and rolling under the bed, that Hestia posed a question to her.

'What are you doing?' she asked her, getting out of bed also to go and stand near Lily.

Lily had, by this point, pulled all the drawers open in her dresser, even going so far as to pull the bottom one out completely to rifle through it hurriedly. She had now moved onto her trunk, pulling that out from underneath her bed and heaving it onto her unmade bed.

'I've lost it!' she said in a blind panic, undoing the buckled latch on her trunk and flinging the lid open to ruffle through the debris of broken quills, odd socks and unused textbooks in a desperate attempt to find her prize.

'What have you lost?' Hestia asked, bending down and packing Lily's clothes back neatly into the drawer she had pulled out onto the floor.

'My bracelet!' Lily breathed, now grabbing her bag from the foot of her four poster bed to empty it into her open trunk, 'Almost eight years and now I lose it!'

She held her bag up in the air upside down and just let everything drop out. Pieces of parchment flew out and floated down onto the floor. As they landed Hestia did her best to gather them up quickly and stack them on Lily's bedside table before moving on to clear up the rest of the mess that Lily's destructive search had made. She bent down to pick up Lily's school bag, which she had just haphazardly tossed into the middle of the room, and moved over to stand next to her. As Lily searched through its contents which she had spilt into her trunk, she threw them out onto the floor, but only after she had made sure her bracelet wasn't caught in the folds of her books or around her quills. Sighing, Hestia went around and gathered them all back up in her bag. When she was done, she put it on the edge of Lily's bed and tried to get an explanation out of her.

'What bracelet have you lost?' she asked her, holding her still by gripping her shoulders firmly.

Lily pushed out of her grip frustratedly and got down on all fours to search under her bed again. 'The one Petunia made for me.' she said, now crawling under her bed in an effort to make her search more thorough.

'That brownish string you wear?' Hestia questioned, kneeling down at the side of Lily's bed and placing her hands on her knees.

'It's purple but yes.' Lily said, coming out from under her bed and sitting back on her heels.

She faced Hestia, mirroring her position. She was slightly out of breath from her frantic search and decided to pause for a moment to think where it may have fallen off. She knew it must have fallen off because she had never physically taken it off herself. She never would because, as sappy as it sounded, that bracelet was a link to the sister who had once loved her. And after wearing it for so long, it had almost become an extension of her. But, she had to admit it, she had had it for a long time and it was extremely threadbare so it wasn't a complete surprise that it had fallen off.

She couldn't remember the last time she had seen it on her wrist. It had been there for so long she had just always assumed that it was there. It had gotten to the stage where she hadn't noticed its movements, tightness or slight weight on her wrist. It could have been missing for days, weeks even and she might not have noticed. It could be anywhere in the castle. Then again, it might not even be in the castle. She could have lost it at home and have been none the wiser. A horrible despairing feeling lodged itself in her stomach, replacing the knot of dread she had first felt when she woke up.

'I don't know where I lost it.' she announced, an emptiness in her voice which couldn't be explained.

Hestia stayed quiet for a couple of seconds out of politeness before saying, with just the right amount of sympathetic tone in her voice, 'Well there's not much we can do about it now. You've torn the room apart and it's not here so I say let's leave it for now. Ok?'

Lily took a deep steadying breath and miserably nodded her head.

'Now,' Hestia continued, returning to her excitable nature, a smile drawing on her lips, 'it's nearly ten o'clock and we have dates!' She clapped her hands together happily and grinned at Lily but, upon seeing her less than pleased expression, stopped. 'Come on Lily!' she went on to say, standing up and helping Lily up also, 'Be happy! This is your first date ever! And I'll be there too! What could be better?'

At this Lily cracked a small smile and shook her head slightly. She did this for two reasons. The first reason was because there was a poetic irony in her sentence. Hestia fully believed that this would be the first date Lily ever went on in her life and this was exactly how it would appear to the outside world as well. But that was false. She had already been on a first date. And a second. And a third. And more after that. And she had had a first kiss. And a second. And a third. And many more after that too. But Hestia knew none of this and that was the irony.

The second reason she was shaking her head and smiling was because she was starting to recognise her old friend in there. The one that was happy-go-lucky and enthusiastic about practically everything. She was starting to see the friend which had encouraged her to tell James Potter that she liked him instead of the one that warned her away from the idea of a relationship with him. It was nice to see. Ever since Hestia's first boyfriend, Matthew something cheated on her and she broke up with him she had become depressive and cynical. She was boring and annoying to be around and Lily had wished that she would just lighten up. Now she had and Lily was relieved to see it. For this reason, Lily decided to try and enjoy herself today. To grin and bear it until it was over. She owed Hestia that much.

'Fine.' Lily said, trying to sound as happy as Hestia was about it.

'Yay!' Hestia practically yelled, jumping up and down as she did so. Then, she was the one to go into a mad frenzy although it was a different mad frenzy to the one Lily had previously been in. She raced over to Lily's chest of drawers and pulled out a nice flowery summer dress and shoved it in Lily's hands before flurrying around her own wardrobe trying to decide what to wear. She threw half her wardrobe on her bed and then stood in front of the long mirror in their room, holding each item of clothing against her in turn to see how it looked.

Lily pulled on the dress Hestia had picked out for her, deciding that she would only wear it to appease her friend. Really she wasn't too keen on the idea of going on a fake date with nearly all of her legs showing because of this low cut dress. She'd have loved to pull it up a bit more because it was low cut in more than one place, but if she did that it would be less of a dress and more of a top. Still, she put up with it for Hestia. She didn't want her to go back to being moody.

She was ready in ten minutes. Dress on, shoes on, hair done, teeth brushed, perfume and deodorant on and, (after persuasion from Hestia), make-up done. Hestia was nowhere near ready though. At one point she had finally picked an outfit, a brown skirt and a cream top, but had then decided against it as it was boring and she had no nail varnish to match that outfit. She took another half an hour to get ready in which time Lily finished the transfiguration essay they had been set, read the next chapter in her charms book, searched again for her bracelet and wrote a letter to her mum asking her to check the house. She was about to start reading her Defence Against the Dark Arts book when Hestia finally announced that she was ready.

The two girls walked down the spiral staircase and came into the common room which was relatively empty. There were a couple first years sat in the corner and some second years sat in a line against the far wall. Then there were a few of third years, who obviously didn't have permission to go to Hogsmeade, sat on the sofas and chairs around the majestic fireplace. Lily was sure that's where they would have stayed if they hadn't been silently ousted by a group of boys she didn't particularly want to see at this precise moment.

Remus, Sirius and Peter crossed in front of Hestia's and Lily's path first, taking no notice of them. They went to sit down in the comfortable seats around the fire place, gesturing for a couple the third years already sat there to move which they did willingly and without hesitation. As they sat down with their backs to her, Lily thought that she and Hestia were in the clear to slip out without the boys spotting them but she wasn't that lucky. As soon as they made to step of the spiral staircase, James walked past them and they were noticed.

He looked at Lily, his eyes raking over her. 'Hey.' he said uncomfortably.

'Hey.' she replied, shifting nervously from one foot to the other.

They looked at each other for a couple of seconds before James walked away and silently ousted the Gryffindor third year out of his seat. Lily watched him go. She knew that he was uncomfortable with the situation from the stony expression he had on his face and wishing there was another way she could think of to do this. She knew what other people would say; just don't go on the date. But it wasn't that simple. Things weren't that black and white. There were grey areas that came with keeping something a secret and this was unfortunately one of them.

Hestia, annoyed that this had happened, took Lily's elbow and led her to the portrait hole whispering, 'Just ignore him' as they went. Lily didn't reply to this, once again seeing the irony in Hestia's words and just allowed herself to be dragged out of the common room and into the hall where Hestia told her once again to ignore James Potter. She spent five minutes reminding Lily why it was a good job that she had moved on from her little crush and how this date was a good thing before looking at her watch and deciding that they should go and meet the boys.

As she and Hestia walked down to the entrance hall, all Lily could think of was James' face and how this was hurting him. She ignored Hestia's excited babble and became enwrapped in her thoughts. She remembered the slight twang of jealousy that she had felt when he had decided to go on a patrol with the Hufflepuff prefect Megan. She couldn't help but feel that the jealousy he was feeling would be magnified tenfold, no matter how much he denied it. He may not admit that he was jealous but Lily knew he was.

She was shaken out of her thoughts when Hestia tugged her arm excitedly and pointed over to the doors of the entrance hall where two tall Ravenclaw boys were standing. The one closest to them, Sean McEvoy, Hestia's date, was tall and had perfectly combed brown hair which seemed to be heavily gelled into position. His eyes were a deep shining blue and had a twinkle in them which was similar to Dumbledore's. He was wearing grey trousers and a green striped shirt which seemed to be without creases. Stood next to him was the boy which was supposed to be Lily's date and Hestia and James were right; he was a god. He was very similar to Hestia's date only he seemed to have taken it one step further to perfection.

Joshua Hunt was extremely attractive. Conventionally, he was exceptionally handsome, even more handsome that James. Joshua had golden blonde hair which was smoothed down and combed, gelled into place but not so much that you could tell whereas James had constantly messy jet black hair which stuck up in all directions. Still, Lily preferred his hair to Joshua's. You could run your hands through James' hair but Joshua looked as if he might slap your hand away if you so much as dared to try. Joshua had ice blue eyes which sparkled nicely in the sunlight. Lily thought his eyes were actually alright but still couldn't stop herself drifting into thoughts of James' warm and inviting hazel eyes which could make you melt with one look. The look in his eyes could make a complete stranger spill their life story. Lily doubted if the look in Joshua's eyes could.

As Hestia and Lily neared the two boys, Lily couldn't help but to continue to make comparisons between Joshua Hunt and James Potter. Joshua had a straight nose and steely stone lips along with a chin which looked as if it had been sculpted by a master craftsman. Again, Lily couldn't help but think back to James. Yes Joshua was more conventionally attractive with perfectly chiselled features but James had something about him. His nose was straight too but his lips were soft and inviting and his chin, although not sculpted out of marble like Joshua's clearly had been, was masculine and, well, normal. James was more ruggedly handsome with a mischievous personality which shone through his appearance and Lily could see why he was the one with girls trailing after him instead of Joshua.

They arrived in front of the two boys and Hestia hugged Sean in greeting. Lily didn't hug Joshua. She did give him a polite smile though which he returned causing her to blush slightly. If someone that handsome smiled at you, it would be a natural reaction. Add Lily's red headed complexion into the mix and it was no surprise that her cheeks were soon powdered with a faint pink blush.

'Shall we go then?' Sean asked, a smooth Irish accent flowing out which made Hestia smile greatly.

Lily rolled her eyes at this as they started to walk over to join the crowd of students waiting to go down to Hogsmeade. Hestia had always had a thing for accents. It was clear to her now why Hestia had been so excitable about this date and why she had readily accepted a date for Lily as well. She would have done anything if someone with an accent had asked her to. It was her one weakness. Or at least it was her biggest weakness.

'Lily?' Hestia said through gritted teeth, a smile painted on her face, 'Joshua just asked you a question.'

'Huh?' Lily said, only just realising that she had been in a daze filled with her own thoughts about Hestia's weakness for accents.

'Sorry.' Hestia said to the boys, apologising for Lily's space out, 'She's lost a bracelet which meant a lot to her.'

'Oh no.' Joshua said, turning to Lily with a sympathetic expression which looked as if it had been practiced for hours in the mirror, 'Was it worth much?'

Lily looked at him astounded that that was his first question; the bracelets worth. As if the more expensive the bracelet the deeper the loss should affect her. 'It wasn't worth anything.' Lily replied a bit defensively, 'My sister made it for me.'

'Well can't she make you another one?' he asked her stiffly in response to the tone that she had given him.

'Oh yes!' Lily replied sarcastically, 'I'll just write to the sister who's hated me since I got my Hogwarts letter and called me a freak at every available opportunity she's had, _just _to ask her to remake me the bracelet she probably doesn't even remember making me in the first place. How's this sound; Dear Tuney, sorry to interrupt your wedding plans but I lost the bracelet you made me when I was nine. Be a dear and make me another one will you? Lots of love, Lily.'

Joshua stiffened and turned away from Lily, obviously not liking the way she had just spoken to him. Again, it was up to Hestia to make apologies for Lily, only this time, she made it out to be that Lily was making a joke.

'Ha, ha!' she laughed, hugging Lily in such a way that her hand covered her mouth so she couldn't retort sarcastically, 'She's joking! Always likes a bit of a laugh but she's got a strange sense of humour I tell you!'

'Obviously.' Joshua replied, regaining the calm composure he had had when he had first greeted Lily.

The four of them stood in an awkward silence for a few minutes until Filch and Professor Flitwick arrived to sign them out and take them all down to the village respectively, a safety precaution put in place after the Hogsmeade visits were reinstated last school term. As they started to follow the crowd down to the village, Sean started up a conversation with Hestia who chatted back to him excitedly, leaving Lily and Joshua in the awkward silence by themselves. After a couple of minutes in thought, Lily decided she should probably apologise for the way she had spoken to him for Hestia's sake. After all, she was really excited about this date and, even though Lily knew there would be no future for her and Joshua because she was really dating James, she didn't want to ruin the double date for her.

'I'm sorry about earlier.' she said to him as they went through the large school gates, 'I just get a bit defensive when it comes to my sister.'

'Well that's pretty clear.' Joshua replied in a tone which reminded Lily a bit too much of Vernon Dursley, Petunia's fiancé. In fact, the air Joshua gave out reminded her of him a lot and not in a good way. She was reminded of the person she had met at Christmas and several times during the summer holidays; the man who despised her for not only being a witch, but for being someone who he considered to be his social inferior in every possible way because her family did not have as much money as his family. Unfortunately, Lily found that most people with a substantial amount of money had a snootiness about them and looked down their nose at her. Lily got this same feeling off of Joshua. Still, Lily tried to make an effort with him.

'So you're muggleborn like me then?' Joshua asked Lily, pulling her out of her thoughts.

'Yes I am.' Lily replied as they walked down the declining slope to the storybook village.

'What do your parents do?' Joshua continued his tone almost interrogatory.

'My mum works part-time in the post office and my dad's an accountant for a little firm just outside London.' Lily said in a polite manner, trying to smooth over the awkwardness in the air between them.

'Oh.' Joshua sniffed, 'My dad runs one of the banks in London. He's quite high up. Not as far as owning the bank or being the president of it. No. He's merely the manager but gets quite a nice bonus at the end of the year. My mother has a good job too. She's a nurse. Of course she doesn't earn as much as my dad but she doesn't really need to. She only works because she likes the job.'

'Good for them.' Lily replied, rolling her eyes slightly at his monologue which answered all of the questions she didn't ask. For the rest of the trip down to the three broomsticks where they were to have their date, Joshua continued on to bore Lily with the details of his father's job and how, when he was younger, he had hoped to follow him into the business. He then went on to tell her that, as he would now need to get a job in the wizarding world, he wanted to work at Gringotts in a position similar to that of his fathers in the muggle world. It seemed to Lily that his life revolved around the bank and money instead of friendship, truth, loyalty or even love. It bugged her.

They soon arrived in the three broomsticks and Hestia led them over to a table for four in the far corner. As they sat down Joshua put his arm around the back of her chair and the smell of him started to seep out. He smelt like the Hogwarts library and, although Lily loved the library and had spent an awful lot of time in there over the years, she wasn't sure that it was a good thing to smell like the place. She could smell the dust from the older library books and the stale leather from the more prestigious ones. It wasn't a particularly pleasant smell and Lily had to stop herself from physically edging away from him. All she could say was that she was thankful when he was elected to go to the bar and order the drinks for the table.

When he returned, Joshua continued to prattle on with his one-sided conversation about his father's extremely important job. Lily swore that if he hadn't been so handsome and had more than tripled in size she would have been on a date with her sister's fiancé. Only the conversation would have revolved around drills instead of the bank. She had only seen Vernon one Christmas and a few days in the summer but she was sure this was all he had ever talked about. How Petunia had gotten to know anything else about him she wasn't sure. She wasn't sure how Hestia expected her to get to know anything about Joshua when all he talked about was the bank. Whilst he continued to prattle on, she drifted back into her own little world. _Drills or the bank? _said a little voice in the back of her mind. She wasn't sure which one she thought to be worse.

She stared at Joshua with fascination as he continued to talk, still in her own little world of thought. He probably assumed it was fascination in their conversation but that simply wasn't it. Lily was fascinated because she couldn't believe that two people from completely different worlds could be so alike. Also, how was it that neither of them, Joshua or Vernon, knew how unbelievably boring their topics of conversation were? It astounded her that they were both unaware of this. Surely someone would have told them by now? The only saving grace Lily found was that he was easy on the eyes. But then again, she couldn't help but experiment and found that if she squinted her eyes hard enough, he did dissolve into Vernon Dursley. Lily soon stopped this though for two reasons. It freaked her out for one and for another she was pretty sure she looked extremely weird whilst doing it. Joshua was giving her some unusual looks

The drinks that Joshua had ordered, three butterbeers and a pumpkin juice for Lily as she didn't feel as if she wanted a butterbeer arrived at the table via madam Rosmerta. The group thanked her and, when she left, they all began to talk as a group. Lily was thankful for this as it got Joshua off of the subject of his father and the bank. She mostly spoke to Hestia through their conversation as a group as everything that came out of Joshua's mouth dripped with the impression that he was better that everyone else. She had been with him for less than ten minutes and she already didn't like him. She thought that that must have been a new record but then she remembered that she had loathed James after two minutes of meeting him. Again, Lily saw irony in this as she was now actually wishing she was with him instead. It seemed to be an irony filled day. However, little did she know that there were forces working beyond her power to try and make this happen.

A flurried figure appeared at the side of their table panting as if he had just run a marathon. It was James Potter and Lily seemed to be the only one who was happy to see him. Sean, (Hestia's date) had given a worried look upon spotting him, glancing over to Joshua who looked as if he wanted to kill him. But that was nothing compared to the thunderous face of Hestia, completely irked that James was now ruining their double date. Lily didn't look at James with any of these expressions though. She smiled when he arrived, her first proper smile all day. To her, he was a sight for sore eyes.

'Good! I've found you.' he puffed leaning on the table and talking to the four people sat there as a whole. Before he went on to say anything else though, before he explained the reason why he was interrupting Hestia's perfectly planned double date, he did politely say hello to everyone which was very nice of him in Lily's opinion.

'McEvoy. Jones. Hunt.' he greeted nodding at each one of them in turn, 'Really sorry about this but I need to steal Evans away from you. I need her help.' James continued on, using her last name as a way, Lily assumed, to avoid arousing suspicion.

'Why?' Hestia asked, through gritted teeth, 'We're on a date.'

'You and Evans?' James continued, still a little out of breath, 'Glad you've made it official.'

'No.' Hestia went on to say as if she was explaining something to a toddler, 'With these gentlemen here.' She motioned at Sean and Joshua, that latter of which still looking as if he was ready to pounce on James.

'How sweet.' James said, with a forced smile before turning to Lily, 'This your drink?' he asked her, pointing to the goblet in front of her.

Lily nodded and James picked up the clear goblet of pumpkin juice and took a few gulps to regulate his breathing. He had run all the way from Hogwarts and had forgotten to breathe whilst doing so. It was enough to get anyone out of breath.

'Thanks.' he said, setting it down. 'I need your help.' he said to her.

'Why?' Hestia butted in, determined to know what was so important that he had to ruin the date she had planned for her, Lily, Sean and Joshua. This was all very rude.

'If you give me a minute I'll explain!' James said to her running a hand through his hair in annoyance about the fact that Hestia wasn't making it easy to interrupt the date, 'One of the corridors in Hogwarts has…well it's like sinking sand.'

'What?' Lily asked curiously, a frown appearing on her face, 'What does that mean?'

'Well, let's put it like this.' James began, standing up fully now and attempting to demonstrate the situation at the castle with his hands, 'You're walking along the fifth floor, turn into this corridor and suddenly you fall down onto the fourth floor. Pete broke his wrist. The injuries would have stopped there only Sirius was laughing a lot and didn't really notice what was going on. Came as a real surprise to him when I pushed him through the floor. He broke his leg. Not sure when I'll hear the end of that one. Anyway, we don't know how to fix it and since your better at charms than us and we can't find Flitwick, we need your help.'

Lily sat and listened to James' story in shock, as did Hestia, Sean and Joshua. That wasn't really what she had expected. She wasn't actually sure what she had expected but it definitely wasn't that.

'Wow.' she said, 'That actually sounds like a real problem.'

James paused for a moment before answering with, 'It_ is_ a real problem and I need your help with it. Will you come and help me please?'

'I suppose I have to really.' Lily said, trying to sound annoyed but failing miserably. Her happiness at being able to leave her dreadful date shone through and she was unable to stop a smile peeking out.

She stood up and turned to politely apologise to Joshua who still looked as if he might kill James for stealing his date, and left the three broomsticks. James followed her out but before he did, he couldn't resist smiling and waving goodbye dumbly at Joshua Hunt. It was childish of him but it made him feel better.

Together, James and Lily made their way back up to the castle, Lily's first question being, 'So is the floor at Hogwarts really sinking or did you just make that up to get me out of the date with Joshua Hunt?'

'No.' James said innocently, shoving his hands in his pockets in his usual way, 'The corridor is really sinking. Getting you out of that date was just an added bonus.' he continued, flashing a cheeky smile at her.

Lily laughed and shook her head fondly at him. 'What idiot tries to sink a floor?' she asked, her laugh turning into one of disbelief.

'And here I thought you'd be pleased!' James replied dramatically, sniffing once and clutching his hand to his heart.

Lily stopped in her tracks to look at him, trying to work out if he was joking or not. He was head boy now. He couldn't still go around pulling this kind of nonsense could he? She thought that he had actually stopped this childishness. He'd had no detentions so far which was a miracle, but maybe it was just because he hadn't been caught yet. She didn't know. She had to ask. 'You didn't?' she questioned.

James pondered this for a moment before responding with a mischievous smirk, 'For you I'm gonna say no.'

'James!' Lily said, hanging her head despairingly as they continued on their way up to the castle.

'So how was your date?' James asked her, quickly changing the subject.

'Oh I can't stand him.' Lily said straight away, glad for a change of subject and an opportunity to voice her real opinions on Joshua Hunt instead of the fake ones she would later have to give to Hestia, 'He was so boring. He reminded me too much of my sister's fiancé except, instead of talking about drills, all he talked about was the bank and money.'

'What's a drill?' James queried, inside clapping his hands happily that Lily didn't like Joshua at all by the sounds of it.

'It's a DIY tool.' Lily said quickly, brushing this aside and continuing with her rant about Joshua, and by extension, Vernon. 'He does this thing that Vernon did every time he saw me this summer, where he looks down his nose at me because he thinks that I'm somehow inferior to him because his family has a higher standing in the community and their own business and a bit of money to go along with it. Joshua did that too. All he would talk about was his dad and the bank and how much he earned. How much you earn doesn't matter because as long as you're nice enough to people and treat everybody the same. Who cares right? But it was like his life revolved around how much money his family had and that really bugged me.'

James listened to this with a small smile on his face whilst a mixture of feelings ran through him. He actually found the most part of it funny. The way Lily ranted on about her soon to be brother-in-law and sounding as if she'd been holding back those opinions for a while. That made James chuckle fondly because he actually liked it when she ranted on. He kind of liked it when annoyed Lily come out to play. He was also feeling rather elated that she obviously didn't like Joshua. The thing that was bothering him was the fact that Joshua obviously came from a wealthy family which annoyed Lily. Not the fact that he had money. No, no, no. Just the fact that it was all Joshua seemed to care about.

Now James didn't care about money. He had always had it and it had never been an issue but his life didn't revolve around it. He wasn't the sort of person to give off an 'I'm better than you because of it' air. He hadn't been brought up that way and right now, he was glad of it because people like that seemed to bug Lily. He was also glad of the fact that he had never mentioned to her how wealthy his family was now. Maybe later, that would work in his favour because it would show that, even though James could be extremely arrogant, he was never arrogant about money. No, he believed that if you wanted to be arrogant about something it should be a talent. Like Quidditch. He was good at Quidditch and he had no qualms about admitting it.

They soon arrived at the castle and Lily had been ranting about how boring Joshua was for the short walk back from Hogsmeade village. James didn't mind but now he actually needed her help and led her upstairs to the fifth floor corridor where Remus was waiting.

When they got there, Lily briefly said hello to Remus and then looked at the floor in front of her. 'It looks completely normal.' she said, unable to see anything wrong with it.

'Why don't you walk on it then?' Remus suggested from where he was sat leaning against the wall with a book in his hands.

'Ha.' Lily laughed, 'No thank you.' She opened up the bag she had with her and briefly rooted around in it for something to drop into the sinking corridor. She finally found a spare hairband and flung it into the middle of the corridor where it immediately sank through to the floor below. She nodded her head and then turned to James in need of a full explanation. 'So what did you actually do?' she asked him with raised eyebrows.

'Well we were trying to place a sticking charm on the floor and-'

'Trying?' Remus interrupted, 'We succeeded.'

'Ok.' James replied and started again, 'We placed a sticking charm on the floor. Better?'

'Much.' Remus laughed, returning to his book whilst James continued on to explain their situation.

'We placed a sticking charm on the floor and to make sure it worked, we sent Peter out to test it but…he got stuck.' James said.

'Really?' Lily said sarcastically, 'He got stuck on a sticking charm? Well that's new!'

'Anyway,' James powered through, ignoring Lily's sarcasm, 'we couldn't get him unstuck without unsticking the whole corridor. So, being the great friends that we are, me and Remus applied the reversal charm. What we didn't realise was that Sirius had tried to make the floor bouncy at the same time. The spells collided and…well…Peter fell through the floor.'

'And broke his wrist?' Lily questioned.

'Yes.'

'Then you pushed Sirius through the floor?'

'Yes.'

'Why?'

'Just to test it out.' James said innocently, 'And he has a really annoying laugh…It's like a bark…'

Lily sighed and rolled her eyes. 'So what happened next?' she went on, almost as if she was conducting a police interview.

'Well, I told Remus to stand guard and make sure no one else fell through…well no one else who we liked fell through, while I went to check on Sirius and Peter and then get some help.' James said in the form of a statement, 'I took Sirius and Peter to the hospital wing and then went down to the village to find you.'

'And what about you?' Lily questioned Remus, looking around James to see him clearly.

'Well,' Remus said, closing his book but making no attempt to stand up, 'I stood guard for a while. Then I got bored of that so I sat guard. Then you two were taking an awful long time so I started to read. Oh and I think a couple of younger kids dropped through the floor.'

'What?' Lily demanded, astounded that Remus Lupin had let that happen to people in younger years.

'Well I heard screams as they fell so I assume that's what happened.' Remus continued nonchalantly as if this was an everyday occurrence which didn't matter.

Lily clapped her hand to her forehead. 'Why did Dumbledore ever make you a prefect and you head boy?' she said exasperatedly.

'Not sure.' Remus responded, flicking through his book.

'Actually I asked him why he made me head boy.' James pointed out much to the astonishment of both Remus and Lily, 'He said he thought the reason was obvious.'

'So he's gone barmy then?' Remus inputted.

'Well we knew it would happen one day!' James laughed.

'We still need to fix the floor!' Lily interjected, gesturing to the floor in question.

'Oh yeah!' James said, shaking himself back into reality and the problem they had at hand, 'Well we don't know a lot about how to-'

'PRONGS!' Sirius yelled happily from the other side of the corridor, 'I'M HEALED! YOU CAN STOP CRYING NOW BECAUSE I AM-AHHHH!'

'He fall down again?' Remus asked, again nonchalantly.

'Yeah.' James sighed, 'I'll go get him.' And with that he turned around to head to the corridor below leaving Lily to try and fix their mess.

* * *

**Thanks for reading**

**Galindaba**


	51. Chapter 50

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader! **

**Here's chapter Fifty!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Fifty**

No one could fix the corridor. There was an announcement at breakfast the following morning warning students to stay away from the fifth floor whilst Professor Flitwick tried to find a way to reverse the spells that the marauders had cast to sink the hallway. This didn't stop people wandering up there though. Most were curious to see if the marauders had actually managed to sink the floor. It was only when they fell through and broke something, meaning they had to be carted off to see Madam Pomfrey, that they believed it to be true. Sometimes James and Sirius encouraged the younger years to go and test it out. Every time they did this though, they earned themselves another detention. By the time they got bored of this they had racked up a total of twenty-eight detentions adding to the one that all the marauders were to serve for sinking the corridor in the first place. They served this detention on Wednesday night.

The detention was to take place in Professor Linkedin's office; the new Defence Against the Dark Art's teacher. This was very unfortunate for her as Sirius Black had taken it upon himself to torture her since she set homework for them on their first day back at school. He disrupted all of her classes, not just the ones he was in but her other classes too. He did this by sprinkling sneezing powder in all of the text books. Replacing all the ink in her ink pots with butterbeer and replacing all her quills with sugar quills so that even if she did find some ink she was still unable to write. And he stacked up all of the chairs in the classroom using a permanent sticking charm on the all so they couldn't be unstacked, (James' idea). He did many other little things as well, sometimes aided by James, sometimes solo. As he had said on that first day, giving homework was a good way to make some enemies. And she had made an extremely annoying and abnormal one in him.

'Professor. Professor. Professor. Professor. Professor. Professor. Prof-'

'Yes Mr Black?' Professor Linkedin said through gritted teeth, almost pulling her hair out. He had been doing this for the past half an hour and James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew were doing nothing to stop him. In fact, they just sat there laughing, annoying her further.

'Nothing.' Sirius said, sitting back in his chair and swinging on the two back legs.

James reached out and pushed him off his chair, laughing as he did so.

'That's not funny Prongs!' Sirius whined as he clambered up off of the floor.

'Yeah it is!' James laughed, throwing the Quaffle he had brought with him up the air and catching it as gravity brought it back down into his hands.

Professor Linkedin squeezed her hands on her head, her nails digging into her skull. This little routine had been repeated at least twelve times since she had been watching them. She had told them to stop it the first six times they had performed this monotonous little charade but had given up after that as it was obviously no use. She was really regretting, not only taking detention duty, but taking the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts in the first place. The rest of the students seemed alright but they also seemed to mill around these four. These extremely annoying four boys who she just wished would stop annoying her and walk out of detention. But unfortunately for her they wouldn't. And she didn't know why as they were obvious rule breakers. Why wouldn't they break this rule?

She looked at the four boys in turn, starting with Peter Pettigrew. He was a small lump of a boy and seemed to have no real substance in this group of friends. Nevertheless, he seemed to be accepted as their equal even though, in appearance and magical ability, he was anything but. He was short, stubby and chubby with pasty white skin, watery blue eyes and blonde straw like hair. He was the complete opposite of his friends this way. He was also the opposite of his friends in the way of magical ability too. From the way he performed in her classes though, she could tell that he did have potential in Defence Against the Dark Arts but didn't have the confidence to explore it. This lack of confidence worked against him. But even if he did have the confidence to take advantage of his abilities, she doubted he would be able to defeat say, Remus Lupin, in a duel.

Remus Lupin was sat at the desk next to Peters with his feet up on the table, balancing the book he had brought with him on his head. As hard as it was to believe, he was the most sensible one out of the four. He fit in to this group easier than Peter though as he took what seemed to be the standard form of appearance in this group of boys. He was a tall lad and was thin and muscular. For all intents and purposes, he was handsome. He had light brown hair, light brown eyes and a kind face which was easy to look at. However, he constantly looked tired and was pale and scarred with slightly shabby robes. The tiredness and scars, Professor Linkedin put down to his lycanthropy, (she had been informed of his condition by Dumbledore when she had taken up the post). The shabby robes actually suited him. He was extremely skilled in the way of Defence Against the Dark Arts. He was easily her best pupil in the seventh year. He always handed in his work on time and it was always to an O standard but she still felt that he could improve further if he wasn't constantly side tracked by the bad influence of James Potter and Sirius Black.

Professor Linkedin actually liked James Potter. He was witty, charming and funny but he annoyed her extensively. He had more talent in his little finger than most of her students could ever dream to have in a lifetime. But he never applied himself. Personally she thought that he was an odd choice for head boy, a role model to all pupils. She had at some points wondered whether his appointment at that post had more to do with his looks than his record. He too took the standard form of this group of boys. He was a tall lad and was thin and well-toned. He was handsome too. Even more handsome that Remus was. He had jet black, messy hair which Professor Linkedin noticed he took great pride in messing up, and warm hazel brown eyes framed by round, black glasses. His handsome face was stare worthy and he always seemed to have a laughing grin upon it. Apart from his messy hair, he was always well dressed, obviously coming from a good family home. He was a good student in class but a nightmare to handle and receive homework from. He hadn't handed in one satisfactory piece of homework since she took over the class. When he did hand his work in it usually consisted of the title of the essay, a half-hearted attempt at starting it and then a page full of doodles. One thing she had noticed about him was that he doodled a lot. Something she didn't always mind as when he doodled, she had a chance to deal with Sirius Black.

Sirius Black was even more of a nightmare that James Potter. He seemed to be the catalyst for the group's behaviour. He, along with James, seemed to be the leaders the group but it also seemed that Sirius was the one who suggested half of their mischievous wrong-doings. It was a shame really. Like James, Sirius had more talent in his little finger than most of the students Professor Linkedin saw could ever hope to have. He did apply himself but it was always to the wrong thing. He applied himself to being a nuisance and succeeded quite nicely at it. Professor Linkedin was sure that if he put half as much energy into his work in her lessons as he did to being annoying he could easily overtake Remus and be the top of the class. But he wouldn't. He seemed more interested in the attention he got from the girls because of his looks. Again, he took of the standard tall, thin and well-toned form that the group of boys, (excluding Peter), had going for them. He was the most handsome out of all four of them with sleek black hair reaching his shoulders which he took pride in perfecting and sparkling grey eyes. His handsome face was almost breath-taking and, like James, he always seemed to have a grin on his face. He too was always smartly dressed but always seemed to have some sort of food substance spilt down him.

At the minute, he and James Potter were tossing James' Quaffle back and forth between them shouting out nonsense words loudly as they did so.

'Bathsheba!' Sirius said as he caught the Quaffle before throwing it back skilfully to James who caught it with ease.

'Wilberforce.' James replied, throwing the red Quidditch ball back through the air.

'Hezekiah!' Sirius said.

'Xeric.' James said.

'Zaria.'

'Marcasite.'

'Elvendork.'

'You can't have Elvendork that's mine!' James moaned, not returning the Quaffle to Sirius.

'And?' Sirius retorted, 'I'll have whatever codename I want!'

'Codenames?' Remus questioned, balancing another book on his head atop the one that was already there, 'Why do you need codenames?'

'In case we decide to go undercover one day!' James said happily.

Professor Linkedin was finally starting to relax. It seemed to her that the boys were finally beginning to forget to annoy her and instead focus on a pointless conversation which revolved around what codenames they would have when they went undercover and why they were going undercover. She breathed a deep sigh of relief and thanked Merlin for giving her peace. Careful to stay quiet so that the boy's attention wouldn't suddenly turn back to her, she opened the second drawer in her desk and took out the scrolls of parchment which were the seventh year's latest homework assignments. She softly closed the second drawer and opened the first to take out a quill and an ink pot, all ready for marking, and began to tackle the mountain of scrolls.

She first marked Frank Longbottom's essay. She read through the page and corrected the few mistakes that there were and checked the theory behind his points. She assessed how well written the essay was before writing down his grade, an E, and signing the bottom of the page with her signature. She did this for three more essays belonging to three more of her pupils. The first belonged to Lily Evans and Professor Linkedin gave her an E also. The second was Alice Prewett and she gave her an E as well. The last was Mary MacDonald's and Professor Linkedin gave an A. She then moved onto the next scroll which she opened to find nothing but a name on it.

'Is that mine?' Sirius said, appearing at her side, frightening the life out of her and leaning on his forearms on her desk. 'Some of my best work don't you think?' he went on to say, nodding as if trying to programme her to nod along with him.

'It's only got your name on it.' James said, appearing on Professor Linkedin's other side in exactly the same position as Sirius, again scaring the socks off of her by his sudden appearance.

'Exactly.' Sirius beamed, 'It's got my FULL name on it! Sirius Orion Black!' he said, pointing out the name on the piece of parchment as if it was hard to spot even though they were the only words on the page, 'I can never usually make it past my first name.'

'He is right.' Remus said, appearing next to James, the new voice once more frightening Professor Linkedin because the boys seemed to be appearing from nowhere, 'He can never usually spell his first name.'

'How can you not spell your own first name?' Peter said, popping up at the front of the desk as if he had been hiding underneath it, again shocking Professor Linkedin who just wished they would sit in silence, stop crowding her and leave her alone.

'It's hard ok?' Sirius said, dramatically pretending to sniff on the verge of tears, 'Some of us weren't blessed with simply spelt names. My name has two spellings.'

'And that's hard for someone with _average_ brains.' James pointed out, 'Think of how hard it must be for him!'

'Hey!' Sirius said to James, stopping his dramatics. He then looked down at the mark Professor Linkedin was giving him. 'Hey!' he repeated, saddened by the T that she had just written on his paper. 'I deserve more than a T!'

'He's right.' Remus agreed.

'Look!' James said, pointing to the name again, 'Not only has he spelt his first name right he's spelt his middle name _and_ last name right too! That deserves at least a P!'

'Exactly!' Peter approved.

Professor Linkedin did her best to ignore the annoying boys and tried desperately to continue with her marking. She signed her name to Sirius' homework and set it to her left side onto the growing pile of marked work. Then, she grabbed the next scroll of parchment from the right and unravelled it ready to mark. But as soon as she saw whose homework she had opened, she regretted not leaving her marking till they had gone.

'Hey that's mine!' James smiled happily, pointing to the parchment Professor Linkedin had just opened. It had his name in the top corner, the title of the essay, five words introducing what he was going to write about and then a page full of doodles. He thought it was some of his best work.

'That's quite good Prongs!' Sirius said, nodding his head and pulling James' 'essay' towards him just as Professor Linkedin was about to write on it.

'Yeah you're getting better!' Peter commented, leaning over the desk to look at the parchment, he head coming quite close to Professor Linkedin's. So close that she sat back in her seat to move away from him.

'Thanks! I thought that too.' James said proudly, placing his hand on his heart.

'Is that a Bludger?' Sirius asked, pointing to a blurry sort of circle on James' homework as he moved it away slightly from Professor Linkedin's grabbing hands.

James paused slightly and stared at his homework for a couple of seconds before slowly and sadly pointing out, 'It's a snitch.'

Sirius squinted at the parchment for a couple of seconds before nodding his head slowly. 'Oh.' he said in realisation, 'Yeah you're not getting better at all.'

'You're getting worse.' Remus joined in as Professor Linkedin took James' homework back with a great, annoyed, steadying breath. She started to read his five words, quill poised ready to mark.

'Oh come on!' James said, moving his homework out from underneath a frustrated and wide eyed Professor Linkedin. 'You can tell that's a broom!' he continued.

Sirius leaned over Professor Linkedin and peered at the drawing James was pointing too. 'Looks more like a wand.' he said, 'Needs more…broomage.'

'Fine.' James said, taking the quill out of Professor Linkedin's hand and scribbling on the page at the bottom of what looked like a stick, 'There you go!' he continued, ignoring Professor Linkedin's reprimands for taking her quill, 'Broomage!'

'No not enough.' Sirius said taking Professor Linkedin's quill off of James, ignoring her protests as James had before. He pulled James' homework towards him and scribbled furiously over the top of James' scribble. 'More like this.' continued Sirius, picking up the parchment away from Linkedin's grasp and showing Remus, 'What do you think Moony?'

'Definitely an O grade piece of work.' Remus commended with a nod of his head.

'Definitely.' Peter repeated.

'See.' Sirius said cockily, putting down James' homework and the quill so that Professor Linkedin could give it a mark, 'I've got the knack.' he went on to say to which James stuck his tongue out at him for.

'This one's Moony's!' Peter squeaked out into the middle of the conversation, alerting James, Remus and Sirius to Professor Linkedin's latest effort to mark the homework essays.

'What do you think he'll get?' James said to Sirius over the top of Professor Linkedin's head as she read through Remus' essay.

'Probably a T.' Sirius replied, earning a laughing smile from Remus who enjoyed their jokes.

'Yeah. He does suck at this subject.' James conceded as Professor Linkedin finished reading Remus' essay through, no corrections.

'Wait!' Sirius almost yelled, 'She's giving it an O.'

'No.' James said, 'She's gonna turn it into a smiley face!' James went on to say, snatching the quill out of Professor Linkedin's hand. Inside the O she had written, James drew two dots and a curved line creating a smiley face on the paper. 'See!' he went on to say in an arrogant and cocky manner, throwing the quill down onto the desk in front of Professor Linkedin.

Sirius looked down at the paper and said in recognition of James' smiley face, 'Oh yeah!' He continued to look at the parchment as Professor Linkedin signed her name. He noticed something. 'Hey!' he went on, 'I didn't know that's how you spelt your name miss!'

'Looks like two separate words.' Peter pointed out, leaning over to peer at her signature.

'Linked in.' Remus stated.

'Are you linked in to something miss?' James asked.

'Linked in to a chain?' Peter asked.

'Linked in to a gang?' Remus asked.

'Or linked into a chain gang?' James suggested, stroking his chin in mock suspicion.

'She could be linked in to our undercover work!' Sirius gasped happily, banging his hand excitably on the table. Things moved on quickly from here. As if they actually were planning to go undercover and what they were discussing was top secret.

'She'll need a code name.' Remus said.

'How about we give her Elvendork.' James said.

'It is Unisex.' Remus replied.

'Perfect.' James said.

'Now she just needs a cape.' Sirius said.

'A cape?' Peter asked.

'You can't go undercover without a cape.' Sirius pointed out.

'That's what covers you.' James went on.

'Right!' Professor Linkedin said, standing up and reaching her wits end. Detention or not, she couldn't cope with these boys anymore. She grabbed Sirius and James' collars and gestured for Remus and Peter to follow her. 'That's it!' she went on as she dragged and led them to the door, 'Out of my classroom!'

'Was it something we said?' Remus asked with a laughing smile which was present on all the marauders faces.

'Do you not like the name?' Sirius said.

'We can change it!' Peter said.

'We probably should.' James said, more to his friends as she pushed them out of the door, 'She doesn't really suit the name Elvendork.'

Professor Linkedin slammed the door in their faces and breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that she was free of them. She took a deep breath to relax herself and walked over to her desk to continue marking. She sat down and picked up her quill serenely, ready to read the next homework essay when she heard the door squeak open again.

'Peter was wondering what grade he got and-'

'OUT!' Professor Linkedin yelled. No sooner had she yelled the door slammed shut and Professor Linkedin took a deep breath. Yes. She was definitely regretting coming to teach at Hogwarts.

* * *

On Thursday morning, second period, her only free period of the day, Lily Evans was sat in the library finishing off a homework assignment for Ancient Runes which was due in later that day. She was rather mad at herself about this homework really. She would have had it done by now, finished it last night, the day they were set the work because she usually did her homework as soon as she got it. But James had talked her into sneaking out for a secret date with him the previous night and, even though she had been adamant to get the work done, he had somehow managed to persuade her. She wasn't quite sure how. Still, this left her Ancient Runes homework half done and this free period was the only chance she had to finish it.

She had been in the library for only fifteen minutes and the table she was at was already cluttered with her stuff. She had spread out on it so completely that no one else was able to use the table but her. Lily didn't mind this though. She didn't care that people thought she was hogging a table because, through hogging the table and scattering her stuff across it, she was left in peace to work; the way she liked it. She hated it when people interrupted her studying, no matter who it was. It could be Hestia and she would still motion for her to disappear until she was finished. Over the years, people had learnt not to disturb her whilst she was cocooned in her work and books.

Everything on her table was just so. It was all the way she liked it, positioned in such a way that she knew where everything was and so that it was all within easy reaching distance. Straight in front of her, lined up neatly in a horizontal row and open to the right page, were four of her reference books. These were the ones she wasn't using at the minute but might need to look at any moment. The reference book she was using was on her left side so that she could glance at it and still keep writing. Also on her left side, placed vertically between the parchment she was writing on and the book she was referencing was her wand. It was there in case of ink spillages or corrections. In front of her was the work she was doing on a three foot scroll of parchment. A quill was in her right hand and an ink pot placed at the top of her essay for quick and easy refills. To her right side, all placed nice and neatly in a straight column, was a roll of spare parchment, two spare quills and three spare inkpots. One of these spare ink pots was colour changing ink because, after all, what was life without a little whimsy? When people looked at how she had spread herself out, they usually commented that she was a neat freak with, for those who knew what it was and grew up in the muggle world, a touch of O.C.D. She just believed that she was organised and if they didn't accept her for that then that was just too damn bad! It was their loss.

She was wrapped up in her own little world in the quiet library. She had blocked out the low hushed whispers and the scratching of quills on parchment as others made an effort to complete their own work. It was solitude in a group of people also seeking solitude. All that she saw, heard or knew about was on the desk in front of her. She was getting on really well thanks to her 'study bubble' and was sure that she was going to finish by the end of her free period, perhaps even before if she carried on the way she was. As long as nobody interrupted her or she didn't get distracted, she would be fine. But that wasn't meant to be.

She felt his presence before she saw him and attempted to ignore him at first. She continued with her work, writing on her parchment, referencing her open text book and dipping her quill in her ink pot. Carrying on determinedly, she was able to pay no attention to him as sat next to her, staring at her, for five whole minutes. After this, she was unable to disregard his presence any longer.

'Has it escaped your attention that I am trying to study?' she asked him, relaxing her writing hand and finally turning to face him.

'No.' he answered, smirking as he was enjoying this greatly.

'Then, no offence, but can you leave and let me get on with it?' she requested with raised eyebrows, pointing her quill to the door.

'Offence taken and no.' he stated, still smirking.

'James!' she sighed, hanging her head, 'Do you take great pride in annoying me or something?'

'Yes.' James replied honestly, 'It's one of my greatest skills. When I apply to be an auror I'm gonna put it on my application. 'James Potter. Masterfully skilled in the art of annoying one Lily Evans'. That's what I'll put.'

Lily bit her lip, biting back a smile, and looked into his warm hazel eyes shaking her head fondly. 'I'd say you were joking but knowing you you'd actually do that!'

'See!' James smiled, 'This getting to know each other better thing on dates is working!'

'I don't need to be dating you to know that.' Lily whispered to him, very conscious that people might hear them. She looked at him one last time, waiting for him to reply. When all he did was laugh at her remark, she busied herself with returning to her studies. She was curious to know why he was there but not enough to risk not finishing her homework.

James leaned over to take her quill out of her hands to stop her writing. 'Aren't you curious to know why I'm here?' he questioned her, placing the quill on the crowded but organised desk next to him. He placed his hand over the quill so Lily couldn't get it back.

Lily looked around to make sure no one was eavesdropping into their conversation before saying in a low hushed whisper, unable to keep a smile off of her face, 'I assume to plan our next date.'

James smiled back at her and leaned in a bit closer so that their faces were just over a foot apart. He didn't go any further that this though, as much as he wanted too, because he knew Lily still wanted to keep everything a secret. With his smile still lighting up his face though, James simply replied to Lily, 'No.'

Lily frowned. If he wasn't here for that then why was he here? What was so important that he had seeked her out at the library, a place he never came unless the situation sincerely demanded it? It was a place that none of the marauders, apart from maybe Remus, hardly used at all which was why she had assumed he had chosen to talk to her about their next date here. There was next to no chance of his friends finding him here. But this obviously wasn't the reason he was here. Why was he here then?

'If that's not what you wanted then why are you here?' Lily asked. Then a though occurred to her and she sighed in exasperation and sarcasm. 'Are you lost?'

James chuckled and ran a hand through his hair, leaning back slightly in the chair he was sat on. 'No.' he said.

'Then why are you here?' Lily repeated, her curiosity once more getting the better of her and taking over. She turned away from her homework to face him fully now. Question was etched on her face.

James thought for a second. 'I want to plan our next date.' he whispered to her in a sudden decision, picking up her quill and twiddling it around in his hands.

'But you said that you weren't here for that.' Lily said.

'I know.' James said, once more leaning in closer to her but careful to keep a respectable distance in public, 'I'm here for a different reason. But you're not going to know what that reason unless you plan a date with me.'

Lily shook her head and rolled her eyes at him. 'Fine.' she said, pretending to be annoyed. She wasn't really. She was having fun with James; planning dates, sneaking around, talking to him and kissing him. He was a good kisser. The feeling she got in the pit of her stomach when she was with him was indescribable. And now he wanted to plan the next time they would sneak out, that feeling returned to her. 'Is it gonna be another picnic?' she asked with a knowing smile on her face, her homework completely forgotten.

'No…' James said, looking away. He made a mental note to stop planning so many picnics. Now that he tallied it up in his head, all but one of the dates he had planned were picnics. 'You gotta admit picnics are cool though.'

'In moderation.' Lily teased.

'Always!' James said with a Sirius style puppy dog pout causing Lily to laugh and once again shake her head at him. He didn't mind. He liked making her laugh. When her laughter faded out he continued with a suggestion. 'How about we skip our patrol tomorrow and go down to Hogsmeade?'

'We can't just skip a patrol!' Lily protested in a hushed voice, still making sure that no one could hear them. Every so often she would glance around to make sure that the other students in the library weren't listening in on their conversation. 'And we can't sneak out to Hogsmeade at night either! Someone might recognise us.'

'Never stopped me before.'

'What?'

'That's what's stopped me before…'

'Really?' Lily said, raising her eyebrows and biting her lip to hold back a laugh. She wasn't silly or naïve. She knew that James had probably sneaked out numerous of times to Hogsmeade at night along with the other marauders. It was just funny to see him try and make excuses. 'That's what you're going with?' she continued.

'Least I said something.' James shrugged.

'Might have been better if you didn't.' Lily said, the laugh she had been holding back forcing its way out in the form of a small giggle. When it had subsided, she continued. 'We still can't sneak out to Hogsmeade. What if we went into the three broomsticks and Madam Rosmerta noticed us and let it slip.'

'I don't think that would happen.' James said shaking his head, 'She doesn't work the night shift on a Friday.'

Lily raised her eyebrows but let it go. If she questioned how he knew that, (a question she already knew the answer to), she would have to suffer through a poorly made up excuse which, although admittedly would make her laugh, would just be a waste of time. Time which she realised was passing by quickly and she needed to finish her homework.

Lily reiterated her original point. 'We can't skip our patrol.'

'How about we just skip school altogether tomorrow then?' James suggested.

'We can't skip school!' Lily said with a slight gasp at the suggestion. Did he not know her at all? She'd have thought he would have after the hours they had spent together. Lily didn't skip school. She had only once ever snuck out when she wasn't supposed to and that was because of James the previous year. She couldn't blame it all on him of course. She had wanted to leave. It was the first Hogsmeade visit and she had been given an unjust detention by her Ancient Runes professor, Professor Babbling. Add James Potter into that situation and it was almost inevitable that she had been convinced to sneak out. Still, she had never snuck out again and James suggesting that they skip school was ludicrous. He just didn't understand why.

'Why?' James asked her with a slight frown.

'Because we're head students.' Lily stated as if it were obvious.

'Exactly.' James said, taking the opposite side of the stick or so to speak, 'We can give ourselves permission.'

'No we can't.' Lily replied.

'You're right.' James said, nodding his head in thought. He then clicked his fingers as if he had had a great idea. 'How about you give me permission and I give you permission?'

'No.' Lily shook her head.

'But what if-'

'No.'

'But-'

'No!' Lily laughed in disbelief, 'I'm not skipping school!'

'Yeah ok.' James conceded, sensing a losing battle here, 'That was a bit of a long shot.'

'You think?' Lily said, 'Now, as much as I am loving this conversation, I do still have to finish my homework.'

'Ok.' James sighed, 'How about I think of something and run it by you tomorrow on patrols-'

Lily started to protest.

'-which we won't skip.' he finished, knowing what she was going to say.

Lily smiled at him and he smirked in reply. 'Thank you.' Lily said, 'Now what did you actually come here for?'

'Ah!' James said, wiggling his eyebrows, 'You remembered that did you? Aroused your curiosity did I? Peeked your intellect? Your inquisitive-'

'Just tell me!' Lily said, smacking him on the arm.

'Glad you stopped me there.' he laughed in reply, rubbing his arm where Lily had hit him. Not because it hurt just because it was an automatic reflex. 'I had no idea what I was going to say next.'

Lily shook her head at him and watched him whilst he reached into the inside of his robes, obviously rummaging around for something. Then, as he withdrew his hand, Lily gasped in surprised happiness. James was holding her missing bracelet, the entwined strands of dirty and faded purple cotton hanging limply from his fingers. Lily reached out and took it off him, her happiness reaching her eyes and making them shine with a smile.

'You found it!' she said gladly. Then, without thinking, she threw her arms around him in a hug, squeezing him tightly through her joy. She stayed there for at least five seconds before pulling away, kissing him on the cheek unthinkingly as she did so.

'People are watching.' James pointed out to her in a whisper.

But Lily, with a happy smile on her face and threading her bracelet through her fingers, simply said, 'At the minute I don't care!'

'Fair enough.' James laughed, loving her shining smile which made her emerald eyes sparkle.

'Where did you find it?' she asked him, not taking her eyes off of her bracelet as if she was scared that it would disappear as soon as she glanced away from it.

'It was in my bag.' James said, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms behind his head completely and utterly relaxed.

'What was it doing in your bag?' Lily wondered out loud. She thought back through the last week and to where she might have lost it. When she had done this previously she had only thought of where she had been and not what she had done. But now she was and she had a completely plausible theory as to why her bracelet had ended up in James Potter's bag. 'You know,' she began, 'it probably fell off in there when I put all your stuff back in your bag last Friday. Remember? After you threw it across the table it a jealous fit?'

James rolled his eyes. 'I was not jealous. And don't you have homework to finish?'

'You're changing the subject.' Lily said with a knowing smile, teasing him much to his dislike.

'Yes I am.' James said, standing up, 'And I'm leaving too. You have homework and I have…well nothing to do.' he conceded, then going into thought and absentmindedly saying out loud, 'I'm gonna go get some jelly.'

Lily laughed and said goodbye to him, once again thanking him for finding her bracelet for her and saying she'd see him in charms next lesson. She watched him go with a fond smile. When he had left the library completely, she bit her lip and looked down at the bracelet in her hands, so happy that she had it back. Not knowing why, she kissed her bracelet and then scrunched it up tight in her left hand, determined this time not to lose it. The she picked up her quill and continued with her homework, extremely happy for the rest of her free period. She was undoubtedly the happiest person in the library. But what had caused her happiness had caused someone else's anger.

Severus Snape was sat a few tables behind her, obscured from her view by a couple of towers of books which he had strategically placed in front of himself. He had taken, over the past week, to follow Lily into the library and sit and watch her study. He liked to do this, but today he had hated it. Today he had to endure her happy conversation with Potter.

He had no idea what they had been talking about, sat too far away to be able to hear their hushed whispers, but he had seen them. Smiling at each other. Lily had been chatting away happily to Potter when he had distracted her from her work, something she would have usually skinned you alive for, no matter who you were. But she didn't with him, and that tore Severus up. Then he had had to watch the arrogant James Potter return Lily's beloved bracelet, receiving a thankful hug and a kiss on the cheek for finding it, breaking his heart in the process as Lily's lips made contact with Potter's skin. That was not what he had hoped for when he had planted the bracelet in James' possession.

The first part of his plan to distance Lily from the poisonous ties of James Potter's friendship had been ruined. Obviously they were closer that Severus had guessed. He would have to think of something else now. Something that would force Lily to see that James Potter was still the arrogant git from fifth year. Something that he knew would make her look at James Potter the way she had back then and remind her why she had hated him. But what?

* * *

**Thanks for reading**

**Galindaba**


	52. Chapter 51

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader! **

**Here's chapter Fifty-One!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Fifty-One**

September was over in an instant and the students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft were soon into their second month back at the castle. Every single student was excited about this but all for different reasons. Some were excited because they were able to cross the month off of their calendars leaving only ten months till the summer holidays came around again. Others were excited because it was almost Halloween and Hogwarts always threw a spectacular Halloween feast. Then there were those who were happily awaiting the upcoming Hogsmeade trip the following week and then Quidditch game between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor in November. After this, there were those students who weren't particularly fussed about the passing of the month. Two of those students were James Potter and Sirius Black.

They couldn't care less that September had ended and that they were now a good few days into October. They didn't care that outside the window of the Transfiguration lesson they were in, the leaves were turning into a beautiful array of gold's, ambers, reds and browns symbolising the arrival of autumn. They weren't too fussed that the arrival of autumn also meant colder and wetter days and, by extension, less days beneath their beloved beech tree. They weren't even bothered that the end of September meant that there N.E.W.T's were drawing ever closer. This was obvious to anyone who saw them because they weren't paying any attention to Professor McGonagall as she attempted to explain to the class the difference between the learned skill of becoming an Animagi and the natural talent of a Metamorphmagus. Instead, they were quite literally playing with fire, or at least, sparks of it.

At the back of the classroom, James was swinging back on his chair, balancing on only the back two legs, his feet up on the table. His hair was messy, as usual, and the sleeves on his crisp white shirt were rolled up, again, as usual. He had a look of laughable concentration on his face as his right hand darted about the air to catch the shots of red sparks that Sirius, who was sat opposite him, was shooting out of his wand.

Sirius was lounging back in his own chair, one arm swinging over the back and the other lazily flicking his wand in any direction he seemed to deem fit, the red sparks leaping into James' hand. His legs were sprawled out in front of him and he had a bored but bemused look etched onto his handsome face. He looked more nonchalant then James was, more casual, even with his perfectly set hair.

For over five minutes, probably against her better judgement, Professor McGonagall had left them to it whilst she concentrated on the rest of the class. Her argument for this was that if they weren't bothering to pay attention and learn of their own accord, she wasn't about to waste her time attempting to get them to do so. After all, she had been doing it continuously for six years and if they hadn't got the message that their education was important by now then she didn't particularly want to waste her breath anymore. Not when she had a class full of other students who were willing and ready to learn. However, her decision was changed for her when one of the sparks flying out of Sirius' wand went a miss, bounced across the classroom and hit Frank Longbottom directly in the eye.

'Will you kindly stop that Mr Black?' she instructed him sternly. She had phrased it as a question but in reality, it was an order.

'Sure miss!' Sirius laughed happily.

And Professor McGonagall believed she had won. Sirius had indeed stopped throwing sparks around the classroom and she was able to continue informing the class about the forms a Metamorphmagus could take. What she hadn't counted on was the boys switching roles.

It was James' turn to throw sparks out of his wand. Gold sparks though, not red. He threw them across to Sirius who was using both hands to try and catch the glittering fire. But Sirius didn't have the efficiency or the reflexes that James did and more than once let the sparks fly past him, uncaught. They weren't able to keep their charade going for as long as they had before because of this and it wasn't long until somebody was hit again with a wayward shot. Unfortunately, it was Frank Longbottom who received the brunt of the spark again. This time it hit his neck.

'Mr Potter! Mr Black!' Professor McGonagall called shrilly across the classroom to them. Everyone's heads turned to the back of the class to watch their retaliation.

'Yes miss?' the boys said in unison, a look of what appeared to be practiced innocence on their faces. And it had to be practiced. After all, there was hardly a time when they were actually innocent.

'If you insist on continuing, and I strongly advise that you don't, I shall be forced to confiscate your wands.' Professor McGonagall warned, shooting them both a cautioning look. It was a statement which she had hardly ever had to say before. Through her whole career so far, she had only had to confiscate someone's wand once during a lesson. It was something she didn't like to do. In muggle terms, it was like confiscating a musical instrument during a music lesson because the student just couldn't stop playing.

'You can't do that Professor!' Sirius almost shouted in shock.

'And why not Mr Black?' Professor McGonagall replied, her eyebrows shooting up her forehead in the surprise of being told she wasn't allowed to do something in her own classroom. It was a scary look on her. If looks could kill, Sirius would now be gasping for his final breath.

'Err…' he began, completely bricking himself over the stern look that he was receiving, losing all his Gryffindor confidence, 'For the reasons…James will now tell you. James?'

James' chair fell back to the ground with a thud, all four legs now returning to contact with the floor instead of the two he had been swinging back on. He thought quickly, extremely aware that the whole class was looking at him. All eyes were on him and, when all eyes were on him, James didn't like to appear as if he was in the lurch. On the contrary, he liked to show off, to impress people and become cheeky. Through all his trying to grow up, that part had never left him. He could subdue it, but that was about all. It wasn't something he could willingly stop like he had with hexing anybody who caught his fancy, (mainly Severus Snape). But it seemed, today, he couldn't restrain himself completely.

'It's against the law Professor.' James nodded returning McGonagall's stern stare but with the added air of mockery, 'You can't take our wands without provocation.'

'And I can assure you Mr Potter, you have provoked me enough!' she retorted, still not confiscating their wands though. Instead she tried to guilt some good behaviour out of James. 'I expect better behaviour from you Mr Potter. You are head boy after all.'

James gasped. 'I am?' he asked with shocked sarcasm, 'Did you know that?' he asked Sirius, turning to face him.

'No I didn't!' Sirius replied, playing along, 'Why didn't you tell us miss?' he asked Professor McGonagall.

'Yeah!' James continued, 'This is big news! Let's celebrate!'

'Awesome!' Sirius said, standing up, 'I'll go get some jelly.'

'Awesome! Get orange!' James added, also standing up.

'Sit down both of you!' Professor McGonagall shouted at them, her hands placed on her hips, 'Or I shall give you both detentions!'

James and Sirius looked at each other conferring, as if silently discussing what to do next, weighing out the pros and the cons. It seemed the cons won. They couldn't afford a detention with the full moon only a week or so away. A month seemed to pass by so quickly. So the boys sat back down in their seats, both of them swinging their legs out and plonking their feet up on the table, resigned to listening to a subject they already knew perhaps too much about.

After five minutes of dejectedly and reluctantly listening to Professor McGonagall lecture the class upon the steps it took to become an Animagus, a topic which Sirius and James were already fully learned in, the two boys once again found childish fun. This time, it was in their shoes.

Using their un-confiscated wands, Sirius and James started to mess about with their shoes. Their tricks started from changing the colour of each other's shoes from the required black to alarming shades of purple, blue, green and red to transfiguring the shoelace on Sirius shoe into a worm. At this point, Sirius unthreaded the worm from his shoe muttered the charm, _wingardium leviosa, _and levitated the poor unfortunate little invertebrate into the air and dangled it in front of Hestia Jones' face to which she shrieked at, balled up her parchment full of notes and threw it at the pair of laughing boys.

'Really boys!' Professor McGonagall said, rounding on them as she waved her wand and magically returned Hestia's notes back to her, 'If you carry on I'm going to have to separate you.'

James and Sirius took no notice of this warning.

'You say that every lesson-' James began.

'But you never do it!' Sirius continued.

'And we just have to wonder Professor-'

'Where do you live during the summer holidays?'

James paused a look of confusion over his face. It was the same look the rest of the class was wearing also. He slowly turned his head to look at his best friend. 'That's not what I was going for at all.' he said with a shake of his head.

'It wasn't?' Sirius replied, genuinely shocked that James hadn't intended to ask that question, 'Really?'

'No.' James said.

'But aren't you curious?' Sirius smirked, egging James on to join in.

'A little…'James replied, a smile now tugging at the corners of his mouth. Then he turned to Professor McGonagall, 'So where do you live Professor?'

'Do you stay in the castle?' Sirius asked with a head tilt, not unlike that of a puppy.

'Wondering around on your own?' James said.

'Missing us all?' Sirius added.

'Us especially.' James put in, 'You may deny it professor but you secretly love us.'

'Secretly?' Sirius asked James with a 'come on really?' expression on his face; one eyebrow raised and, yet again, that head tilt.

'You're right.' James sighed, 'It's pretty obvious!' He leant back in his chair and relaxingly placed his hands behind his head.

'Definitely.' Sirius said, 'In the summer she sits staring at pictures of us-'

'Wishing we were here-'

'Making her laugh-'

'Giving her purpose-'

'Filling her day-'

'And just basically being our awesome and handsome selves!' James ended, running a hand through his hair before returning it to relax behind his head.

'Is that what you do professor?' Sirius asked, finally turning back to Professor McGonagall who had been waiting impatiently for them to finish, knowing that if she interrupted they would just go on even longer.

When she realised they had finished and were now waiting for her to answer, she seized her opportunity and decided to separate them, once and for all. 'Mr Potter, please collect your things together and move to the front of the classroom.'

'She likes me more than you.' James said quickly, turning to Sirius with a smile and not bothering to move at all.

'No she doesn't!' Sirius retaliated, not liking the idea that anyone liked James more than him. He loved James like a brother but still thought that people should love him more. He was just loveable. Like a puppy.

'Why she asking me to move closer to her rather than you then?' James teased.

'Because if I'm any closer to her she won't be able to resist me!' Sirius bragged, shaking his head in an arrogant and cocky manner.

'Or its cause you smell.' James said.

'I don't smell!' Sirius defended, secretly now trying to sniff himself.

'Yeah you do! Like cheese!' James laughed before adding when he saw Sirius' face starting to light up, 'And not in a good way.'

'Then why do you sit next to me?' Sirius challenged him.

'I don't.' James said, finally standing up and gathering his stuff together, well, picking up his wand as he hadn't actually bothered to get any of his things out, 'I'm being moved and thank Merlin cause I was about to pass out from your stinky cheesiness!' he ended with a bantering laugh.

Sirius laughed good naturedly as James made his way up to the front of the class where McGonagall was trying to make new seating arrangements for James in her classroom.

'Miss Jones you have no choice in the matter.' she said instructionally to Hestia who was moaning at the prospect at being moved to sit next to Sirius Black.

'But didn't you _just _hear what Potter _just_ said?' Hestia whined, 'He stinks!' Then when she got no response, 'Like _cheese_!'

'But haven't you heard?' James started with a smirk, 'The smellier the cheese the better. Plus it gets better over time and that's…kind of true about Sirius.'

Hestia shot him a dark look and then turned back to Professor McGonagall, who was still insisting she move, to argue her case some more. She lost in the end and was forced to move to the back of the classroom to sit next to Sirius who was smirking mischievously at the idea. When she got there she slammed her book on the table and roughly pushed Sirius' feet off of it, a grumpy look on her face. She was not happy at this idea.

James was. James was extremely happy about this as Professor McGonagall's rearrangement of the seating plan conveniently landed him a spot next to Lily. He sat down happily next to her and, under the table, pinched her thigh to which she jumped and slapped his hand away, determined to ignore him and carry on with her notes. He pushed his glasses up his nose and though for a moment. Then, appearing to the class as though he was finally going to take notes, he rummaged around in his bag and pulled out a crumpled piece of parchment, a quill and a pot of ink.

At the top of his piece of parchment he wrote _Hey! _and then discreetly waved his wand, performing a handy little nonverbal spell which connected his and Lily's pieces of parchment. This meant that everything Lily wrote, James would see and vice-versa. James watched as his blank parchment suddenly filled up with loads of neat little bullet pointed notes detailing the specifics about Animagi, Metamorphmagus transformations and the distinctions between them. Looking at all of this it was clear that his little _Hey!_ was bound to be unnoticed. So, in true James Potter fashion, he embellished it; drawing several arrows pointing towards it and a snitch zooming around the top until she noticed.

He glanced sideways at her and saw her look up and look around. Everyone seemed to be hard at work, or at least feigning it, including James. He had an inkling that she had no idea who had written on her parchment or how, having never tried to do such a thing herself before. This inkling was proven true when she wrote underneath James' _Hey! _with a reply of _Hey?_

Three question marks. She definitely didn't know who was writing things on her parchment and it made James chuckle mentally. For such a smart girl, she could be rather clueless sometimes. For anyone else, it would be rather obvious. But not to her. So, rather than spoil the fun of her finding out, he decided to play.

_You stole my toast this morning at breakfast, _he wrote, knowing no such thing had happened at all that morning. He hadn't even seen her this morning before this lesson. At least not at breakfast time. He had seen her at two o'clock in the morning when he had returned her to her dorm room after dragging her out to take a midnight stroll with him. It was something she had protested against at first, ('James, we can't, we have lessons tomorrow!') but had eventually succumbed to the idea after he gave her a not so subtle reminder that if they didn't go out at night then they couldn't go out at all because Lily was still adamant on keeping it all a big secret. So he hadn't seen her since then as he had slept in all first period, in which he had had a free and she had, presumably, gone to the library. All this meant that James' comment about her stealing his toast would completely confuse her as to who was writing on her notes. And it did.

_Who is this? _she wrote.

_It's me, _James wrote back in reply, still not giving out any hints as to his identity.

_Well that helps! _Lily put down sarcastically, her neat little writing now sliding vertically down the edge of the page so as not to erase or go over any of her notes.

_It was meant to! _James wrote in return, unable to keep a smirk off of his face.

_JAMES! _Lily wrote in annoyance, the capital letters she had used and exclamation mark emphasising this greatly.

_Not fair! _James scribbled back, _You looked at my notes!_

_My notes you mean! _Lily retaliated before adding in a hasty side line, _Now let me carry on with them!_

James watched his parchment as Lily returned to making notes. Her neat printed writing appeared across the page as she returned her attention to Professor McGonagall who was now explain the vital mistakes and Animagus could make during a transformation. James already knew this. He knew all the possible mistakes an Animagus could make. He had even made a few of them before. He didn't now. He was old hat at his transformations now. He had been an illegal Animagus for almost two whole years. For this reason, he didn't pay an ounce of attention to Professor McGonagall on this subject and continued to write to Lily.

_Will you go out with me? _he scrawled across his parchment, and by extension, Lily's, exactly where she was about to write next.

He watched her hand stop as the words appeared in front of her and heard her audibly sigh. Then with a clenching jaw, for she was thoroughly annoyed that James kept interrupting her note making process, she dipped her quill in her ink pot and wrote a reply.

James looked back down to his parchment and watched the words form neatly on the page. _I'm already going out with you, _they read, her tidy writing becoming looser with annoyance, James could tell. Still, he smiled at the words. In his opinion, he would never get tired of hearing them, reading them or just knowing they were true.

_I mean to Hogsmeade with me this weekend, _he clarified with a scribble right next to Lily's words to, once again, prevent her continuing with her notes.

_You do realise that this topic will be on our N.E.W.T's exam don't you? _came her reply. Her writing was now definitely showing annoyance. It had changed from neatly printed to hastily scribbled and, at places, joint up as if she was in a hurry to end this conversation.

_Well that's a bit nosey of the examiners isn't it? _James wrote back in a scrawl, _What business is it of theirs if I take you out to Hogsmeade or not?_

James glanced at Lily out of the corner of his eye and saw her shake her head slightly at this comment, a small now tugging at the corners of her mouth. She took a deep breath as if to control a full smile from making an unauthorised appearance and dipped her quill in her ink to write her reply. James looked back down to his, well Lily's notes, to find the words, _If I say yes will you let me get on with my notes? _written across the page.

James smiled but, unlike Lily, didn't bother to hide it. _Yes, _he wrote.

_Good. Now leave me alone, _came Lily's reply. But James was having none of that.

_You didn't say yes, _he continued on, blocking the words Lily was about to write with his annoying persistence.

_Fine. Yes. Are you happy now? _Lily wrote back shortly.

_Yes, _was James' simple reply and it was simple because it was true. He was extremely happy. Lily had agreed to go to Hogsmeade with him and she hadn't asked him to keep it quiet. Maybe she was ready to tell.

* * *

On Wednesday Hestia Jones and Lily Evans were planning the upcoming Hogsmeade weekend. Hestia was being strangely specific about the time she wanted to go; early. She was insistent that she and Lily make it down in time for the first of the three escorted trips down to the village. When Lily asked why, all Hestia did was smile sweetly and reply with some variation of the line, 'I have a lot of shopping to do.' Lily didn't press her. It was a statement which could very well be true.

Anyway, Lily didn't want to protest to Hestia's plan to go down to the village early. She wasn't too bothered that Hestia wanted her to get up early so that they could make the eleven o'clock excursion out because over all, it worked out in her favour. She would get to spend some time shopping, chatting and having an all-round girlie day with her best friend then, when she received a fake note asking her to go and see Dumbledore in his office, she would be able to sneak off and see James.

After their Transfiguration lesson she had made it clear to him that she still didn't want to tell people they were dating, stopping him just in time as he was about to go and tell his fellow marauders that he wouldn't be able to make it into Hogsmeade with them that weekend. Lily could tell he was upset at this and that the secret they were keeping was tearing him up inside. Not because he didn't want to keep it but because he found it hard to keep the secret from his friends. But Lily had assured him that it would just be a few weeks more whilst she figured out a way to tell Hestia that they were together. They had then devised a plan that would allow them to excuse themselves from their friends company and disappear together to a place where James would not tell Lily.

So Lily and Hestia were both agreed that they would get up early to go to Hogsmeade that Saturday and they were both excited about it. They chatted about it none stop on their way to their Defence Against the Dark Arts class. In fact, their conversation had involved them both so deeply that when they arrived in the classroom, they didn't notice that Professor Linkedin wasn't there. They didn't notice that she wasn't there for twenty minutes. It was only when Frank Longbottom pointed it out to Alice and Alice had then asked Lily and Hestia that they started to pay attention to their surroundings.

The classroom was by this point a mess. There were scrunched up pieces of parchment littering the floor near the bin as Remus Lupin had decided to see how many shots he could make from where he was sat, almost five metres away. There was a line of empty ink bottles which started on Peter Pettigrew's desk at the back left of the classroom and ended on Sirius Black's desk at the back right. All of the ink from these bottles had been put into the empty Grindylow tank which sat covered in dust at the front of the classroom. Then, half of the students in the class were sat in a circle on the floor as their desks and chairs had been used by James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew to build an ten foot high barricade across the far wall of the classroom which was lined with windows. They had secured it all together with sticking charms and thick ropes and were now sat atop it with their feet dangling off of the edge doing the same thing that Remus was only from a different height. Everyone was talking loudly over the top of each other. The noise in the room was deafening and the state of the room was chaotic. They needed a teacher.

'Do you know where she is?' Frank asked Lily, thinking that, as head girl, she might be clued into what was going on.

'No idea.' Lily replied, raising her voice slightly so that she could be heard above the noisy class. She looked around to see if anyone else might have any clue as to where their professor had run off too. She thought hard and her gaze finally landed on Remus Lupin.

'I'm gonna ask around.' Lily said to Frank, Alice and Hestia who nodded their heads and returned to the topic of Hogsmeade.

Lily stood up and walked over to Remus. He didn't look as though he was missing the lesson they should have been having at all. In fact, he looked completely at ease with the idea of just sitting and relaxing for the hour that had been earmarked for the study of Defence Against the Dark Arts. If Lily hadn't interrupted him, she was sure that he would have gladly spent the hour throwing screwed up pieces of parchment into the bin.

'Lupin?' Lily asked as she approached him.

Remus glanced at her fleetingly. 'Hey Evans.' he said noncommittally before returning to his new found sport which he was fairly useless at. He kept missing the bin by a few feet every time.

'Do you know where Professor Linkedin is?' Lily asked him, leaning one hand on his desk as she did so.

'Nope.' Remus replied succinctly, aiming another piece of crumpled up parchment into the bin. He threw it and missed.

'Do you care?' Lily went on to say, exasperation coming through clearly in her voice.

'Nope.' Remus said, repeating his succinct statement from before and tearing up another piece of parchment all ready to screw up and throw towards the bin. Upon hearing her sigh though, he went on to say, 'Ask James. He might know.'

Lily watched him make one last shot, once again failing miserably at aiming the parchment into the bin, and turned around to go and ask James if he knew where Professor Linkedin had suddenly disappeared off to. She had no idea why he would know this information but decided to give it a go.

She walked over to the poorly constructed barricade which James, Sirius and Peter had made and looked up towards the top. The three boys were sat on some haphazardly balancing chairs which looked as though they might fall any second. She called up to him.

'James?' she shouted over the top of the loud conversations that the people in the Defence Against the Dark Arts class were holding. She wondered whether people knew that they were in the same room as each other instead of mile apart. There was no need to be talking quite so loudly.

'Yeah?' James called out, looking around for who had hollered for him. Upon seeing Lily at the bottom of his barricade he smiled down at her and yelled down in caution. 'You might want to move to your right a little bit!' he said loudly.

'Why?' she replied, squinting her eyes up to him in question.

'Just do it!' was James' reply.

Confused and curious, Lily took a deep breath and stepped to the side a little bit, exhaling with another sigh once she had done it. She waited where she was for a couple of seconds, tapping her foot in impatience. Then, she was suddenly frightened out of her skin when a large heavy mattress fell to her left. She squealed in shock and placed her hand over her now fast beating heart. Where they had found a mattress in the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom she didn't know but nevertheless it was there and it fell with a large thud.

'What did you do that for?' she yelled up to James, her heart still racing ten to the dozen.

'Because,' James began to shout down in reply. He then fluently swung himself over the barrier on the barricade and dropped down onto the mattress, landing efficiently and standing up straight away. He then continued to talk to Lily at a normal volume. 'Because,' he repeated, 'this floor is really hard and I didn't want to break my foot or anything. That's quite a big drop!'

'Ok…' Lily said with a shake of her head.

'So what's up?' he went on to say, getting off of the mattress and folding his arms as he looked at her in question.

'Do you know where Professor Linkedin is?' Lily asked him.

James looked confused. 'Is she not here?' he said, looking around him as if he expected Professor Linkedin to just be standing in the corner or at her desk.

'No.' Lily said in disbelief, 'You really think you'd have been able to build a barricade if she was?'

'Well it would have been more of a challenge but I think we could have pulled it off.' James shrugged.

'Why do I talk to you?' Lily said, more to herself than James. Still, her comment earned her a chuckle from him anyway.

'Sirius might know.' James said to Lily before turning his head up to the barricade and yelling up to Sirius who had stopped throwing screwed up parchment into the bin and was now throwing them at Peter's head instead. 'Oi! Padfoot!' James shouted, practically deafening Lily in the process. (She had to cover her ears) 'Where's Professor Linkedin?'

'You mean Elvendork?' Sirius shouted down to James who nodded his head.

'Elvendork?' Lily questioned with yet another confused look.

'It's unisex.' James said quickly to her, not actually answering her question. He then continued to yell up to Sirius. 'Yeah! he said, 'Do you know where she is?'

'In a broom cupboard somewhere.' Sirius stated.

Lily's eyes widened. Why was there Defence Against the Dark Arts professor in a broom cupboard somewhere instead of teaching their class? And why did Sirius Black know about it? She dreaded the reason behind it. Still, she had to know. It was her curiosity again.

'Why?' Lily began, 'Why is she in a broom cupboard?'

'Because she gave us homework on the first day of term!' Sirius replied as if it was obvious. After all, what other reasons would there be for locking your professor in a broom cupboard?

'And?' Lily replied. That had happened over a month ago. Why would that matter now?

'And,' Sirius began. Then, much like James had done a few minutes before him, Sirius swung his legs over the barrier of the barricade and dropped down onto the mattress below. From the way he had landed you would have thought he had only dropped two feet instead of ten. He smoothly fell down on to the mattress, elegantly landing and walking off of it immediately. He then continued with what he was saying. 'And,' he repeated, 'I don't like being given homework at the best of times and she gave us homework first day back. That's something you gotta pay for.'

Lily looked at him incredulously. She then looked to James who, from the expression on his face, seemed to see the bizarre logic behind Sirius' reasoning. She shook her head at them both, taking a deep breath to calm herself. She didn't want to shout at them. At least she didn't want to shout at James.

She turned to Sirius, a forced calm hovering around her. 'So what did you do to her?'

'Who said I did any-'

'Padfoot.' James said with raised eyebrows, deciding that he was going to help Lily out to try and find what Sirius had done to their professor.

Sirius looked at James for a couple of seconds, wondering why he had suddenly decided to side with Lily instead of him. There was a reason but Sirius had no idea what it could be. The most obvious reason he could see was that James was finally stepping into his responsibility as head boy but, to Sirius, that idea just seemed ludicrous. There had to be another reason but Sirius had no idea what it could be. It had already been established that James was no longer interested, (or at least he said he wasn't), interested in asking Lily out so this could hardly be a ploy to get into her good books could it? Probably. Still, Sirius gave in under James' stare and confessed to what he had done.

'I put a sleeping draught in her tea, drew on her face and shoved her in a broom cupboard on the second floor.' he said reluctantly.

James began to laugh but after a warning glance from Lily he muffled it.

Lily took a deep breath and exercised her responsibility as head girl. 'Ok.' she began, taking on a tone of voice which clearly illustrated that Sirius had no choice in the matter. He was going to do what she said. 'You are going to take me to the second floor broom cupboard where you have locked Professor Linkedin in and help me take her to the hospital wing to reverse your…stupidity.'

Sirius scowled at her and then looked to James who gave him a look which said, 'go on just do it.' Breathing deeply in annoyance at Lily and, for a small part, James, Sirius reluctantly began to follow the head girl out of the room. They were halfway there though, when they heard a thud emanate from behind them. The pair turned around to see what had happened.

'Wormy there's a mattress for a reason!' James was saying as he started to pull Peter up off of the floor.

Sirius and Lily watched as Remus rushed forwards to help James with Peter. It seemed that he had tried to jump off of the barricade in the same way James and Sirius had done before but had misjudged where the mattress was and had landed a couple of feet to the side of it. He had either broken or sprained his ankle. Remus and James were either side of Peter, pulling him up as he whimpered at the pressure on his foot.

James looked up to Lily and Sirius and simply said, 'Guess we'll meet you in the hospital wing.'

Lily shook her head whilst Sirius laughed out loud at Peter misfortune. After a couple of seconds of his insensitive laughing, Lily reminded him that they needed to go and find Professor Linkedin and she led him out of the room.

The two Gryffindor students walked in silence as they climbed down a couple of flights of stairs and went through a small hidden passage to get to the second floor. Sirius had a moody pout across his face because he was being forced to do the right thing. Doing the right thing wasn't something Sirius liked to be told to do. If he was going to do it, then he would prefer the decision to be made by himself and on his own terms. That way any praise he received would be his and, perhaps more importantly, deserved. Next to him, Lily was walking slowly looking at every door they passed in the hopes that it might be the broom cupboard that Sirius had locked Professor Linkedin in. She didn't think she could stand the silence for much longer. Luckily she didn't have to.

'So you going to go to Hogsmeade this weekend?' Sirius asked her, trying to break the quiet and possibly distract her from tryin to find Professor Linkedin.

'Yes.' Lily said in a short answer.

'You gonna go with that Hunt dude?' Sirius wondered.

Lily stopped in her tracks. She wanted the silence back. 'No.' she sighed, 'Where did you put Professor Linkedin?'

Sirius didn't listen to her. He also stopped and turned to face her and, for all intents and purposes, interrogate her about a topic which he knew upset his best friend, even though James would never admit it. Sirius knew James still liked Lily. He always had. When had overheard her a few weeks being talked into a date with the Ravenclaw Adonis Joshua Hunt, he had seen James' reaction. At the time he had said he 'couldn't care less'. He was lying. Sirius knew. It bothered him that the girl he had asked out continuously had agreed to go on a date with someone else. Sirius knew it did. He just wasn't clued into the specific reasons why.

'So you not going out with that Hunt dude?' Sirius asked her.

Lily was, to say the least, shocked that Sirius Black was talking to her about this. It was an odd topic of conversation for him to decide to talk to her about, especially as they weren't all that close. She would call them friends but she would use the term loosely. In that circle, obviously, she was much closer to James. She was dating him but Sirius didn't know that. No one did. After James she would say the next marauder she was closest to was probably Remus Lupin. She had been a prefect with him for a couple of years and he was the one who had had a go at her at the start of their sixth year, convincing her to give the marauders a chance. Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew, (much to Sirius' disgust if he knew), were on par. Lily had hung out with both of them in some of her free periods, gone to Hogsmeade with them a couple of times and ate most of her meals in their company but still, she wasn't all to close with them. In those situations she had mostly talked to James. So it was an extremely odd conversation for Sirius Black to strike up with her and, until she decided she was ready to tell people about her and James, she felt that her dating life was none of his business. And she told him this.

'I really don't think it's any of your business Black.' Lily stated, 'Now where did you hide Prof-'

'You know, James is my best friend.' Sirius interrupted.

Again, Lily was shocked. Not at the fact that he had pointed out, she already knew that. No, she was shocked that he was insisting on pursuing this topic.

'And at some point last year you did like him.' Sirius continued.

Lily said nothing. The thing that occurred to her in that moment though was that everything would be a lot easier if she just told Sirius right there and then that she was going out with James, not Joshua Hunt. But she didn't. Something was stopping her. Perhaps it was out of loyalty to Hestia, thinking she deserved to be the first to know about that aspect of Lily's life. Perhaps she just wasn't ready to tell anyone just yet. And it was true; she wasn't ready to tell anyone. Not just yet. Then again, maybe she just wasn't ready to give up the secrecy of it all. It may have sounded silly to some people but Lily enjoyed sneaking around. It was thrilling to her. Anyone of these things could be the something that was stopping her. She didn't know what it was but, nevertheless, she didn't tell Sirius about her and James. Instead she stood and listened to what he had to say, even though most of it was completely redundant.

'I don't think you should go out with that Hunt dude-'

'His name is Joshua.'

'-I think you should consider giving James a chance. If you did like him last year then you could still like him now.' Sirius went on to say, ignoring Lily's correction, and trying to convince her to give James a chance. He didn't realise that he would soon regret it. 'It's not so far-fetched is it? He's a decent, good looking bloke. Not as good looking as me of course but I'm taken.'

'By who?' Lily questioned incredulously. That morning at breakfast she could have sworn he had said he had just finished breaking up with someone.

'Courtney Jenkins.' Sirius shrugged as if she was nothing important and, to hem, she probably wasn't. She was probably just a passing flirtation.

Lily shook her head and seized her opportunity. Sirius didn't have a very long attention span and, as he had gone off on a tangent about his latest conquest and his looks, Lily took her chance to change the subject and find out where Professor Linkedin was.

'Where's this broom cupboard then?' she asked him.

'I just told you I was taken Evans!' Sirius said with dramatic gasp, 'You can't hit on someone who is in a dedicated relationship!'

'And if I see anyone like that then I promise I'll steer clear of them.' Lily retorted, 'Now, where did you hide Professor Linkedin?'

Sirius rolled his eyes, his moody and annoyed expression once again returning to his face. He turned around and pulled back a full length hanging portrait, disturbing its resident who yelled angrily at Sirius for moving him. Behind the portrait was an odd shaped door which, Lily presumed, led to the broom cupboard. She opened the door and sat inside, collapsed on the floor resting on a silver bucket, was Professor Linkedin.

Lily looked at her face. It was true. Sirius had drawn all over it; moustaches, fake beards, fuzzy eyebrows and many other little pictures. She turned to Sirius. 'You weren't kidding.' she said.

Sirius just simply smiled mischievously at her, quite proudly too. James wasn't the only one who doodled in their group. Sirius did too and this was some of his best work.

* * *

**Thanks for reading**

**Galindaba**


	53. Chapter 52

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter Fifty-Two!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Fifty-Two**

The Hogsmeade weekend came quickly and at eleven o'clock that morning Hestia and Lily were waiting to be signed out by Filch and lead down to the village by Professor Sprout. The crowd they were waiting in was huge as it seemed that everyone had wanted to make the first excursion out of Hogwarts and into the village. Because of this, signing everybody out was taking an awful long time. Hestia was becoming very impatient. She was bobbing around on her feet a little bit like a pigeon or somebody who was in desperate need of the toilet. Lily didn't particularly mind. As soon as they had decided to make the early trip out to the village, Lily knew that it was inevitable that they would be waiting around for a while. She had resigned herself to it and had taken to people watching whilst she waited.

The majority of the older population of Hogwarts was there. Most of them were fifth year and up but there were a couple of small groups of third and fourth years too. To the right of where Lily and Hestia stood, Hestia still jumping around impatiently and Lily stood still with her arms folded, were a group of fourth year boys having a wildly over the top conversation about what Zonko's products they were going to buy. Then, behind them was another group of boys, sixth year this time, wondering aloud which one of them could get a girl into the shrieking shack with them first to 'shack up'. All of them seemed to be very over confident which led Lily to believe that none of them had to ability to talk a girl into that. Unless, of course, she was a complete air-head. To Lily's left, towards the front of the group that was waiting to go to Hogsmeade, were more girl based groups. There was a small crowd of third years looking rather timid and unsure of what to do, a group of fifth years who seemed to be bouncing with exuberance and then a large cluster of seventh years who all looked the same, as did their boyfriends. If Lily didn't know any better, she would have thought she was looking at seven versions of the same couple.

Opposite Lily, staring at her, was James. He was leant in his usual position against the wall, arms folded, legs crossed, and just gazing out at her with the hints of a small smile on his face. Stood next to him with his hands in his pockets was Remus Lupin and next to him, talking to the pair of them (even though it was clear they weren't listening), was Peter Pettigrew. Finally, the last member of the group of boys was Sirius Black. He was stood with his arm draped around a tall slim girl with sleek brown hair which fell in an unflattering bob. She looked ecstatic to be there. Sirius however, looked as if he only had his arm around her because it was something to do. He was paying no attention to her and was instead looking up to the ceiling where Peeves had scribbled a lot of profanity the night before.

Lily returned James gaze briefly before being dragged off out of the door by Hestia. The herd had begun to move. Lead by Professor Sprout, the extensive crowd of Hogwarts students made their way through the grounds and down to the large front gate. It was opened by Professor Sprout and the group filed out in an un-orderly fashion. When it was closed again, they all made their decent down the declining slope and into Hogsmeade. Some were running as fast as they could, others were strolling casually and, a little ways in front of Hestia and Lily, Sirius and James were hopping.

When they reached Hogsmeade, Hestia wasted no time and immediately set out to buy the village. She forced Lily into every shop and almost always bought something. She loved shopping and, from the relief of gaining back her happy-go-lucky friend, Lily started to enjoy it too even though Hestia kept informing her that she was shopping wrong. She made no objections at being dragged into shops which she didn't particularly like spending time in and she stayed with Hestia in them for at least five or more minutes apiece.

They spent the first hour of their trip like this. Hestia had bought all she could find, her mother having sent her pocket money down to her that morning, and Lily bought some more writing supplements of which she was running out of. Then, after ten minutes encouragement from Hestia, Lily was persuaded to buy something frivolous. It was a big step for Lily as she never usually bought things unless she needed them or desperately wanted them. But Hestia had convinced her and Lily bought herself a new book, a new jumper and a pair of goblin made earrings. When they had bumped into Alice and Frank, Alice had actually congratulated Hestia on managing to get Lily to do this. They spoke to them for ten minutes before continuing with their shopping.

Lily was having a lovely day with Hestia. In some ways she wished she hadn't arranged to leave in an hour or so because she had really missed just hanging out with an enthusiastic Hestia by herself. Alice was always with them now. Lily liked Alice but it was nice to have some time with her best friend on her own. But Lily _had_ arranged to leave in just over an hour so she could go and meet James. At twelve o'clock, Lily wished Hestia had known this because at twelve o'clock, their lovely day was ruined. And it was all Hestia's fault.

'Let's go to the three broomsticks.' Hestia announced to Lily, looking at the time by glancing at the watch on her wrist.

'It's only twelve.' Lily replied, looking at her own watch to make sure she had the time right, 'You can't be hungry yet.'

'But I haven't eaten today!' Hestia whined, folding her hands over her stomach to make it look as though she was about to die from starvation.

'Can you not wait another half an hour?' Lily asked her, 'I'm not hungry.'

'Well you don't have to order anything yet just get a drink.' Hestia said, taking Lily by the elbow and leading her through the crowded street, an excited smile on her face. She led her up to the door of their favourite wizarding pub and dragged her inside. Once they were in she looked around for a couple of seconds, her eyes landing on a large booth in the far corner. Her smile grew.

Lily followed her eye line and, when she found out what she was looking at, her face dropped. She suddenly became rather mad at her best friend.

'Hestia! No!' Lily hissed at Hestia, making to turn around and walk back out of the pub into the busy street outside. Hestia didn't let her though. She took Lily's elbow once again and pulled Lily further into the pub.

'Come on Lily!' she whined in a whisper to her now extremely irritated best friend, 'Joshua really likes you!'

'If he likes me so much then why did he try to bore me to death with his one-sided conversation about the bank?' Lily whispered back to Hestia angrily. She was not happy about this at all.

'Give him a chance Lily!' Hestia continued, urging Lily to allow Joshua Hunt to make another first impression, 'You hardly spent any time with him before because you had to leave. If you'd have given him more time I'm sure he would have talked about more than the bank!'

The two girls were now halfway across the crowded pub getting nearer and nearer to where Joshua Hunt and Sean McEvoy were sat waiting for Lily and Hestia respectively. Lily didn't have much time to escape and she had a feeling that if she didn't give a legitimate reason why she didn't want to go on a second date with Joshua then she would be forced to sit through it. She didn't want to tell Hestia like this but she felt she had no choice.

'Hestia I have to tell you something.' she said, attempting to stop Hestia in her tracks but failing to do so. Still, she powered through. 'I can't go out with Joshua-'

'Look he bought you flowers!' Hestia cooed, interrupting Lily mid flow and ignoring what she was trying to tell her.

'He did?' Lily asked, suddenly being side-tracked by this statement. No one had ever bought her flowers before.

This distraction was long enough to allow Hestia to drag Lily the final few feet over to the two boys. When they got there, Joshua and Sean stood up to greet them. Lily was trapped now. She didn't particularly want to tell Hestia in front of the two Ravenclaw boys. If she did then Hestia would be embarrassed, Sean would be uncomfortable and Joshua would be upset. She didn't want to do that to them. Any of them. The nicest thing she could do now was sit through this hour until the fake note arrived asking her to go and see Dumbledore. Then she would be able to leave and spend the rest of the day with James, probably ranting to him about Hestia when she did.

'Hello Lily.' Joshua said stiffly standing up and handing her the bunch of flowers he had bought for her, 'These are for you.'

'Lilies.' Lily said, taking them and looking down at the neatly wrapped bunch of flowers, 'How original.'

Hestia stamped on Lily's foot to remind her to play nice and give Joshua another chance. When she did this, Lily looked at her through narrowed eyes and the two girls had a silent argument. It ended with Lily turning to Joshua and thanking him politely for the flowers. Then, the four Hogwarts students clambered into the overlarge booth which looked as though it could seat twelve, and sat down. When they were all seated, Hestia and Sean went off into their own little world, holding their own private conversation and leaving Lily and Joshua alone to talk.

Lily tried to be polite. 'So how was your week?' she asked him.

'Not bad.' Joshua began, 'My father sent me a letter about how things are going at his bank and it seems that…'

Lily closed her mind to him, not wanting to listen to him talk about his father and the ruddy bank again. All she could think about was how she was going to kill Hestia later. She had gone from having a lovely day with her best friend and wishing it could be extended, to being roped into a second date with someone who she was sure could quite literally bore her to tears given the chance. Now she couldn't wait for her time with Hestia to be over. She'd much rather be with James at this precise moment and, with Lily's luck, she didn't have to wait long for that wish to come true.

* * *

Sirius had practically abandoned his date in Zonko's joke shop in favour of trying out the latest products with James. They were stood near the counter squirting some third years with a new magic gel that had come out which, when it made contact with skin, caused someone to break out in giant red hives. They unleashed this itchy gel on four third years before the owner of Zonko's joke shop informed them that they would have to buy some as they had used up half of his display. They bought six tubes.

If they had their way, James and Sirius would have probably spent all day in Zonko's joke shop but, as it was, Remus convinced them to go to The Three Broomsticks, not that Sirius needed a lot of convincing after Remus mentioned that they should get something to eat. So Sirius, after half an hour on completely ignoring his date in support of his best friend, grabbed her hand and practically dragged her out of Zonko's to go to The Three Broomsticks. James, Remus and Peter followed.

'She's so fake.' Remus muttered to James as they strolled down Hogsmeade main street on their way to the wizarding pub.

'Perfectly suited for Padfoot then.' James muttered back receiving a chuckle from Remus.

'What?' Peter asked the two of them, eager to be in on the joke. He stood in-between the pair of them looking back and forth to see who would tell him what was so funny first. Neither of them did. They just shook their heads and told him not to worry about it.

The three boys followed Sirius and his date into the three broomsticks and stood in the entrance way. The five Hogwarts students looked around the pub with deflated expressions. The pub was packed. It was literally full to full capacity and it seemed that they would have to find somewhere else to eat like the Hogs Head. But Peter spotted something and gave them an idea.

'Can we sit with other people we know?' he asked Remus and James.

'Well yeah but who do we know in here?' Remus asked him, gesturing around to the crowded pub. There were other Hogwarts students in the bar but none who the marauders would willingly sit with, not that they wouldn't be invited.

'Evans and Jones.' Peter whispered timidly as if he was afraid he might get told of for suggesting it.

James, Remus, Sirius and his date, (for they had started to listen in to the conversation at this point), looked around the pub for Lily and Hestia. They spotted them sat at the back of the pub in an overly large booth with the two Ravenclaw boys they had gone out with a few weeks ago; Sean McEvoy and Joshua Hunt. James face dropped.

Remus watched James' face as he saw Lily on a date with someone else. He looked hurt and, for reasons Remus couldn't explain, severely pissed off. There were no other words to describe it. Sirius was also looking at James' face but, unlike Remus who was feeling compassion for James in this situation, (even though they didn't know the full extent of it), Sirius was mad. He had spoken to Lily earlier that week on this topic. He had tried to convince her to give James a go and she had told him that she_ wasn't_ dating Joshua Hunt. Obviously she wasn't receptive to his suggestion and she was a liar. Sirius didn't like liars. So he decided he was going to ruin her date and maybe in the process, he could convince her to give James a chance.

'Yes.' Sirius said, dragging his date with him as he started to make his way across the pub, 'Let's sit with them.'

Peter followed straight away whilst James waited by the door and Remus waited with him. He seemed to be unable to move.

'You alright mate?' Remus asked James.

James looked at Remus and forced a smile onto his face. 'Perfectly.' he said, 'We're all friends. Just gonna have some dinner with some friends. And I already said I don't care if she dates anyone. I'm focusing on my N.E.W.T's. Yep…N.E.W.T's.' He took a deep breath and steeled himself for what he was sure was to be an awkward encounter. After all, Lily hadn't warned him she had had to go on another fake date and he wanted an explanation. His mind couldn't help but jump to conclusions, conclusions which he really hoped were wrong. The only way he would find out though was if he asked her and he didn't want to wait another minute to do that. So James, followed by Remus who was shaking his head at James' obvious denial, walked through the crowded bar after Peter, Sirius and his date.

They reached Hestia, Lily and their dates in a matter of minutes and, without an invitation or a courtesy, 'can we sit with you?' Sirius sat down in the booth, dragging his date along with him.

'Budge up Jones!' he said to Hestia, sliding along into the booth next to her. His date and Peter followed suit.

Hestia's face was a picture. In fact, everybody's face at that particular booth was a sight to see. Hestia looked outraged, staring at Sirius with daggers in her eyes at his rude interruption. 'What are you doing?' she hissed at him quietly, trying to make it so that her date, Sean, who was looking extremely surprised at the rude interruption, wouldn't hear her. 'We're on a date!'

'What a coincidence!' Sirius said sarcastically, 'So are we!'

James and Remus reached the booth where Sirius had just plonked himself down in just as he had finished his sarcastic remark. If the faces on the occupants of the booth were already a sight to see, imagine how they were magnified when James Potter arrived.

'This seat taken?' he asked Lily in a closed question. He was going to sit there anyway whether she wanted him to or not because he needed to talk to her. He needed her to clarify what was going on here.

'No.' Lily replied, knowing with one look that James was definitely not ok with the situation they were in. She hadn't expected him to be but, then again, she hadn't expected him to be here either.

As James sat down in the booth next to Lily, Remus sliding in on his left, he knew the looks he was receiving. He knew that his friends, Sirius, Remus and Peter were looking at him as if he was a ticking time bomb. He knew that Hestia was looking at him in infuriation, irritated at his appearance. He knew that Joshua Hunt was glaring at him as if he was ready to kill him, extremely annoyed that he had once again interrupted his date with Lily. He knew that Sean McEvoy was glancing between him and Joshua with an anxious look as if he was anticipating a brawl to break out any minute. And lastly, he knew Lily was looking at him, half apologetic, half anxious at what his reaction might be. That was the only look he was focusing on at the minute. To talk to her though, he would have to distract his friends into a conversation which he didn't need to contribute to.

He started Remus and Peter off onto a discussion about their shared subject Care of Magical Creatures. Then, as predicted by James, Sirius took no interest in the topic and instead started to snog his date for something to do. At the same time, almost as if she was on the same wavelength, Lily turned back to Joshua and got him started on his dads bank again, a topic she knew he wouldn't shut up about. By doing this, Hestia and Sean assumed that she was trying to ignore James and the marauders and went back to their own conversation. If she was to have a chance to talk to James, now, whilst everybody was distracted, would be the perfect opportunity. They spoke in low, hushed whispers.

'What are you doing here?' Lily asked James, careful to keep her voice to a volume which meant only he could hear her.

'Not my idea and I think the more pertinent question is what are you doing here?' James replied, matching her volume and breathing deeply to keep calm.

'Pertinent? Big word for you.' Lily said, hoping to try and make a joke so that he wouldn't focus too entirely on the situation at hand. It was looking very complicated and if he wasn't in the right mood, Lily was sure he wouldn't be too receptive to her explanations. He wasn't in the right mood.

'Don't change the subject Lily.' James cut in. He definitely wasn't in the mood for jokes. He just wanted to know what was going on.

'Look,' Lily began, taking on a tone which showed complete honesty in what she was saying and if this wasn't enough, she took his hand under the table as if the contact between the two of them would convince him. 'This wasn't planned. Hestia just kind of sprang it on me. It doesn't mean anything. There's no need to be jealous.'

James snatched a breath. 'I'm not jealous.' he defended. He believed what she had told him. There was no reason not to and, from her body language, she certainly looked as though she didn't want to be there. When James had first seen her she had been slumped on the table blowing over the top of her butterbeer bottle in boredom.

'There was nothing I could do.' Lily continued, circling her thumb on his hand.

'You could have told her the truth?' James suggested, knowing the answer he would receive as soon as he said it.

'That's not fair James.' Lily whispered shaking her head and looking down at their hands. She didn't even think of the attention this tiny move might get from the group. 'I couldn't tell her about us when she'd already organised this. She'd be embarrassed. I did try.'

'I still don't like it.' James whispered back.

'Because you're jealous?' Lily teased, for the first time receiving a small smile from James.

'I'm not jealous.' he denied

Lily leaned a little bit closer to him, looking into his eyes, completely disregarding the public venue they were in and whispered to him daringly, 'Admit you're jealous and I'll tell everyone about us right here right now.' She knew he wouldn't do it.

By this point, Joshua Hunt had become aware that Lily was no longer listening to him and looked over to Hestia for some help. The sudden stop to Joshua's continuous, monotonous monologue, (which had almost been like a drone in the background), slowly alerted the whole group to Lily and James' private conversation. Sirius had even stopped snogging his date.

James was able to get one more sentence in, staring straight back into Lily's emerald green eyes with a smirk as she stared into his. 'Neither of us is going to win here are we?' he stated in a hushed voice to which Lily smiled at.

At this point, Hestia decided to interrupt. 'What are you two whispering about?' she asked them, suspicion and irritation clearly coming out in her voice.

James and Lily looked at each other nervously for the tiniest split second before James, without missing a beat, said, 'Evans here was just telling off again.'

'Again?' Remus asked James quietly with a frown. He couldn't actually remember the last time Lily Evans had truly told James Potter off. It was a long time ago now.

'Why are you telling him off?' Sean asked Lily, his charming Irish accent flowing out effortlessly.

Lily looked at James for help which he attempted to give her straight away. His lie wasn't as smooth as before though. 'Err…' he started, unsurely, 'She doesn't think I'm a very good head boy.'

'I don't this any of us do.' Joshua put in quickly with a stiff tone as if he was trying to put one over on James. He didn't succeed.

'Thank you Joseph.' James said to him straight away. He was smiling but it was forced and his words sounded harsh.

Joshua tried to correct him, a bitter tone in his voice. 'My name is Joshua-' he began but Sirius, who really didn't like him because of the situation he believed he had caused, cut across him in a very rude interruption. He was good at those today.

'So why is Evans telling you off then?' Sirius asked James as he sprawled himself out in the limited amount of space he had meaning Hestia was pushed further towards Sean. Not that she minded but this had a knock on effect. She was pushed closer to Sean who moved over to give her a bit more space meaning Joshua had to shuffle closer to Lily who immediately moved closer to James who didn't move at all. They were soon almost joined at the side.

'Well,' James started, quickly thinking of a story from one of the patrols he had done but he couldn't think of any truthful ones from when he and Lily had taken that duty. Invariably, when they were on patrol, he managed to convince her to disappear with him for a couple of hours instead of walking around the empty castle in search of rule breakers. He did have one story and, if he'd have thought it through, he probably wouldn't have used it because it didn't involve Lily. It did involve Remus. 'When we were on patrol the other night there was this Hufflepuff lad trying to break into Professor Linkedin's office and instead of telling him off and taking points away I helped him and gave him points for imagination.'

Remus frowned. He recognised that story. He didn't say anything though because he assumed James had a reason for telling it. He just didn't know what that reason was. He would do soon.

After James had told his story to explain why he had said that Lily was mad at him, Joshua couldn't help but try to put one over on James again in a failed bid to impress Lily. The problem was, whatever he said, James was never particularly abashed. Still, it didn't stop him trying. 'So you're not a very good head boy.' he said pompously.

'Yes I think that's already been pointed out thank you Joel.' James said with another forced smile in Joshua's direction.

Joshua gritted his teeth. 'Again, my name is Joshua-'

'No one cares Hunt dude!' Sirius snapped at him.

'Shall we order something to eat?' Sean suggested, his Irish accent quelling the uncomfortable conversation.

Everyone leaned forwards to grab the menus from the centre of the table. Remus leant back quickly and opened his menu. There was some sort of grease on it and, momentarily, it slipped out of his hands. It never fell to the floor though as he caught it before it did. Something did catch his eye though when he was looking down to catch his menu. At first he took no notice but then it occurred to him what he had actually just seen. You see, James had never taken his hand out of Lily's. But, just as when he had recognised the story James had told earlier, Remus didn't say anything. James hadn't told them anything and that could only mean one thing; he didn't want them to know anything. Remus wasn't like Sirius. If it had been Sirius to spot this, James wouldn't have heard the end of it for Sirius would have bugged him about it until he gave up the ghost. Remus wasn't like this though. He respected what James obviously wanted to keep private.

The whole booth was quiet as they all perused the menu. It was an awkward silence between them all but, for Sirius, things obviously weren't awkward enough.

'Don't you just love the three broomsticks?' he questioned the table as a whole.

Nobody answered him.

He directed his next question at Lily. 'Hey Evans, remember last time we were all here together?'

Remus, sensing what subject Sirius was going to bring up, attempted to cap it. 'Shut up Padfoot.' he instructed Sirius.

Sirius took no notice and continued prodding at the memory. 'You gotta remember Evans.' he said, 'It was last year and you had specifically asked to come to Hogsmeade with us and _Prongs_ because, if I remember rightly, Jones had a date.'

'I remember.' Lily said cautiously, wondering what he was getting at. James knew.

'Good.' Sirius continued, 'We came here remember?'

'She already said she remembered Sirius so drop it.' James countered, shooting him a warning look.

'How about this.' Hestia butted in, believing she had found a solution to the awkward situation that had been forced upon them all. 'You act like we're not here and we'll act like you're not there. That way we can get on with our dates and Black can get on with defiling this poor unfortunate soul.' she finished, motioning to Sirius' date, the only one who hadn't felt uncomfortable at the situation.

'Arabella.' Sirius' date said.

'What happened to Courtney Jenkins?' Lily asked, her curiosity once again getting the better of her. Sirius had only said on Wednesday that that was who his girlfriend was. What had happened to her? But Lily never got an answer.

'Does it really matter Lily?' Hestia said wishing her best friend would just comply with the separation idea and focus on her date, 'We'll ignore then and they'll ignore us. Just because we're sat in the same booth doesn't mean we have to eat as a group. Ok?'

No one answered. Hestia assumed they had all taken notice and was about to exhale in relaxation, the idea of her double date with Sean, Joshua and Lily starting to come through at last, but she wasn't that lucky. No one is that lucky when Sirius Black is at the same table as you. If he doesn't steal your food, he'll think of something to make you wish you were somewhere else.

'And,' he carried on, still talking to Lily and pursuing the subject which James and Remus had already tried to deter him from, 'when we came here, I had a specific chant which I dedicated to you and my Jimmy-boy here. Remember?' he asked, preparing to chant, 'It went like this, 'Ki-'

'Alright Sirius that's enough now!' Remus said, telling Sirius off once and for all. He sent him a look which he had used on him and James many times before. It was the look he gave them when they used to bully anyone and everyone in sight, specifically Severus Snape. It had always made them feel ashamed. It still worked. Sirius shut up.

James sighed and announced to his friends, 'I'm gonna go order dinner.' feeling as if he couldn't stand this awkward situation much longer. He just needed to stretch his legs for a few seconds. As Remus made way for him to get out of the booth though, he heard something which set his jaw tight and made him roll his eyes.

'About dinner Lily.' Joshua began, 'As you ran out on our last date and I was forced to pay, I thought you could pay this time. It's only fair.'

'Ok.' Lily said after a moment's hesitation. There was an underlying note of worry in her voice which not many would have heard. James heard it though. Still, instead of saying something that would make the situation even more uncomfortable for her, something he really didn't want to do because it could upset her, he took his friends dinner orders.

'What do you want Wormy?' James asked Peter.

'Usual.' Peter replied meekly as if he was afraid James might turn around and say, 'no you can't have that. Pick something else.' He didn't.

James turned to Remus, Sirius and Arabella in turn, who all asked for the same thing, said, 'I'll be back in a second.' and left to go to the bar to wait to be served.

The bar was crowded. There was a long row of customers who were there before him, still waiting to be served. It looked as though he was going to be more than a second. He leant on the counter to settle himself into the wait when a sudden thud on the counter next to him made him turn around.

It was Lily. She looked slightly panicked and flustered and it wasn't until she pulled her purse out of her bag and shook all the change she had out onto the counter that James realised why.

'Do you have enough?' he asked her, looking at the change she had emptied out of her purse and quickly adding it up. There were around six Sickles and thirteen Knuts. Lily didn't give up though. She rooted around her bag to see if she could find some more change, spilling out into a rant at the same time.

'I don't know.' she said in answer to him first. Then she went into her angry outburst, her anger originating from panic. 'God I could kill Hestia! First she forces me to buy something frivolous because she thinks that I 'shop wrong'. Then she _drags_ me here to go out with Mr 'my dad manages a bank and because I think I'm better than you I'm going to bore you to death with all the menial details about his job that you never actually asked to know'. Then after all that boasting he asks me to pay for a date that's _not_ actually a date that I _didn't_ know about which _wouldn't_ have _usually_ been a problem only, oh yeah! Hestia convinced me to spend all of my money on some new crap that I really didn't need! Do you think they start bar tabs?'

James listed to her rant, smiling at her obvious attempts to once again point out that she didn't want to be on her fake date. He answered her question. 'Yeah they do but don't worry about it. I'll get it for you.'

Lily stopped digging through her bag and looked at James properly for the first time since she reached the counter. She looked into his eyes for a couple of seconds before shaking her head. 'I can't ask you to do that.' she stated, 'Especially not after this mess which I am sorry about James. I honestly didn't know.'

It was then James' turn to shake his head. 'Don't worry about it. And you're not asking me to do anything. I offered. It's a perk you get when dating me.'

Lily still looked extremely unwilling to accept his help. She didn't want to leave him out of pocket but, looking back to her sorry change, she felt she had no choice. She reluctantly agreed to let him pay, promising that she'd pay him back later, a promise which he waved away. 'I'm still going to kill Hestia.' she said afterwards.

'No you're not.' James sighed. He wanted to kill Hestia too but he knew neither of them would. He looked back over to where Hestia was sitting. She was in what looked like a deep conversation with Sean. After looking at her for a couple of seconds, it was then Joshua who caught his attention. Unable to resist and knowing the intensified look that Joshua would be giving him soon, he leant over to Lily smirking, his head so close to hers they were almost cheek to cheek, and whispered in her ear. 'Though I think that you should go back to your fake date, because it looks as though he's gonna kill me before much longer.'

Lily breathed in James' scent of beech wood before glancing out of the corner of her eyes to Joshua who was glaring daggers at James. 'God he does doesn't he?' she whispered back with a laughing smile growing on her face.

James smiled too, pleased she hadn't pulled away from his obvious attempt to annoy Joshua further. They stayed where they were, cheeks almost touching, breathing each other in for a good twenty seconds, before James pulled back from her with a mischievous smirk.

He leant on the counter, still looking at Lily with that smirk before he felt the need to once again glance at Joshua to see if he had started sharpening a knife yet or gripping his wand ready to attack. He hadn't. He had gripped something else though. His smirk dropped to a neutral expression.

'He bought you flowers.' James stated upon seeing Joshua's hand clamped around the bunch of flowers he had brought out onto the table.

'Lilies.' Lily said dismissively with a roll of her eyes, 'Very original.' she went on to say sarcastically.

'He likes you.' James announced with a hard swallow.

Again, Lily was dismissive of this fact. 'If he really liked me he'd stop trying to bore me to death with talk of his dad's bank. Maybe if he stopped going on about himself for two seconds he'd realise that I don't like him back.'

'I should hope not.' James said, now flashing a cheeky smile her way, 'That is a privilege reserved for me. Along with any other privileges you see fit to give me.'

Lily shook her head at his obvious insinuation. 'How is it you can go from jealous to calm about this in less than five minutes?' she asked him.

'Less than that because I'm not jealous.' James replied quickly, brushing this comment off as Madam Rosmerta had arrived now ready to take their order.

James put in his order for himself, Remus, Peter Sirius and Arabella and then told Madam Rosmerta to put whatever Lily ordered on his bill too to which Lily thanked him for once more. Everything would have been fine from then on. They would have gone back to the booth, pretended that Lily was on a date with Joshua for another half an hour at which point their previously arranged plan to leave together without arousing suspicion from their friends would have been put into action. Everything would have been fine if Hestia hadn't come up to the counter at that moment to ruin it all.

'Joshua's waiting for you Lily.' she announced upon her arrival.

Lily sighed. 'Ok.' she said, every bit of her tone of voice saying, 'if I have too'. Before she left to return to the table and what was sure to be another soliloquy on the bank of Joshua's father, she turned to James and mouthed 'help me' to him to which he chuckled fondly at.

When she was gone, Hestia rounded on James. 'What do you think you're doing?' she asked him angrily.

'Waiting to pay for my food?' James said just as Madam Rosmerta returned from placing his order in with the kitchen to collect his money off of him.

'Don't.' Hestia said, stopping his arm before he handed over the money he owed for his meal.

James stopped and took a deep breath before turning to Madam Rosmerta and asking her politely to give them a minute which she graciously agreed to. He then turned back to Hestia and asked her what she wanted from him.

'I want you to leave.' Hestia said with no restrictions.

'What?' James asked, confused.

'Look,' Hestia began, going into a speech which she had obviously been thinking about giving for a while. At least the past ten minutes anyway. 'You need to leave. Lily's on a date with someone who's not you. Who she's well suited for and has things in common with. Get over it. It's not as if you two were ever together anyway. You messed about too much and you took too long and now she's with someone else. And by you being here you're standing in the way of her future happiness and, even if you don't like the fact that she said yes to someone who wasn't you, I'd have thought you'd at least want her to be happy. If you ever actually liked her, if it wasn't just the thrill of the chase, then you'll leave now and let her get on with her date.'

She then stalked away leaving James at the bar. He hesitated for a few minutes. Then Madam Rosmerta returned and he had to make a decision. It was complicated. A complicated situation to sift through because everyone thought different things and believed different things to be the truth even though they weren't. It made his head hurt so, in the end, he resorted to going back to his and Lily's original arrangement to meet up privately through a previously organised distraction. He told Madam Rosmerta to cancel five of the seven meals he had ordered knowing that as soon as he walked out of The Three Broomsticks his friends and Sirius' date would follow. He paid for Lily and Joshua's meals then turned towards the door and, without looking back, strolled out of the pub. Just as he predicted, Remus, Peter and Sirius, (shadowed by Sirius' date) followed suit leaving Lily, Hestia, Sean and Joshua in the booth alone as they had been before their double date was interrupted.

Lily watched the boys leave the pub, wondering what Hestia had said to James to make him go. She didn't ask her though because she was sure Hestia wouldn't tell her anyway, at least not in front of Joshua and Sean. So she reluctantly sat at the booth for another half an hour during which time their meals arrived and Joshua had continued to bore her with the specifics about how his father created the workers schedule and signed pay checks. She was extremely pleased when hers and James' plan to extract her from Hestia's company, (now Sean's and Joshua's company too), was put into action. It came in the form of a note.

A small brown rufus legged owl, flew into the bar through the open door and zoomed straight over to Lily to give her a message. She landed on the table in front of her and held out her leg for Lily to untie the note from. When Lily had untied it, the tiny owl flew away but not before it nipped her affectionately. She had been doing that recently when Lily had been taken to see her. Sox was a very loving owl anyway and James, in Lily's opinion, was lucky to have her.

Lily unfolded the message, announced to the group that Dumbledore needed to see her in his office, (something to do with head duties), and got up to leave. She was so excited to finally be able to leave the monotony of Joshua Hunt that she forgot her shopping bags. Luckily, she had a very good best friend who would give them to her.

So Lily left the pub and, as soon as she was outside, breathed in the lovely fresh air. She hadn't realised how stuffy it had been in The Three Broomsticks till now. Still, not wanting to waste anytime stood around sniffing the air like an idiot, Lily made her way down the bustling main street of Hogsmeade unaware that she had left her shopping bags in the bar. They weren't the first things on her mind. She continued down the street, walking easily through the crowds. It was a nice walk. At least it was a nice walk until she was very suddenly and rather aggressively pulled into a side alley. Something she wasn't expecting…

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**Thanks for reading**

**I will update as soon as I possibly can, the latest being the 8-5-2013**

**Galindaba**


	54. Chapter 53

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader! Sorry about the long gap between my last update and this one. Had uni assessments to do but they are now out of the way as I have finished my first year of uni! Yay! (ish)**

**Anyway, here's chapter Fifty-Three!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

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**Chapter Fifty-Three**

Lily was pushed roughly against the wall, her back pressed against it. Her right wrist was being clamped against the brick behind her by someone else's hand and, almost immediately, a hand made contact with her left cheek, pushing her hair back brusquely out of her face. Her head was tipped up and her lips were hungrily covered by someone else's in a fiercely passionate kiss. Her mouth was forced open as the person who was kissing her slid his tongue inside. He emitted a low, soft moan in the back of his throat as he filled his urgent desire for her.

Lily knew who it was. The smell of beech wood had made sure of that. He had never kissed her like this before though. Their kisses were always passionate but this reached a new level of intensity as his craving for her took hold of them both. Lily moved her free hand, the one that James wasn't pinning to the wall assertively, into his messy black hair and gripped it tight pulling him closer towards her, something which he didn't refuse.

Through nothing but a need for air, they broke apart, a fierce intensity in James' eyes that Lily had never seen before. She brought her hand down from where it was tangled in his hair to grip loosely onto his shirt near his waist. She was breathing deeply, still pressed against the wall, James' hand still on her face, the other still holding her wrist. He was breathing deeply too, his forehead resting on hers as he tried to compose himself from his moment of weakness.

He freed her wrist from where he had fixed it against the wall and let it drop to her side. His breathing was starting to regulate itself now and, after taking in her scent one more time, he released her from where he had imprisoned her against the wall. He looked into her eyes and apologised for his loss of control. 'Sorry.' he said to her.

Lily laughed. 'Feel better for that?' she asked him, knowing this was the only way they would move forwards with this situation.

James laughed also and shook his head slightly. He then entwined his hand in hers and pulled her into a slow walk next to him.

'So what's with the intense kiss?' Lily asked him immediately as they strolled down the side street. She had no idea where he was leading her but she didn't care particularly.

'Am I not allowed to kiss you?' James questioned, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

'What would you do if I said no?' Lily said, turning her head to look at him.

James stopped and pretended to think for a moment. 'Probably ignore you.' he replied with a definite nod of his head.

Lily shook her head in return as they started to walk again. She knew, or at least, she had an inkling, behind James' sudden strong passion for her. He was jealous. He would never admit it, she knew that, but she believed that he had forcibly pulled her into the side alley and trapped her against a wall as a way to show the world that he could. It was a way to show that he was the one who was dating her and not Joshua Hunt. Joshua Hunt wouldn't have been allowed to be quite as rough and demanding with her and get away with it. James could. He was the only person who could be and he knew it. And the fact that he had chosen to demonstrate this ability right after he had been forced to see her with someone else, in Lily's eyes at least, showed his jealousy. Lily smiled.

As James brought her out of the side alley into a street lined with odd shaped houses owned by various wizarding families, he noticed her smile. 'Why are you smiling like that?' he asked her suspiciously.

'Because you're jealous.' Lily replied simply, her smile growing on her face. She had never made anyone jealous before, (at least not that she knew of), and quite liked the feeling it gave her. She felt…almost powerful.

'I'm not jealous.' James denied shaking his head again and taking her down a small passage way that was between two of the houses on that street.

'Yes you are.' Lily pressed on, teasing him about it. She knew he'd deny it. He had denied it earlier on in The Three Broomsticks. There was no reason for him to admit it now.

'No I'm not and why are you so happy about it?' James questioned her.

'Because it means you're not perfect.' Lily shrugged.

'Thanks.' James responded, acting as if he was insulted. He guided her around a bin that had fallen over in the passage way they were walking through. The passage way was shadowed over by the tall houses either side of it so James didn't see Lily roll her eyes.

'I mean that you're human like me.' she clarified.

'That's a relief. I thought I was a troll.' James retorted sarcastically.

'Well…' Lily began, teasing him once more.

'Shut up.' he said, pulling her closer towards him and covering her mouth with his free hand in a bid to stop her mocking him.

She laughed and pulled his hand down away from her face, again to clarify what she meant. 'I just mean that you have likes and dislikes like everybody else. You don't like everything and everyone like you claim to.' she said.

'That's not true. I openly despise some people.' James retaliated as they finally exited the passage way that they had been slowly making their way out of. 'Slytherins.' he stated.

As they were out of the dark and shadowed passage way now, James could see Lily's face. She had a stern expression upon it. She didn't particularly like that side of him. It reminded her of the boy that used to bully her ex-best friend. James could tell.

'Sorry.' he apologised.

'It's just good to know that you have fears like me.' Lily continued on, determined to be undeterred by that little slip up.

Now James was a proud person. He had never admitted to being scared of anything not even to Sirius who was practically his brother. Sirius was the person James was closest to and even _he_ didn't know any of James fears. James had a simple explanation for this. 'I don't have any fears.' he told Lily.

'Me going on a date with someone else.' Lily suggested.

'That's jealousy. Not a fear.' James said quickly.

'Ha!' Lily said stopping them both and pointing a finger at him and smiling in triumph. 'So you admit it! You are jealous!'

James rolled his eyes. 'I will leave.' he said making no attempt to move. He didn't like to admit he was jealous either but he guessed that that can of worms was open now. Lily could use that one against him. She could most likely get him to do anything now that she had that little gem stored away for safe keeping.

'No you won't.' Lily replied, brushing James' empty threat to the side to continue with her line of questioning. 'Come on.' she said, 'Tell me something you're scared of.'

'Tell me something you're scared of.' James retaliated.

'Not till you do.' Lily said.

'Ditto.' James said.

They stood staring at each other in challenge. Lily had narrowed her eyes slightly in a small frown and James and raised his eyebrows in a testing expression. Lily gave in first.

'Fine.' she sighed, 'Bats.'

'As in beaters bats?' James queried as they started to walk again. He had now brought her out into a place that she recognised. It was another street lined with odd shaped houses except, this time, they were surrounding a small portion of land. It had lush green grass and one large leaf filled oak tree. Underneath the oak tree was a wooden bench big enough for two. It was the place James had taken her to when she had been crying over her sister letter on New Year's Day. It was the place that she had realised she had severely misjudged him for it was the place that he demonstrated his caring and compassion. It was where they had been when the Hogsmeade attacks had broken out.

'As in the animal.' Lily went on to explain before adding under her breath, '(If they can even be called that).'

'So vampires are off limits too then.' James asked with a smirk.

'You're hilarious.' Lily said sarcastically.

'I know.' James replied. They were now strolling casually onto the grassy portion of land which the houses surrounded, the grass feeling soft beneath their feet, even in shoes.

'Now tell me your fears.' Lily demanded, wanting to know what in the world made James Potter scared. After all, he had never shown any fears that she knew of. He had never shown any at all.

'I don't have any.' James said quickly, once again, his pride coming through.

'Fine.' Lily sighed, deciding to use her new found weapon. She let go of his hand and turned around saying, 'I'll go see if Joshua has any-'

'All right fine.' James said quickly, grabbing her wrist and pulling her back. He pulled her round to face him and, to make sure she didn't try to leave again, he wrapped his arms around her waist and gripped her to him. 'Let's see…err…toads.' he came up with on the spot, looking down into her eyes, 'I don't like toads.'

'You're scared of toads?' Lily asked with raised eyebrows, a teasing expression forming on her face again. All she seemed to do was tease him. 'Does that include frogs?'

'I'm not _scared_ of them.' James cleared up, 'It's not like I run away from them screaming-'

'Ha!' Lily laughed in interruption

'-shut it.' James said, tightening his grip around her for a split second in a friendly warning, 'I just don't like them.'

'All right.' Lily said, placing her hands on his chest and looking at them, 'So what are you _scared_ of?'

'Nothing.' James answered straight away, his pride ever present. There was only one way he would spill the beans and, unfortunately for him, Lily now knew what buttons to push.

'Ok.' she said, using where her hands were on his chest to push away from him and free herself from his grip, 'I'll go finish my date with-'

'All right fine!' James said, catching her hand as she tried to walk away again and pulling her back to face him. He was finally giving in. He was about to tell someone something that scared him. 'Don't laugh at me though.' he instructed of her. He didn't want people to laugh at him. People always laughed _with_ him. He controlled the laughter. He was the ring leader and that was the way he liked it.

'I promise.' Lily said with a pleased smile, glad she had finally gotten her way. She liked getting her own way just as she liked presents, being right and being in control.

'I'm scared of thunder storms.' James conceded, not looking at her directly but instead looking at their hands.

'Really?' Lily asked, not laughing at him at all. It was a common fear. A lot of the children at her primary school didn't like thunder storms. It was the biggest fear in her year group. Well that and spiders but who likes spiders? She was confused about something though. 'You who likes to go for walks in the rain to, and I quote, 'do some serious thinking' is scared of thunder storms?' she questioned him curiously.

'Yeah.' James nodded, 'I used to hide under the table when I was little. No one would be able to get me out for a couple of hours after.'

'Do you still do that?' Lily said.

'No. But mostly because I'm too big to fit under there now.' he replied, looking at her finally and grinning at his own joke.

'Aw.' Lily cooed.

James laughed at her and led her across the final stretch of grass to go and sit on the bench underneath the oak tree. He sat with his arm along the back of the bench where she was leaning, her legs crossed. He looked at her, into her emerald green eyes deeply. Lily could feel herself going a bit red at his penetrating gaze.

'Why are you staring at me like that?' she asked him finally.

'I'm trying to read your mind.' James said simply.

'You can't read my mind.' Lily brushed off simply, shaking her head slightly.

'Doesn't mean I can't try.' James smirked.

Lily took a deep breath. 'Go on then. What am I thinking?'

James leaned in to her a little bit, placing his hand just above her knee, a serious look on his face. 'You're thinking, 'gee James looks dashing today and man I wish he'd kiss me'.' he said.

'Actually I was thinking that you're scared of toads.' Lily said trying to hold back a smile and the blush which she was sure was creeping into her cheeks at his hand on her knee. Her stomach was swooping.

James leant in closer to her, his eyes flickering to her lips. 'I'm not scared of toads.' he defended.

'Ribbit.' Lily teased, her smiled now fully formed on her face.

James was now extremely close to her, his eyes still moving from her eyes to her lips quickly. 'Shut up.' he managed to say to her before he captured her lips in his, his hand grazing up her thigh.

Lily smiled against his lips and moved her right hand to the side of his face, the tips of her fingers brushing against the cool side of his glasses. She kissed him back for only a few seconds before…

'Ahem!'

Simultaneously, Lily and James pulled away from each other slowly to see what the source of the noise was. As soon as Lily saw who it was, she sprang up, James' hand dropping from her thigh by her sudden move, and started to try and stutter an explanation. 'Hestia! Err…hi! Erm…we were just…well…erm…' she began, getting nowhere at all. James was good at this making things up on the spot thing. She turned to him for help. 'Help?' she asked.

'Hey you're on your own.' James replied, leaning back into the bench to watch the events unfold in front of him.

'You suck!' whispered at him with narrowed eyes.

'Thank you.' James smiled.

'Why are you snogging James Potter?' Hestia asked, Lily, bringing her attention back to her. She was stood a good few feet away from her best friend with an extremely shocked expression upon her face. She was carrying Lily's shopping bags, the ones she had left in The Three Broomsticks.

'Because James Bond was taken?' Lily suggested, trying to unwind the situation with a joke. The only problem was, coming from the muggle world, she was the only one who knew who James Bond actually was.

'Who?' Hestia questioned, confusion now mingling with her shock.

'Doesn't matter.' Lily said, shaking her head quickly and brushing her comment away.

'You do realise you've given no good excuse for kissing him right?' Hestia said, still wanting an explanation for her best friend's behaviour. How could she had gone from being on a date with Joshua Hunt and being mad at James Potter one minute to snogging him under an oak tree in a secluded location the next. It made no sense to Hestia.

'Well…' Lily began, biting her lip. She could still taste James lingering on her tongue and lips. 'What if it was just a really good kiss?' she asked Hestia.

'Thanks!' James smiled proudly.

'Shut up!' she snapped at him. If he wasn't going to help her then the least he could do was stay quiet.

'Sorry.' he apologised, looking above him to the branches of the oak tree.

'Lily what's going on?' Hestia said to Lily, a reproachful tone in her voice. She just wanted to know what was happening. What Lily hadn't told her and why.

Lily didn't answer Hestia. She had no idea what to tell her really. Obviously there was no hiding the fact that she was with James. That fact was plainly obvious. But she didn't know how to explain to Hestia, her best friend, why she had hid it. Why she was the reason she had hid it. Why she didn't want to tell her. In the end, she didn't need to.

'Alright Jones, here's the deal.' James said with a sigh as he stood up and walked to stand next to Lily.

'What are you doing?' Lily asked him, wondering why he had suddenly decided to help her after he had told her not two minutes ago that she was 'on her own'.

'Well I'm not gonna sit back and watch you flap about this.' James shrugged.

'I do not flap!' Lily retorted, hitting him on the arm to which he just laughed at.

'Yeah you do.' James said to her quickly with a smirk before turning back to Hestia to explain everything. He explained to her how he and Lily had been secretly dating since the fourth of September, almost six weeks ago now. He told her how Lily had made him promise to keep it a secret because of everything she had said to her before they broke up from school for the summer holiday. He then went on to explain the situation over Joshua Hunt. How what Hestia, Joshua Hunt, Sean McEvoy and the whole school had seen to be a real date had really, through the eyes of Lily and James, been fake and a way to avert suspicion.

Whilst James was telling Hestia all of this, Lily watched her face and reactions nervously. She didn't know how she expected her to react really. She could be upset that Lily had gone against her advice, even if that advice was given in a fit of anger from her own failed relationship. She could be angry that Lily had ruined her plans for more double dates with the two lads from Ravenclaw. Or she could feel betrayed that Lily had chosen not to confide in her. Lily couldn't tell. Hestia's face was an expressionless mask but whatever Lily was expecting, she didn't think she could ever have predicted the conversation that followed.

Hestia spoke to James. 'You let me have a go at you in The Three Broomsticks.' she said.

'She had a go at you?' Lily asked James.

Both girls were looking at him. He ran a hand through his hair, a subconscious reflex. 'Yeah.' James nodded at Lily before turning to Hestia. 'That was fun. We should do that again!' he said with a joking crooked smile.

'Why did you let me have a go at you?' Hestia questioned James with a slight tilt of her head.

James shrugged.

'Why did you have a go at him?' Lily asked Hestia, becoming rather paranoid about why she hadn't actually spoken to her yet.

Hestia looked at Lily and looked slightly abashed. 'Well I thought that…I thought he was trying to ruin your date…I didn't know that…I thought you'd moved on…you told me…' Hestia said in bits but Lily got the message, 'I just didn't want you to be hurt like I was Lily.'

Lily exhaled the breath of air she didn't know she was holding and looked at James once before walking over to stand in front of Hestia. 'I know that.' she said to her honestly, 'But James isn't Matthew Davies and my situation and circumstances are a lot different to yours. But what you said did make a lot of sense. I can't handle people staring at me and being mean just because we're together. You were right about that. But not about everything and I guess I was just worried that you'd be disappointed that I didn't listen to your advice.'

Hestia smiled at Lily. 'I don't care.' she said with a small shake of her head, 'As long as you're happy. As your best friend that's all I want for you.' she continued before leaning around Lily to talk to James. 'But if you hurt her I will kill you!' she warned.

James looked confused. 'Isn't that supposed to be the line from the parents?' he asked.

Lily laughed whilst Hestia said, 'I'm sure they'd kill you too. It's not nice to die three times you know so be warned!'

The three of them stood in a small quiet for a couple of seconds before Lily broke it. 'Are those my shopping bags?' she asked Hestia.

'Yeah.' Hestia said in recall, handing them to Lily who held them out for James to take, something he did dutifully without complaint. He walked forwards to stand by Lily's side again to hold her bags.

'Guess I'd better get back to The Three Broomsticks.' Hestia said, remembering that she had left Sean and Joshua in there whilst she trailed after Lily. 'Explain to Joshua what's going on and why you won't be dating him again.'

'Actually…' Lily began, her heart beginning to pound. She didn't want them to know, anyone to know. Hestia knew and, for now at least, that was enough.

James noticed her hesitation. He saw the look in her eyes and deduced that even though she had gotten over the hurdle of telling Hestia, successfully too, she still wasn't ready for the world to know. From the look in her eyes, he saw that she was scared. He didn't want her to be scared. He wanted her to be comfortable and, until that happened, he didn't want anything forced upon her. So he turned to Hestia and said, 'Don't tell him about me and Lily. Don't tell anyone.'

'Why not?' Hestia asked him.

James looked down at Lily again. 'If Lily doesn't feel ready to tell anyone yet then I don't want to force her to. We'll tell people about us in our own time.' he said, receiving a thankful smile from Lily before adding, 'Besides, Sirius would kill me if John Hunt-'

'Joshua Hunt.'

'Whatever.' James said waving Hestia's correction away, 'Anyway, he'd kill me if that git knew before I told him.'

'Well,' Hestia said, turning to Lily, 'guess I'm gonna have to find another excuse as to why you don't want to date him. And I'm gonna have to come up with another reason why you interrupted their date.' she continued, motioning to James, 'Can't use the excuse of your jealousy now.'

Lily shook her head at Hestia quickly in warning, symbolising with her hands for her to stay away from that topic. It didn't work.

'I'm not jealous.' James defended again. He was tired of this now. Why didn't people believe that he wasn't jealous? Lily thought he was, Hestia thought he was and he knew that, when they had walked into The Three Broomsticks and had seen Lily with Joshua, Remus, Peter and Sirius had thought he was too. It was getting annoying now. Surely he knew what he was feeling more than others did.

'Ok.' Hestia said placating, not believing him at all. He was definitely emitting all the signs of jealousy. For one he kept referring to Joshua Hunt as 'git', 'Joseph', 'Joel' or 'John'. Anything but his actual name.

'I'm not!' he denied once more, turning to Lily for back up, 'Tell her I'm not jealous.'

'But that would be lying.' Lily said, 'You admitted it to me not ten minutes ago…kind of.'

James narrowed his eyes at her and lowered his voice to try and make it so that only she could hear him. 'But you're different.' he said, 'I can't tell Jones that I'm jealous. I can tell you that because…well…because…'

'Because you're his girlfriend.' Hestia filled in for him, his attempts to block her out of the conversation obviously failing miserably.

James and Lily looked at her slowly, both rather surprised at that sudden bold statement about their relationship. They looked at each other again and then back to Hestia. It was Lily to speak first.

'We haven't actually talked about that yet.' she said uncomfortably.

'Oh.' Hestia smiled, 'Well, I guess I've given you something to talk about then.' she said before turning around, walking away, shouting 'bye' over her shoulder and leaving James and Lily to talk about their relationship and what the status between them actually was.

* * *

Strangely, Hestia knowing Lily and James' secret was the best thing for them. She helped them sneak around and made excuses for them where possible. They were both very surprised because it was common knowledge around the school that Hestia Jones couldn't keep a secret. She kept this one though. She zipped her lips and kept it all to herself. She made a plausible excuse to Joshua Hunt about why Lily was no longer interested in dating him, something which he didn't take too well, but Hestia was happy to do it. Lily was happier than she'd seen her before. The beginnings of relationships can have that effect on a person. Everything is exciting; every touch, every kiss. Plus Lily had the added excitement of the secret. It was safe to say that Lily's budding romance with James Potter started to restore the romantic in Hestia.

The other person who was doing their best to help James and Lily out was Remus Lupin. Only Lily and James didn't know this. They didn't know that he knew about them. They were completely oblivious to the fact that he had seen their hands entwined under the table in The Three Broomsticks and, from James telling a story about one of his patrols, replacing Remus with Lily, he had deduced the secret they were keeping. Also, they were unaware that, since that Hogsmeade trip, Remus had woken up on several occasions to find James' bed empty at half one in the morning only to have him magically reappear back in the dorm room a couple of hours later. If they'd have known, they would have been extremely grateful that he had kept it to himself. Then again, if they had known, they would have thanked him profusely for trying to keep Sirius at bay.

One morning, at breakfast, some invitations went out to a select few people. They arrived via small brown school owls in putrid orange envelopes. Some of the people to receive these invitations were Amelia Bones and Adrian Goward in Hufflepuff, Barnabus Cuff and Dahlia Fleur-Peri from Ravenclaw, Severus Snape and Regulus Black from Slytherin and Dirk Creswell, Lily Evans and James Potter from Gryffindor. They were all in various years in their Hogwarts careers but nevertheless, they were all invited to come together at Professor Slughorn's annual Halloween party which he held for his Slug Club. It was a club which consisted of his favourite students; those which showed talent and promise or ambition. Before this year, James had never considered going, even though he always received the invitation. But now, because he knew Lily would be there, he was seriously thinking about it.

'You'd have really thought that he'd have got the message by now!' Sirius said as he slurped his milk up out of his cereal bowl, some of the white liquid running down his chin.

'Yeah.' James replied, putting the invitation to the side where Peter picked it up to read it.

'What I want to know is why does he only invite you?' Sirius went on to say, 'I beat you in looks and brains.'

'And the award for modesty goes to…' Remus muttered under his breath, earning himself a chuckle from James and a nervous titter from Peter.

'Who needs to be modest when you look this great?' Sirius boasted, smoothing his sleek black hair down with his hand.

'Eat your breakfast.' James said with a laugh, chucking a muffin directly in Sirius' face.

'Hey!' Sirius said in outrage that his best friend was throwing stuff at him. Then he saw the muffin. 'Thanks!'

James shook his head at Sirius' usual behaviour and went back to his own breakfast for a split second before he was spoken to again.

'Are you gonna go this year Prongs?' Peter asked him from the side of where he was sat, holding the Halloween invitation in his pudgy hand.

'Please!' Sirius answered for James, 'Prongs ain't gonna go to that thing. We have plans to dress up like Nearly Headless Nick this year. It's gonna be great!'

'Well-' James began, his eyes flickering over momentarily to where Lily was sat a few seats down, something which Remus did not miss.

'Prongs!' Sirius whined, 'You gotta be kidding me!'

Remus saw James look away in annoyance at Sirius' whinging. He could tell that James was struggling internally with this decision, a decision which he usually wouldn't have had to make. Before, there would have been no question about it. James would be right there next to Sirius all too eager to pull whatever kind of Halloween stunt took their fancy. These stunts ranged from the cruel, like when they created gravestones with the dates they were going to die on for all the people in Slytherin that they didn't like in their second year at Hogwarts and placed them strategically around the school, (something which they got three months detentions for), to the strange but spectacular, such as the time they spent weeks creating a very believable giant squid replica in their fourth year and had charmed it to float up to the enchanted ceiling in the great hall and randomly tickle people's heads throughout dinner, (again, a detention worthy prank). And this year it seemed like they had already had something planned, something that, if Remus was right in thinking, had something to do with decapitation. But this year, there was also a question about what James should do because, as much as Remus knew he would want to pull a prank with Sirius, Remus also knew that Slughorn's party meant Lily. Ultimately, it came down to who James would prefer to spend time with; Sirius or Lily. His decision wasn't made any easier by the fact that he was concealing his relationship with Lily from Sirius, something Remus still wasn't entirely sure about the reason behind. Still, he tried to make it easier on him.

'You know,' he began, 'as it's your last year at the school you might want to put Slughorn out of his misery and finally go to one of his things.'

James looked at Remus with a slight frown at his suggestion but he took it all the same, not thinking about what it could actually mean or if there were any underlying reasons. 'That's true.' he said nodding his head.

'But Prongs!' Sirius moaned again, picking pieces off of his muffin and throwing them at him, 'We've already planned everything! It'll be awesome! You can't walk away from that.'

'Technically I'm sat.' James muttered, trying to make a joke.

'No.' Sirius said, slamming his fist down on the table in a sudden burst of anger, capturing the attention of some people around him, 'Slughorn can stay in misery. You can't break our tradition!'

Sirius tried to stare James, who was looking back at him unimpressed, down. He tried to convince him to see his way of things through his unwavering stare for a few minutes before his expression changed. Suddenly, he went from a narrow-eyed stare to a look of mischievous realisation. 'Ah!' he said with a nod of his head as if he had suddenly just been keyed in on the plan, 'I get it.'

Remus saw James wasn't answering and saw him gulp in worry that he had been caught out. So Remus decided to clarify if this was the case. 'What do you get?' he whispered to Sirius, knowing that by lowering his voice Sirius would automatically mimic him.

'You've got something planned for Slughorn's party haven't you?' Sirius questioned James knowingly for he believed this was the only reason James would possibly want to cancel their already made Halloween plans and do something else instead. 'What is it?' he went on to ask, 'We spiking the drink? Stealing the decorations? Locking them all in the room?'

'No.' James answered honestly, 'I just want to go to the party.'

'But you're taking me right?' Sirius badgered him, 'We gonna do some crazy stuff right? Try and eat someone's brains? _Actually_ eat someone's brains?'

'I don't think he can take anyone.' Remus put in quickly.

'So we'll crash the party!' Sirius went on happily, a glint coming out in his eye as he thought of all the tricks they could play on the swots who actually attended Slughorn's do's. Like Severus Snape. They hadn't done anything to him in a while. Halloween might be the perfect opportunity.

'Do we really want to crash the party though?' Remus said, trying to talk Sirius out of it. He was having no luck though.

'Yeah!' he went on to say, 'We could do our Nearly Headless Nick thing there! You know what else we could do?'

'Accept that I want to go to the party and _not _pull anything?' James suggested.

'No.' Sirius said, waving his comment away as if he hadn't heard anything, 'We could go get a load of spiders and-'

'No.' James said.

'Come on!' Sirius whined again, 'You don't even know what I'm gonna say!'

'I know it's some sort of prank.' James replied.

'And that's what we're best at!' Sirius pointed out, baffled by James' ridiculous idea of doing nothing. He didn't understand it. They always pulled something on Halloween, even if it was just a lame dress up like last year they always pulled something. Why was James changing his mind? 'What are you hiding?' Sirius asked him suspiciously.

'Nothing.' James defended quickly, perhaps a little too quickly.

'So you are hiding something?' Sirius interrogated.

'No.' James said.

'Just drop it Padfoot.' Remus instructed.

'Are you in on it too?' he questioned, turning on Remus.

'In on what?' Remus replied, very convincingly, 'There's nothing to be in on.'

'Then why don't you want to pull our Halloween prank Prongs?' Sirius demanded, rounding on him now.

'I never said-'

'Yes you did!'

'Fine!' James said standing up and speaking loud enough for certain ears to hear him, 'I do the damn Halloween gag with you if it'll shut you up!' he then turned to Peter who still had hold of his invitation. 'Reply no to that won't you?' he asked of him before walking out of the hall, Remus noticing that a few minutes later, Lily followed him, concern on her face.

He turned to Sirius and shook his head at him in slight disappointment. He couldn't blame him too much though because he had no idea what James' real reasons for wanting to go to that party were. If he had, he probably wouldn't have made such a fuss to get his own way. But he had and he did get his own way.

A few days later, all jokes and smiles, James and Sirius had arrived at the Halloween feast dressed, as they said they would be, like Nearly Headless Nick. Halfway through the dinner an old fashioned guillotine axe had swung down onto Gryffindor's table, almost beheading half of its occupants, actually beheading James and Sirius to the extent of Nearly Headless Nick. There were screams in the hall as they saw two of the most popular people in school practically lose their heads. They sat at the table with their heads hanging limply off of their necks, held on by one tiny flap of skin. To everyone in the hall they had seemed dead as doornails for at least five minutes where they didn't move a muscle and where the hall was silenced in fright. Then they had pushed their heads back on to their necks and finished their dinner as if nothing had happened. Afterwards they were called up to the high table to talk to Dumbledore where he congratulated them on their extraordinary magic. He knew how they had done it of course but no one else in the school had the faintest idea how they had managed to pull it off and live to tell the tale. Still, he gave them twenty house points each for creativity and a month's worth of detentions for pulling such a dangerous and worrying stunt before sending them on their way.

So whilst Sirius had gotten his way, James pulling their elaborately planned Halloween prank with him, Lily had been at Slughorn's party which should have been bearable this year thanks to James' added company. But it wasn't. She had spent the whole party avoiding Severus, who had kept trying to talk to her, and listening to Slughorn ramble on about his connections at St Mungo's, connections which could help her in her ambition to become a Healer. It wasn't what either of them had wanted for that first Halloween together. But it was what they got.

* * *

**Thanks for reading**

**Hope it was worth the wait**

**Galindaba**


	55. Chapter 54

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter Fifty-Four!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Fifty-Four**

Professor Dumbledore truly trusted very few people. There were many people whom he had trust in; people he had trust in to teach the students in his school, people he had trust in to follow the rules and people he had trust in to set an example. But still, these weren't people whom he trusted so completely that he would leave his life in their hands. No, there were only very few people he truly trusted to that extent. And now more than ever, he needed to decide who they were.

You see, even though the Ministry of Magic had been portraying everything on the whole to be very much hunky dory, only letting out snippets of information about how bad the situation really was, the state of the wizarding world was nearing ruin. Outside the safe and cosy walls of Hogwarts and the neat little village of Hogsmeade, things were getting worse. Voldemort, or as most people referred to him now, he who must not be named, had gathered an army of sorts. He now had a strong group of followers which willingly terrorised anyone in their path, tortured those who they considered to be blood traitors and killed muggleborns. And yet still, the Ministry of Magic was unwilling to do anything to stop it. This was why Dumbledore had decided to take matters into his own hands.

For the past few months, the summer holiday and the last months of the previous school year, Dumbledore had been making plans for and creating a resistance. A force of good which could rival Voldemort and put a stop to his evil. He had a name for the resistance, the Order of the Phoenix, inspired by his own phoenix named Fawkes. He had found the perfect location to hold any meetings he needed to, a hidden house in the back streets of London which was cloaked with charms and enchantments, unbreakable by anyone but him. Lastly, he had a list in a little black book. A short list but a list all the same. A list of people who he truly trusted and who he believed would be willing to help him face Voldemort and his forces. He had spoken to half the people on this list and they were all too willing to help.

The people on his list were from all different walks of life, ages and professions. The ones who had already agreed to be part of the resistance and were all too ready to take an active role in defying Voldemort, Dumbledore had met through different circumstances. The first person he had spoken to about his planned resistance was Professor Minerva McGonagall, a professor at Hogwarts. Dumbledore had spoken to all the heads of houses but, in the end, she was the only one willing to put her life at risk in that way. Dumbledore had met her at Hogwarts. He had never taught her when he was a transfiguration professor as her Hogwarts career had ended the year just before he took up that post, but when he had been named Headmaster of the school, she was the only one he had considered to fill his previous post. She would do anything to protect the students of Hogwarts and she believed that helping Dumbledore's resistance and becoming an active member of the Order of the Phoenix was the right way to go.

Secondly, Dumbledore had spoken to Rubeus Hagrid, keeper of keys and grounds at Hogwarts. Hagrid had been expelled from Hogwarts in his third year thanks to Voldemort, formally known as Tom Riddle. Nobody had believed that Hagrid wasn't responsible for the disastrous events that had taken place that year. They had all believed Tom Riddle. Everyone that is, apart from Dumbledore. Dumbledore knew Hagrid was innocent and had convinced Armando Dippet, (Headmaster at the time), to allow Hagrid to stay on the grounds. Dumbledore had helped Hagrid through his life and had grown close to him, or at least, as close as a man such as Dumbledore can grow close to someone. He truly trusted him with his life and for this reason, and others which none but Hagrid knew about, he had asked him to join the Order of the Phoenix, something which Hagrid fully accepted without hesitation; ('O course I will! No need ter ask. I'll do whate'er yeh need!')

The third person Dumbledore had spoken to was one of the most celebrated aurors of their time; Alastor Moody. Of course most of the people he worked with had called him mad and they weren't without reason. Alastor Moody had a way about him. He had different and perhaps less ethical methods to capture those he was chasing. He had picked up his mesh of tactics from his family, all sadly passed now, who had all been aurors. Coming from a long line of aurors, it wasn't surprising to Dumbledore that he wanted to help him stop Voldemort.

Then, Dumbledore had been to see Elphias Doge, an old friend of his. During his Hogwarts days, Elphias Doge had always admired Dumbledore and had been a dutiful friend. Dumbledore perhaps hadn't appreciated that too much at the time, concentrating too hard on becoming the best he could be and improving upon his natural abilities. Still, even though Dumbledore had never fully cherished his friend, Elphias didn't care and was all too willing to help him out. In the back of his mind, Dumbledore supposed he knew this. He supposed he played on it. He wasn't proud of it.

Aberforth Dumbledore was the person Dumbledore should have gone to see first. Apart from Professor McGonagall and Hagrid he was the closest in proximity to the castle, owing, running and living at the Hogs Head. But Dumbledore didn't think of his brother first. If he had, he still doubted it would have made much of a difference. He wouldn't have wanted to see him first as when Dumbledore saw Aberforth, and enormous bubble of guilt always came along with the visit. Still, Dumbledore knew that his brother would want to help in the resistance if only he was a silent partner. He had seen what that kind of greed for power had done and he would do anything in his power to help prevent another Arianna situation.

The Prewett and Weasley family had been next on his list. The Weasley's, Arthur and Molly, Dumbledore had remembered from their days at Hogwarts and he had never seen a more trustworthy, loving and powerful pair. They, however, were the only ones to decline his invitation to join the Order of the Phoenix. Dumbledore understood. They had a growing family; three young boys named Bill, Charlie and Percy at the ages of six, (almost seven), four, (almost five) and just turned one respectively. Plus it seemed that Molly was pregnant again. But even though the Weasley's said no, Molly Weasley's twin brothers, Gideon and Fabian Prewett were all too willing to help.

From this wholesome family, Dumbledore's next choice for an ally would seem odd. He had seeked out one Mundungus Fletcher, known con-artist and contributor to the black market dealing stolen merchandise and controlled substances. He wasn't a convicted criminal but he was close. Dumbledore saw great advantage on having someone like that on his side. Nobody else could see it but at the end of the day, they didn't need too. Dumbledore had his reasons and that was all that mattered.

So far, these were the only people he had recruited. They had already started to defy Voldemort's movements but nothing was being reported in the Daily Prophet. At the moment, Dumbledore was sat at his desk in his circular office reading the famed wizarding newspaper; the paper that was now being censored. It no longer reported anything to do with Voldemort. The Minister of Magic had prohibited it. Slowly, he had been able to decrease the papers mention of the dark wizard until, finally, mention of his name was completely erased. Dumbledore had read the paper cover to cover but nowhere in that paper was the slightest hint that the wizarding world was in disarray. There were many articles about promotions within the Ministry, a new section of vaults being added to Gringotts and gossip filled articles which were most likely all lies. The main article, on the front page, was an interview with the Minister of Magic celebrating his first full year in office. Nowhere in that article had he mentioned the chaos he was sitting on. Nowhere.

Dumbledore closed the paper and put it to the side. His office was silent. The usually vocal portraits of past headmasters were silent. Fawkes wasn't chirping, (too close to a burning day), and even the clocks on the walls made sure that their ticking was unheard. The ragged sorting hat sat atop one of Dumbledore's many bookcases, saying nothing. Everything, every object in that room seemed to understand that, in this situation particularly, silence was golden. Dumbledore took a deep breath. The sound filled the office.

He opened the draw in his desk with a fluent wave of his elder-made wand. The draw popped open and, with another wave of his wand, the black book that lay inside floated out and landed on the desk in front of him followed by and eagle feathered quill and a pot of ink. Then, Dumbledore tapped the air with his wand and the drawer slammed shut, the echo of the action reverberating around the circular office as if it was nothing but one of the simple caves which surrounded the village of Hogsmeade.

Dumbledore opened his book and read through the list. There were thirteen names crossed off; eight with ticks and five with lines through them, people who didn't want to join the order; Professor Horace Slughorn, Professor Pomona Sprout, Professor Filius Flitwick and Molly and Arthur Weasley. Below these, were a list of fresh names; people who he hadn't spoken to yet. He was taking his time when he asked people to consider joining his resistance. After all, it wasn't a decision to be made lightly. It was literally a life or death decision. People needed to think about it and he gave them all the time that they needed in the world to decide. Some had agreed straight away and had only taken a short amount of time to decide due to Dumbledore's insistence that they think it over. Others had taken longer, such as the Weasley's. They had taken three weeks to decide what they wanted. Dumbledore had stayed within the vicinity of their house for the whole of that time. He had been traveling in and out of the school to make these trips but not many people knew this. The hefty list of people he had left to visit though meant that he would be traveling more and more over the coming months, leaving the school in Professor McGonagall's capable hands.

Left on his list were seven more names. First there was Arabella Fig; a squib who lived in the muggle world. In Dumbledore's mind she would take a more placid role in the group. She would be his eyes and ears on the muggle world, something which he desperately needed. Then there was Benjy Fenwick, Marlene McKinnon and Dorcas Meadowes. They were all past students from Hogwarts, all from different houses. Dumbledore had seen their talents and believed they would be valuable and strong additions to his resistance. Lastly there was Sturgis Podmore, Caradoc Dearborn and Dadalus Dearborn. These were the people who Dumbledore truly trusted and he needed their help. He just hoped that they would give it to him.

* * *

James Potter and Sirius Black were worn out. They were sat slumped over their respective desks in potions, practically laying their bodies over them, having arrived five minutes early, (an unusual achievement for them). They had just had an exhaustingly long and harrowing Quidditch work out which had lasted the whole of lunch. James had had the team doing drills practices and anything else he could thing of at every available free moment, lunchtime was no exception. Their first Quidditch game against Ravenclaw was approaching fast and James wanted his team in tip top condition so that they could win.

Sirius suddenly waved his hand around lazily in the direction of James. He was doing it half-heartedly. What he was doing though, James had no idea.

'What are you doing?' James asked him with a lazy slur to his words.

'I'm trying to hit you.' Sirius replied in a sluggish drawl, 'I hate you.'

'You're short by about three feet.' James yawned. He didn't particularly care that Sirius had said he had hated him. He knew he didn't mean it. He was just tired and Sirius didn't like to be tired. Plus James had forced him to have a ridiculously short lunch so that they could have Quidditch practice, something which Sirius wasn't particularly accustomed to. That short a lunch meant that he hadn't filled his stomach to the brim and was now, consequently, hungry.

Sirius was still waving his hand around. He carried on for around five more seconds before letting his hand fall limply to his side. 'I give up.' he said with no effort in his voice whatsoever.

'Ok.' James replied, still not caring.

At this point, Lily walked into the room and saw the two boys lazily hanging over their desks. She raised her eyebrows and shook her head at the pair of them. She walked a little bit further into the room and stopped at James' desk. 'Hestia told me to tell you she hates you.' she said simply, relaying the message her extremely groggy and moody friend had given her, 'Her exact words were, 'I hate James Potter and you tell him that I hate him and that if he make us do anymore ridiculous and pointless drills I'll push him off of his broom. I don't care who he is'.'

'Thanks.' James replied, closing his eyes having paid hardly any attention to Lily at all. She could have said anything and he wouldn't know the difference. He didn't notice her red eyes.

'You're welcome.' Lily smiled, patting his shoulder a couple of times before walking over to her own desk which Sirius was currently sprawled across. 'You're gonna have to move Black.' she said to him as she sat down at her seat and put her bag on the floor.

'I can't move.' he whined, his voice slightly muffled due to the fact that he had now buried his face into the crook of one of his arms, the other still gently swaying by the side of him from when he had tried to hit James.

'Why not?' Lily questioned in confusion.

'Because I hate Prongs!' Sirius moped with a tired whimper. He scowled into the crook of his arm, an expression which no one could actually see.

'That seems to be the consensus.' Lily replied as she got her copy of Advanced Potion making out of her bag. She fitted it on to the table next to where Sirius' elbow was but only barely. She only had a limited amount of space now as he 'couldn't move.'

'What?' Sirius said. He turned his head to face Lily. He looked completely and utterly worn out, as if he was about to cry, and utterly flabbergasted at what Lily had just said. He then started to stutter and ramble some nonsense. 'It's too…no…long words...can't…no…what?...'

'Don't use long words.' James said to Lily as he finally sat up with a sigh, 'It just confuses him.'

The three were silent after that. Lily busied herself getting her quills and ink pots out whilst Sirius and James relaxed in their chairs unmoving. They were both very stiff and, where James was trying to gather some energy for the upcoming lesson, Sirius was still sat lying over the desk scowling and making no effort to get out of Lily's way as she prepared for the lesson.

The last Gryffindor student in the small potions class entered the room; Remus Lupin. He hadn't been with James and Sirius at lunch. He hadn't fancied spending an hour outside in the Quidditch stands with the harsh November wind whipping at his face. There was condensation in the air. So he had spent his lunch hour in the library with Peter. They had both been toasty and warm inside the castle, relaxing and studying. When he arrived in the potions classroom though, he saw that his friends had had quite a different lunch.

'What's up?' he asked with a laugh as he sat next to James who looked as though he had fallen asleep in his chair. He hadn't. His eyes were just closed.

'Padfoot hates me.' James said as if this was a statement he said every day. And, when he withheld food from his best friend, it was.

'Well what else is new?' Remus replied, brushing this comment to the side, 'Sirius hates everyone.'

'Not true.' Sirius said, finally sitting up and allowing Lily to spread out a bit more across the table, 'I don't hate everyone. Just Prongs, Wormy, Evans here, the Quidditch team, the Slytherins, (gits), the Professors, the Hufflepuffs, (puffs), the rest of our house, Professor Linkedin especially, Ravenclaws, (swots) and did I mention the Gryffindor Quidditch captain at all?'

James chuckled.

'That's everyone.' Remus said as he, just as Lily had just been doing, got out his copy of Advanced Potion Making, quills and ink pots.

'Why do you hate me?' Lily asked, offended. She had thought that they were friends. (Sort of.) And that statement had touched a nerve.

'You made me move.' Sirius pouted at Lily before turning back to Remus, 'And that's not everyone Moony, I never mentioned you. I like you.'

'Gee I feel so privileged.' Remus said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

'Don't.' James yawned, flopping back down onto the table, his head making contact with it with a dull thud, 'He'll only make you do stuff for him.'

'He does that already.' Remus retorted, pushing James' head to the side so that he could actually open his potions book. 'Usually it has something to do with food.' Remus continued offhandedly as he began to read through the list of potions ingredients for Wiggenweld potion, a potion which reverses the effects of the Draught of Living Death, which they were told they were doing this lesson. They would be marked on it.

'Oh food.' Sirius said wistfully as if Remus had suddenly reminded him that his belly was grumbling for the food it was denied at lunch.

'Here we go.' James sighed, shaking his head where it was on the table.

'Prongs I'm hungry.' Sirius whined at James, sticking his leg out in an attempt to kick him. He couldn't reach. It didn't stop him trying though drawing a confused expression from Lily. It was almost as if he had a twitch.

'You're always hungry Padfoot.' James mumbled into the table.

'But I'm hungry Prongs, I'm really hungry.' Sirius whined again, his whinging now becoming higher in pitch and more dramatic. He sounded as if he was in a life or death situation and, to Sirius, he probably was.

'I know you're hungry.' James said, turning his head to face his best friend who was pouting like a little puppy-dog. 'You've been telling me you're hungry every five minutes for the past hour that you're hungry. I get the message.'

'Then why haven't you done anything about it?' Sirius moaned, still attempting to kick him, his foot now flailing about lazily as if it wasn't his own.

'Cause I haven't got anything with me.' James said, kicking his own leg out so that it was now in some kind of foot war with Sirius'. Lily thought this was most odd. Remus however, was used to this behaviour from the pair of them.

He took a deep breath and dug into the bottom of his bag. He brought out a full box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans much to the delight of Sirius. 'Here.' Remus said, stretching his arm out across his table so that Sirius could lean over and grab the beans. 'I was saving them for an emergency. I think this clarifies.'

'Yeah. Or I'd have killed him.' James said lazily, still kicking his leg out to kick Sirius with, failing miserably as he wasn't particularly aiming well.

Sirius reached out his hand, his leg still kicking out, to try and reach the pack of sweets. He was unsuccessful as, just like when he was trying to hit James earlier, he was about three feet short. He was waving his arm about like this when Severus Snape entered the room.

Severus walked into the potions room and took in the sight in front of him. James Potter was slumped over his desk looking, in Severus' opinion, an absolute mess. Remus Lupin was sat next to him, closest to Severus, holding out a full box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans to Sirius Black who was trying to reach them but not succeeding. Then, next to Sirius Black, was Lily. She was reading her copy of Advanced Potion Making, taking no notice of what was going on around her, her hair covering her face. She had no idea that Severus was stood staring at her. She would do soon.

Severus started to make his way across the classroom the only way he could; past James Potter's and Sirius Black's chairs. What he didn't know was that they were both trying to, very childishly, kick each other. As he walked past them his shins got the most of it.

'Watch it!' he snapped at them.

'You watch it Snivellus!' Sirius retorted, finding energy enough to cruelly taunt Severus with that wretched nick name. James sniggered at the table next to him at this. Remus, as he usually did, pretended to ignore them. But Severus wasn't focusing on their reactions. He saw Lily's reaction. And in her reaction, he saw a flicker of annoyance. He saw a flicker of the girl who hated those boys for bullying him. He saw a flicker of his old friend, the one who vowed to hate the marauders for forever and a day. He could have sworn that's what he had seen. He would have staked his life on it.

He made his way over to his chair and sat down to watch the evens in front of him unfold. As he sat down and got his things out of his ragged and tattered bag, as the rest of the potions class filed into the classroom, he eavesdropped into the conversation that was happening in front of him.

'I can't reach.' Sirius was whining to Remus.

'Try.' retorted Remus, making no effort to move and actually give Sirius the sweets to stop his moping and aching belly.

'Throw them.' Sirius said, withdrawing his hand completely and opening his arms ready for a catch. It was the most energetic movement he had exhibited since collapsing in his chair after James' Quidditch practice.

'I can't throw.' Remus reminded him.

'But I'm a great catch!' Sirius replied before turning his head to face Lily to add in what he obviously thought was a charming and suave way, 'In more than one way.'

Severus enjoyed the next part for Lily paid no attention to Sirius' joke, rolled her eyes and turned away. He was ecstatic at this part. He wasn't at the next.

Remus threw the box of sweets in Sirius' direction but what he had said proved to be very true. He couldn't throw. The box of sweets left Remus' hands and flew wonkily over to Sirius and Lily's table, hitting Lily on her head before bouncing dully onto the table. When Severus saw this, his eyes widened and he turned to glare evilly at Remus. No one noticed him.

'Ow.' Lily said rubbing her head where the box of sweets had just hit her.

'Sorry.' Remus apologised sincerely.

'Are you ok?' James asked her, concern showing in his voice, (something only Remus picked up on), but not in his action as he just stayed slumped over his desk, still too exhausted to move.

'Yeah.' Lily said. This time there was something in her voice. Remus didn't notice it. Sirius didn't notice it, (too busy eating the sweets that had just come his way). James did. So did Severus. You'd have to know Lily to know the tone in her voice. Something was wrong. No one could ask though as for both parties, for both boys, it would have been suspicious. But James resolved to ask her later. Severus couldn't make the same resolve.

By the time Lily had recovered from Remus' wayward throw, Professor Slughorn had entered the room. He bustled over to his desk talking to the class in his usual pompous bellow and instructed them to get out all the ingredients that they would need for the Wiggenweld potion which he had informed them last lesson they would be making. He then informed them he would be marking the potion and that he had never before had a student who could brew a satisfactory concoction. It was something he always said to them to motivate them. It worked on most of his students. Not James and Sirius this lesson though.

When everyone got up to collect potion ingredients from the cupboard, they stayed where they were, James lying over his desk, Sirius eating Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans in a hungry fashion. When everyone had returned to their desks and plonked their cauldrons down, turning up the heat to warm the pewter pots through, they stayed where they were, James lying over his desk, Sirius eating Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans in a hungry fashion. After half an hour, when half of the class were half way through their potions, Remus and Lily included, Sirius and James were in the same position; James lying over his desk, Sirius eating Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans in a hungry fashion. It was becoming monotonous. It was clear they wouldn't be doing anything this lesson. James would relax and Sirius would eat. It got to the point where Slughorn felt the need to go and speak to their head of house; Professor McGonagall.

As he made his potion at the back of the room, Severus kept an eye on what was going on in front of him. From the tone in Lily's voice, he knew she was in a tender place at the minute. He knew she could be pushed. He had known her for a long time and, even though he wasn't sure what the reason behind her vulnerability was today, he knew it was there. And he knew what to do.

Lily Evans. The most important thing to her was her schooling. She had spent countless hours working her arse off to maintain a certain standard in her education. She did this to ensure that there would be no prejudice against her, being a muggleborn and all. She didn't like bad marks. She didn't like to hand work in late. She liked everything just so. And Severus knew this. He could play on this. He could use this to his advantage to try and make Lily see reason that he was her only true friend. She would come back to him and he could protect her forever and always from Voldemort because he was on the inside. He could do it, he knew he could. In Severus' ideal world, that's what would have happened. And it all would have started with what he did next.

Sirius Black had discarded the last of his Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans because he didn't like any flavour that matched the caramel coloured ones. They ranged from coffee to earwax to marzipan and Sirius didn't like them at all. So he left them on the table next to him as he leant back into his chair to relax for the remainder of the lesson. Whilst Sirius did this, Severus took his chance. He discreetly took out his wand and, whilst Lily was rooting around in her bag for her scales, he levitated the sweets into her potion, ruining it and framing Sirius.

Lily's potion began to spit and hiss loudly. She turned back to it and, in a panic, tried to calm it down, wafting away the steam that had started to emit from the top. Her potion was now gently corroding the edges of her cauldron away, the Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans reacting badly with the many ingredients Lily had already combined to make the first part of her potion. Suddenly, a spurt of putrid greed liquid shot out of a hole that was forming in the side of her cauldron. It shot out onto the floor near James' feet which alerted him to a problem. Immediately, he went over to Lily to see what was going on.

'Woah! What happened?' he asked her, trying to help her waft away some of the smoke. His voice notified the class of the difficulty that had now presented itself. The Slytherins got on with their work, not caring and sniggering into their own potions. Severus watched the events unfold. Remus and Sirius stood up to see what was happening.

'I don't know!' Lily panicked, hurriedly trying to disperse the steam that was covering the top of her potion.

'You've got to stop the leaking.' Remus said.

'I know!' Lily snapped.

The four Gryffindor students worked as a team to try and control the disaster that was now Lily's potion. It was now ruined and Lily, who was upset at this, turned her despair into anger when she saw what was floating atop her failed green potion.

'Black!' she said furiously, 'You put Bertie Bott's into my potion!'

'No I didn't.' Sirius said truthfully, defending himself.

'Then why are there jelly beans floating on my potion?' she asked him crossly, 'Just because you were too damn lazy to even attempt making your potion doesn't mean you had to go and ruin mine!'

'But I didn't ruin yours!' Sirius replied, denying all knowledge of what had happened.

'Then how did your sweets end up in there?' she questioned with raised eyebrows, the temper that paired itself with her red hair showing through.

Severus was enjoying this.

'I don't know but I didn't put them there!' Sirius barked back, not liking being shouted at when he had actually done nothing wrong, 'Prongs, back me up here!'

'Don't you dare!' Lily said to James in a deathly voice.

Now James knew both parties pretty well by this point and he knew he couldn't win. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, he knew Sirius wasn't lying because he could always tell. On the other, he knew something else was bothering Lily and she wouldn't listed to reason until he talked to her properly and found out what was actually wrong.

'I think we need to just calm-'

'Oh isn't it too late for you to start being the voice of reason?' Lily snapped at him as she took out her wand, 'It's been over two months; I think its too late for you to start acting like a sensible head boy at this point and-HEY! Give me my wand back Potter!'

Severus smiled. She had resumed referring to James Potter by his last name. A bitter action.

James held Lily's wand out of her reach. 'No.' he said firmly, 'If you keep waving it around you'll poke someone's eye out and as mad as you are at Sirius or me I don't think you'd want to be responsible for the loss of eyesight.'

'Wanna bet?' Lily warned, glaring at him angrily.

James then took action. 'Ok.' he said. He gave Lily's wand to Remus for safe keeping and took Lily gently by the arm.

'What are you doing?' she asked him angrily.

'Taking you outside.' James replied, 'You need to calm down.'

'I do not-'

'Lily.' James said to her warningly. He gave her a look which Severus couldn't see. He did see Lily's face though and he saw her give in. She turned on her heel and angrily marched out of the room.

James took a deep breath and was about to follow her, but Sirius stopped him before he could.

'I didn't do it Prongs.' he said truthfully, willing James to believe him.

'I know.' James said simply, 'Time to go be a head boy.' he carried on clapping his hands together.

Remus shook his head and watched James go. He knew that whatever James said to Lily outside the room would not be in the capacity of his role as head boy.

James closed the door behind him to ensure that they had the best possible chance of not being over heard. He then turned to Lily who was pacing back and forth in the corridor furiously, her hands on her hips. 'What's wrong?' he asked her.

'What's wrong?' Lily stated quietly, repeating his question before blowing up at him, 'What's wrong is your bloody best friend just threw sweets into my potion, a potion which is being _marked!_ But mine _can't_ be marked now because there's nothing left of it so I'm gonna get a T. And it's all thanks to that idiot you consider to be your best friend who you _sided_ with!'

'Lily-' James began, waking over to her and stopping her by taking her shoulders. She didn't respond to well.

'Don't touch me!' she shouted at him, shrugging out of his grasp.

James let her. He let her carry on.

'Sometimes you and your stupid friends can be so selfish!' she went on, 'First I'm almost _blinded_ by Lupin's bad aim and then I'm nearly burnt because whatever reacted badly with those damn sweets was corrosive. Then you! You took my _wand_ of me! If you hadn't done that I might have been able to save my potion! Now I can't and it's all yours and Black's fault! I can't _believe_ you did that! You should be thankful really. If I still had my wand you wouldn't be standing there!'

James waited for a couple of seconds whilst Lily breathed heavily. 'You done?' he asked her.

She didn't answer.

'Ok.' James said, 'I'm gonna assume you're done so before anything else I'm gonna say that Sirius didn't sabotage your potion.'

'Yes he-'

'I can tell when he's lying and he wasn't.' James said, cutting her off before she could go off into another rant. 'You've got to believe me on that.'

Lily still didn't answer. She looked away from him.

'Now what's wrong?' he asked her, a soothing tone in his voice.

Lily still didn't answer. She avoided eye contact with him at all costs, looking towards the floor, ceiling and walls. Anywhere but his compassionate hazel eyes.

'You can tell me.' James continued, 'You know that right?'

As soon as James had said that, Lily's bottom lip had begun to quiver. She brought her hand up to cover her eyes for she didn't want him to see her cry. That was the last thing she wanted. But it seemed she had no choice as her tears began to spill out from under her hand and run down her cheeks. She took in a deep shaky breath and felt him pull her into him. She felt his strong arms encircling her comfortingly, one of his hands stroking her long deep red hair soothingly. She rested her head on his chest and cried into it, now no longer worried about not letting him see her weep. She was over the edge now and her tears were flowing out, staining his school robes as she rested against them. There was no stopping it.

James held her in his arms for a good three minutes whilst she cried. He did his best to comfort her even though he had no idea what the reason behind her sudden fit of tears was. But he really didn't need to know. All he needed to know was that she was upset and he had to be there to hold her, and that was what happened. If she wanted to tell him what was going on she could. He would listen to her. But if she didn't that would be fine too. As it was, she did want to tell him.

She pulled away from him and wiped her eyes, apologising for crying whilst she did so, something which he just waved away. She didn't need to apologise. Lily then went on to explain what the reason behind her outburst was.

Earlier that day she had received an invitation to her sister's wedding only it wasn't what she had thought. It wasn't actually an invitation. It was a notification of her sister's upcoming nuptials with a quick note of apology stating that they simply had too many guests and she couldn't come. It was very corporate. Along with that note was a letter from her mother asking her to stay at Hogwarts for the Christmas holidays so that they could focus on Petunia's wedding which would happen the day after Lily was supposed to return home. That had upset her the most. She knew that she wasn't invited to her sister's wedding. She had known since Vernon had proposed last Christmas. That was no surprise and she thought she had come to terms with it. But whatever happened she thought would have been at home for the wedding. She thought that she'd at least have been able to wish her sister luck on her wedding day and see her. But obviously not.

James listened to her dutifully. He listened with kind compassion for there was nothing more he could do. As much as he wanted to help her, short of barging into Petunia's wedding and demanding her to let Lily watch her get married, he could do nothing, and he was pretty certain she wouldn't want him to do that anyway.

'I'm sorry Lily.' he said, stepping forwards and wiping away a tear that was running down her cheek with his thumb, 'Do you think there's a chance she could change her mind? It's a couple weeks away yet.'

'No.' Lily sniffed, shaking her head and wiping a tear away from her other cheek, 'I just thought I could be at home for her wedding even if I couldn't go.'

'Could you write to your mum?' James asked her, 'Reason with her about going home? Or your dad?'

'No its ok.' Lily said with a damp smile, appreciating James' suggestions and optimism but knowing it wouldn't work.

'I can stay with you for Christmas if you want?' he suggested, taking her hand in support.

'Thanks but don't worry about it.' Lily laughed wetly, 'That would be hard to explain to Black. He lives with you right?'

'Yeah but-'

'What you doing Snape?' they both heard a voice shout from inside the classroom. They didn't know whose voice it was. They didn't know that Severus had become impatient at waiting to see if Lily had become so angry with James that she had rescinded their friendship. They didn't know that the class had heard her shouting at first and had then heard nothing. They didn't know that Remus had been out to see what was going on and had seen Lily in James' arms and they didn't know that after he went quietly back into the classroom he had watched its occupants to ensure that no one would go outside and interrupt their private moment. They didn't know they he was warning them against Severus' imminent departure. All they knew was that they were warned and, thanks to this warning, they dropped hands. But the interruption they were expecting didn't happen. Another one did.

'What are you two doing out here then?' Slughorn asked the two head students, not noticing Lily's red eyes as he approached them, bustling along down the corridor.

'Lily's potion kind of…corroded.' James said slowly, wondering if he had used the right word, 'But it was my fault sir and I was just apologising to her.' he went on, taking responsibility so that Slughorn wouldn't think Lily had gone wrong in her potion and so that Sirius wouldn't get the blame for something he hadn't actually done.

'Was there a particular reason why you ruined Miss Evans' potion Mr Potter?' Slughorn asked, not particularly impressed that someone had sabotaged his favourite students potion.

James paused. 'For a laugh?' he shrugged.

'Mmm.' Slughorn said, bobbing on his heels, 'Detention then Mr Potter. Miss Evans I wouldn't worry about your potion today. I've decided I'm not going to mark this batch as not everyone in the class seemed to be putting all their effort in today.' he carried on, looking pointedly at James. 'Oh and Mr Potter, Professor McGonagall wants to see you and Mr Black in her office. You go ahead and I'll send Mr Black after you.' he ended, walking into his classroom to fetch Sirius.

When he was gone, Lily turned to James. 'You didn't need to do that.' she said.

'Eh.' he shrugged again, 'We both know I'm used to detention.'

Lily shook her head and smiled at him. 'I'll see you later then.' she said.

'Ok.' he replied, gripping her hand in goodbye, 'Let me know if there's anything I can do. I really don't mind staying for Christmas you know.' he smiled.

And with that he dropped her hand and walked away from her on his way to Professor McGonagall's office and what was sure to be another detention whilst she turned around to go back into Potions and apologise to Sirius for shouting at him before he left to join James.

* * *

**Thanks for reading**

**Galindaba**


	56. Chapter 55

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter Fifty-Five!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Fifty-Five**

James and Lily were up in Lily's dorm room engaged in a furious make out session. They were laid on Lily's bed with the door locked to ensure that they would know if anyone decided to come in by the rattling door handle. James was laid next to Lily, running his left hand from her right knee, (which was bent up), to her waist over the top of her clothes. He was only spurred on by the small pleasurable moans she was making in the back of her throat, one of her hands tangling itself in his messy black hair and the other running from his left cheek to his chest. Who knows how long they would have stayed in a lip-lock, their tongues dancing in each other's mouths, if the door handle hadn't rattled.

As it happened, the door handle had rattled and James and Lily pulled apart to look at the door. They looked at each other and, without thinking, Lily pushed James off of her bed and onto the floor, hidden from the view of the door.

'Hey!' James said as he landed on the floor, 'That hurt!'

'Shh!' Lily hushed him, fumbling around under her pillow and taking out the book she had hidden there.

'You're rude.' James said.

Lily hit him on the head with her book.

'And violent!' James continued on, rubbing his head where she had just whacked him.

Lily gave him a warning look; a deathly glare.

'And a little scary.' James finished, 'I'll be shutting up now.'

'Good!' Lily said as she opened her book.

'Wouldn't have to hide if we told people we were going out though.' James said, taking off his glasses, examining them and giving them a quick clean. 'Just saying.' he added, receiving that glare off of Lily again.

'Well don't. Stop pushing.' Lily whispered in annoyance, the door opening at the same time and her dorm mate and friend Alice Prewett waltzing in.

'Why was the door locked?' Alice asked her, tucking her wand, which she had obviously used to open the door, back into her robes.

'Was it?' Lily asked, pretending to concentrate in her book, not looking up at Alice in case she looked slightly flustered which, after fifteen minutes of solid snogging was a very real possibility.

'Yeah.' Alice said, walking over to her wardrobe which was just behind the dormitory door, 'Didn't you realise?'

'No.' Lily said, only now daring to look up because Alice's back was turned to her.

'Do you want to come and see the Quidditch team practice with me and Frank?' Alice asked her in a friendly invitation. However she didn't know what affect her words would have.

Lily looked down at James who had slapped his hand to his forehead and closed his eyes in remembrance. She reached out and once again, for the second time in less than a five minute period, hit him on the head with her book. She shook her head at him and rolled her eyes at his forgetfulness mouthing the word 'idiot' at him when he opened his eyes.

'Lily?' Alice asked as she was still waiting for an invitation. She hadn't seen the exchange between Lily and a hidden James because she was still looking through her wardrobe. She was looking for a scarf or a jacket of some kind because if she was going to go into the harsh November wind and watch a Quidditch practice, the last one before the game and before they broke up for Christmas, she wanted to be warm.

'Err…' Lily said, 'I might come a bit later.' she said looking at James and directing the comment to him as he was pouting, asking her silently with his eyes for her to come and watch him play. 'You know I don't do Quidditch.' she continued, once again directing the comment at James even though it was Alice's question she was answering.

'Well you've got a bit of time yet.' Alice said, finally finding her scarf, 'They can't find James Potter to start the practice. You haven't seen him have you?'

Lily had to bite back a smile because one James Potter was hidden by the side of her bed, showing her the marauders map which he had brought with him so that his friends couldn't discover where he was. The whole of the Quidditch team was in the common room waiting for him.

'No.' Lily replied to Alice as she turned around.

'Oh well.' Alice said with a shrug, 'They'll find him soon enough. He's probably on the Quidditch pitch already. See you later!' She was about to exit the room when something caught her eye. She turned back to Lily and said one last thing before she left to room to go and meet Frank in the common room. 'Your lip-gloss is smudged Lily.'

When she had left the room, James knelt up and leant on Lily's bed. 'You're wearing lip-gloss?' he asked her with a frown. He hadn't noticed that but, now that he thought about it, her lips had tasted fruity. Like strawberries.

'So are you.' Lily laughed, leaning forwards and wiping her lip-gloss off of his bottom lip where it had smudged in transfer from him to her. 'You better go.' she said afterwards.

'Ok.' James said leaning forwards and giving her a quick kiss in goodbye, undoing all the work she had just done wiping her lip-gloss off of him.

During their quick kiss, Hestia had tried to enter the room but had banged into the door frame because she had her hand covering her eyes. 'Ow!' she said as she was knocked backwards slightly by the wooden oak door frame.

'Hestia what are you doing?' Lily asked her in confusion, her and James both looking in confusion over at Hestia as she felt her way into the room. 'Why are you covering your eyes?' she laughed. Hestia looked a sight trying to blindly navigate her way into the room with one hand and her eyes closed.

'Who knows what you and Potter are doing in here?' she said, banging into one of the posts on her four poster bed. 'Ow!' she repeated.

'Hestia uncover your eyes!' Lily said with a giggle, 'We're not doing anything.'

'Are you sure?' Hestia asked, now shouting slightly as well as if, by covering her eyes, her hearing was somehow also affected.

'Yes.' Lily laughed with a shake of her head.

'Are you both fully clothed?' Hestia questioned with insinuation in her voice.

'Hestia!' Lily reprimanded.

'I'm just saying-'

'Well don't!' Lily said, 'Open your damn eyes!'

'Fine.' Hestia said with a sigh, slowly uncovering her eyes as if she was about to witness something extremely gruesome. When she saw Lily sat on her bed looking at her and James knelt on the floor behind Lily's bed though, she exhaled with relief. 'Thank Merlin!' she said.

'I told you we weren't doing anything.' Lily pointed out.

'Oh really!' Hestia said, her eyes zeroing in on James, 'Nice lipstick Potter! Not really your shade though.'

Lily looked at James who looked between the two girls a little self-consciously. Hesitantly he brought his thumb up to his bottom lip and wiped the corner of it and then looked at his thumb. It had a small smudge of shiny pink strawberry flavoured lip gloss on it. He frowned at it. 'Ah man!' he said, wiping the corner of his mouth again in an attempt to get the rest of the gloss of. He didn't get it all.

'You do realise you organised a practice right?' Hestia asked James as she sat down, perching on the end of her bed, 'The game's in a few days and this is the last time we've got the pitch. This is the only practice you've ordered that could actually benefit us and instead you're up her snogging her! The practice started ten minutes ago and you weren't there.'

'Well she distracted me!' James defended, standing up and using Lily's bed to do so. It was true. James had actually been fully prepared to head down to the pitch for the practice he had organised when Lily had asked if she could talk to him. He followed her up to her dorm room taking the marauders map with him and donning his invisibility cloak per her request so that nobody saw them disappear together and nobody could find them. He had assumed she had wanted to talk about her sister's upcoming wedding but they had ended up not talking at all. He had thoroughly been distracted by her. She had that effect on him. She was able to make his mind go blank. She was good at that.

'Lily!' Hestia said in the same reprimanding tone that Lily had used on her only moments earlier.

'Don't blame this on me!' Lily said standing up and handing James his invisibility cloak, she then turned to Hestia, 'Walk slowly.' she instructed her, 'He has to be on the same step as you at all times.'

'Fine.' Hestia sighed, 'Say goodbye to your girlfriend Potter.'

James and Lily looked a little bit awkward. They had actually agreed on no labels as of yet. For once in their relationship, that strange request had been made by James. He had explained to her in Hogsmeade that day Hestia had caught them that until they were public he had felt that he couldn't properly call her his girlfriend because a girlfriend was a commitment. And until they were ready to share their relationship with James' friends and the school, he didn't think they, (namely her), were ready for the commitment. Until she was ready to admit to the school that she was with him instead of just a hidden romance he wouldn't call her his girlfriend. Not until she did. He refused. So their relationship was still stuck in the 'dating' or 'going out' phase as it was.

Lily had actually told Hestia that but Hestia had thought it was a stupid idea. She had said that James was just making excuses because he was, quote, 'a huge wimp' and 'afraid of commitment' which simply wasn't true. It was Lily's fear of the commitment that kept them away from that stage. But Hestia firmly believed it and had, for a few weeks now, been referring to James and Lily as boyfriend and girlfriend even though they themselves had never used those labels. She had told Lily that even if she and James weren't ready to acknowledge it yet, as they had been dating for over ten weeks, two and a half months, they were automatically at that stage of their relationship. Lily was unsure and had commented that, surely she should have some say in where her relationship was but Hestia was adamant about her unwritten rules of relationships which she refused to rewrite. She had been making the situation rather awkward but today, as James had to get to his Quidditch practice, they decided to ignore it.

'Are you gonna come and watch?' James asked Lily who just shook her head.

'I'll come and watch the game.' she explained.

'Ok.' James sighed as he pulled on his invisibility cloak, completely disappearing from view so that only his voice could be heard as he said, 'See you later then.'

He exited the room with Hestia who, per Lily's request, walked down the steps slowly so that James could stand on the same step as her at all times to avoid the spiral staircase turning into a slide. It was a trick the marauders had worked out when they had accidentally thrown their Quaffle up the stairs and couldn't get it down. James had never had to use it for any other time before though. This was a first.

He and Hestia arrived in the common room where, true to the marauder's map, the whole of the Quidditch team plus Remus and Peter was waiting, to see if James would make and appearance there. It seemed that they had agreed to wait another five minutes before all heading down to the Quidditch pitch so that self-proclaimed Quidditch co-captain Sirius, could run the practice, something he had always wanted to do but James would never allow. It wasn't hard for the team, the house of Gryffindor and, basically, the whole school to guess why. Sirius could become a bit too enthusiastic about Quidditch whereas James, although just as enthusiastic, could also be level headed and authoritive, key qualities in a Quidditch captain. Plus James was just a more skilled Quidditch player than Sirius was, something Sirius never liked to admit. James was Gryffindor's star and he knew it.

He snuck from one staircase to another and walked up the steps which led to the boys' dormitories until he was out of view from the common room. He then took off of his invisibility cloak, ran a hand through his messy hair to mess it up a bit more and shoved his cloak in his pocket before walking down the staircase to meet the rest of the team.

'There he is!' Sirius stated, clapping his hand in a slow, sarcastic round of applause that only he joined in on. When he stopped he hit Peter around the back of his head. 'Thought you said he wasn't in the dorm room.'

'He wasn't!' Peter said adamantly. He had been up to check not ten minutes ago and James was nowhere to be seen. He was sure of it.

'Did you check the bathroom?' Sirius went on, 'He could have been having a huge-'

'Dude!' James cut in as he was sorting his collar out.

'Well you could have!' Sirius said before he spotted something. 'What's that on your lips? Is that lipstick?' he asked, squinting at James' lips which still had faint traces of pink, strawberry flavoured lip gloss on them.

'Why are you looking at his lips?' Remus asked Sirius, looking at him. Everyone else looked at Sirius too and James took the opportunity to discreetly wipe Lily's lip-gloss off of himself. He would have to tell her not to wear that if she wanted to continue to keep them a secret. It was a big giveaway.

'Well they're right there!' Sirius said, gesturing to James.

Everyone turned to face James and squint at his lips as Sirius had done before. Nothing was there anymore though. The pink shine had gone.

'I think you're seeing things mate!' Remus whispered to Sirius folding his arms.

'But I swear-'

'Ok!' James interrupted, 'If we're all done staring at my handsome face I think it's time we get down to the Quidditch pitch.'

There was a murmur of agreement and the Quidditch team started to make its way out of the common room on its way to the pitch but they all heard and laughed at James' last comment.

'If you want Padfoot, as you're clearly obsessed with it, I'll get you some lipstick of your own.' he said.

* * *

'WHAT A BLOOD BATH!' Mary MacDonald shouted through the commentator's announcement microphone which had been charmed with the sonorous charm. Her voice easily filled the Quidditch stadium. 'Ravenclaw are being brutal to the Gryffindor team today!' she continued, 'They are not being nice! Who knew smart people could be so violent!'

'Mary will you please concentrate on the game.' McGonagall asked Mary in exasperation for about the third time that game.

'It's hard to see past all that blood professor! OOH! And the Gryffindor keeper is hit by yet another Bludger! What does that make it? Five?'

'The game Mary. The game!'

'Fine!' Mary sighed, 'Ravenclaw are up one hundred and twenty to ninety. Come on Gryffindor! Take your lead back!'

The Quidditch game between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw had indeed been brutal. The new Ravenclaw beater had been ruthlessly sending Bludgers at everybody on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Needless to say he was very good at his post. He was only a second year. So far, he had taken out the second Gryffindor Beater, knocking him flat off of his broom and to the floor, (he had broken both his arms as he attempted to stop his fall and had passed out from the pain. James wouldn't let him back on the pitch after that). He had hit the Gryffindor keeper five times with the Bludger which had made him extremely dizzy and feeling slightly sick but, credit to him, he stayed strong. Then there were the injuries to the Gryffindor Chasers. Hestia had had her shoulder dislocated but had refused to stop playing as James had wanted her too. He couldn't talk though. He was flying with a broken ankle. The third Gryffindor chaser had had a Bludger aimed at her wrist and that had broken instantly. Still, they all kept playing. The only people on the Quidditch team to not be hit were Sirius and the Seeker. Sirius because he was wielding a Beaters bat himself and the Seeker because, as soon as James had seen the strength of the Ravenclaw Beater, he had charged Sirius with making sure their Seeker didn't get hurt. After all, if she was out of the game, there would be no way for them to win.

'And Gryffindor's Hestia Jones takes control of the Quaffle. She ducks a Bludger sent her way by that git on the Ravenclaw team-'

'Mary!'

'Sorry Professor!' Mary apologised not sorry at all. She had just said what the whole of the stadium, bar the Ravenclaw and Slytherin students, was thinking; what a git! 'She takes it up to the goal post, drops it to James Potter below who zooms up. He shoots…HE SCORES! Not bad for someone with one foot heading for the chop!'

'Mary!' professor McGonagall reprimanded again.

'It could be though Professor!' Mary said honestly.

James flew to the opposite side of the pitch and saw a Bludger heading towards Sirius.

'SIRIUS!' he yelled at him. He had been sat in mid-air, checking out one of the Ravenclaw Chasers.

Sirius noticed the Bludger just in time and hit it with a mighty thwack in the direction of the Ravenclaw chaser that had been causing the Gryffindor team grief for over an hour. The Bludger was either extremely well aimed or was an almighty lucky fluke for it raced over to the Ravenclaw beater and hit him square in the stomach, winding him and breaking his lower ribs. He fell off of his broom and, with the assistance of Madam Hooch, was lowered gently to the ground. Now, if the Ravenclaw captain had any decency about her, after a fall like that, she wouldn't let her beater back up to play. As it was, she did and wouldn't let her beater back on his broom.

Gryffindor soon took their lead back, proving once again that Quidditch was where they excelled. The game lasted for another hour during which time James had scored eight more goals, Hestia had scored six and the third chaser had managed three. Sirius had taken out Ravenclaw's Seeker as a way of payback for turning his team into the walking wounded. The Gryffindor Keeper had saved half of the goals that the Ravenclaw Chasers had sent his way bringing the score to two hundred and sixty to two hundred and twenty in favour of Gryffindor before the Gryffindor seeker caught the snitch and added an extra one hundred and fifty points onto their total. After a two and a half hour game, everyone was relieved that it was over.

After the game, those on the Gryffindor team whose injuries hadn't already been injured went to see Madam Pomfrey at the side of the Quidditch pitch to be healed. They then all traipsed into the changing room where James congratulated them and gave them all some Honeydukes chocolate which they appreciated and gladly took. One by one, the team dispersed and exited the changing room until, at last, only Sirius, Hestia and James were left.

'That was AWESOME!' Sirius roared the excited rush of Quidditch still with him along with the buzz of the chocolate.

'You don't have to shout Padfoot.' James laughed as he leant against the wall, his Quidditch robe scrunched up in his hand and his shirt wrongly done up half way as he had gotten bored halfway through and couldn't be bothered to change it. Bored and tired. It was exhausting work winning at Quidditch and even more exhausting when doing it with a broken foot, if only for the pain. His foot had been healed but it still ached.

'I do have to shout!' Sirius yelled, 'I have to shout so the world can hear about our AWESOMENESS!'

'Well we are awesome.' James conceded.

'AWESOME!' Sirius shouted.

'AWESOME!' James shouted back.

'You know what we should do?' Sirius asked, a mischievous glint in his eye.

'Jelly and butterbeer in the common room?' James responded. It was the way they always celebrated victories. It was the marauder way and practically all they ate. Well it was all James ate and, as James was practically the leader of their littler group, it was what they ate most of the time too. Because, to James, nothing was a great as jelly. To Sirius, nothing was as great as jam. As he said, 'jam cures everything'. So when the marauders weren't eating jelly they were eating jam. And when they weren't eating jelly or jam they were eating chocolate. That was Remus' thing. Chocolate always made him feel better. 'Chocolate helps' were his words. They never seemed to eat what Peter wanted. They didn't even know what his poison was.

'I'll go get the butterbeer!' Sirius said immediately, heading out of the room. He was almost at the door when he turned around and walked back to James to grab the Honeydukes chocolate that he was holding out for him. He knew he'd do that.

'I'll tell Moony to wait for you outside so he can help you with the jelly!' Sirius called over his shoulder.

'Ok.' James responded, making no effort to move. His foot still hurt slightly.

'Watch it Evans.' he heard Sirius say as he exited the dressing room.

'Sorry.' she said to him, watching him out the door and close it behind him. She then turned to Hestia. 'Are you alright?' she asked her, 'How's your shoulder.'

Hestia smiled and laughed slightly. 'Fine.' she replied as she stood up, 'But don't act like you're in here to see me. You've never come in here to see me before.' she said as she walked over to the door which Sirius had just left through. 'I'll wait for you outside.' she sighed. She then left the changing room leaving Lily and James alone.

Lily looked over to him where he was sat, leant against the wall. Even from where she was stood she could tell that he had done his shirt up wrong. She walked over to him then, trying desperately to ignore the musty stench of stale sweat that came with the changing room. No matter what changing room it was, muggle school or Quidditch stadium, that smell still lingered and it always smelt the same.

'Hey.' she said, stopping in front of him and looking down at him. He had sweat glistening across his forehead.

'Hey.' he said to her in return with a grin. 'We won.' he stated as he chucked his Quidditch robe to the side.

'I know.' Lily smiled, 'I was watching.'

'Yeah but we won!' he continued, 'We were awesome! We ruled. We kicked their arses! Losers!'

Lily raised her eyebrows at him.

'What?' James said, 'I'm a sore winner. Get over it.'

Lily shook her head and moved onto why she was actually there. 'How's your foot?' she asked glancing down to it.

'Still there.' he said as he pushed himself up to stand in front of her. He was a good few inches, perhaps even a foot taller than her so she had to look up to him. He smirked. 'Were you worried?' he asked.

'Of course I was.' Lily replied as if there was no question. He was hurt and she was worried. It was a natural reaction when someone was hurt.

'Worried enough to admit to the school that you're my girlfriend?' James queried, a testing expression on his face.

Lily hesitated and bit her lip, her stomach swooping. 'No.' she said.

'Oh.' James sighed, visibly deflating before shrugging it off and making a joke out of it. 'Well I guess you'll just be my casual fling for now then.' he continued, moving closer to her, 'Now come here and give your casual fling a congratulatory kiss.'

'But you're all sweaty.' Lily said, taking a step back away from him, 'And you smell.'

'I've just been playing Quidditch.' James retorted, declaring obvious facts.

'Still no excuse.' Lily laughed.

'Come on.' he went on, taking another step towards her. She didn't step back this time. 'One kiss.'

'No.' Lily shook her head.

'You know you want too.' James smirked with a single raise of his eyebrows, trying to tempt her.

'Not when you smell.' Lily said, denying him.

'I could do this all day you know.' James said, walking arrogantly towards her so that he was backing her towards the wall playfully, 'I could keep you here until you kiss me. Then everyone will be suspicious and our casual fling will be forced out into the open and-'

'Shut up.' Lily laughed, trying to push him back.

'Kiss me.' he demanded, folding his arms around her waist and pulling her close to him a little roughly.

Lily shook her head at him and softly planted a kiss on his lips. When she pulled away he was smiling.

'Not so hard was it.' he grinned.

Lily again, shook her head at him, rolling her eyes at the same time and pulling out of his sweaty grip. 'Your shirts on wrong.' she said, glancing down at his chest. She paused for a second, hesitating, before reaching up both hands and slowly undoing his shirt, revealing his toned chest, so that she could correct the buttons for him. She didn't look at his face. She knew he'd be smirking. He always was. She could feel herself going red as she concentrated on doing his shirt up. She would have gone redder if she had realised that Remus Lupin had opened the door to see them extremely close together with her practically stripping him. As it was, she didn't notice Remus come in and out of the changing room. Neither had James. But Remus had seen them and had confirmed to himself what he already knew.

* * *

Remus Lupin was sat in the common room studying alone. Peter was in an astronomy class and Sirius and James had taken the opportunity to go up to the Ravenclaw tower and decorate the entrance to their common room with Gryffindor banners, once again, flaunting their victory in their faces. A few days ago, Gryffindor had won the first Quidditch match of the season against Ravenclaw and the common room still displayed evidence of their victory. There were homemade banners strung across the round room and empty bottles of butterbeer littering the floor. Then, on all the tables, cluttering every available surfaces, were tones of bowls of jelly. Some were empty but the majority were half-full. It made it hard for Remus to study. What made it even harder was the sudden interruption by the head girl. She looked as if she was in an excited rush.

'Have you seen James?' she asked him making up the excuse, 'We have a patrol.'

Remus shook his head at her lame cover up. He knew they were dating. But she didn't and neither did James. 'No.' he answered looking up at her and then changing his answer. 'Actually yeah.' he pointed to the portrait hole where Sirius and James had just entered carrying a single long Ravenclaw banner, the one that was usually fixed above the houses house point hourglass. They had obviously stolen it. 'He's just come in.' Remus continued.

Lily turned around and quickly walked over to James and Sirius.

'Hey Evans.' Sirius said at the same time James greeted her.

'Hey Lily-hey!' he said, adding on an extra 'hey' in surprise as she had just grabbed his wrist and was dragging him out of the common room.

'Patrol.' she said in simple explanation, ignoring James' shocked look, Remus' exasperated one and Sirius' confused but suspicious one. She was paying no attention to them. Instead, she was dragging James out of the common room, down a few of flights of stairs and into one of the smaller dimly lit corridors on the third floor. Half way down the corridor, she turned him around, his back to the wall, to face her. He looked dazed at her sudden force with him but she didn't let in faze her and she went on to say to him, 'I want you to help me with something.'

'Sure.' James shrugged straight away before asking, 'What?'

'I want you to crash my sister's wedding with me.' Lily stated.

James blinked in confusion. He hadn't expected that at all. That was a totally un-Lily thing to say. She didn't care much for public scenes. 'What?' he asked her again.

'I want you to crash my sister's wedding with me.' Lily repeated slowly.

'Like crash into it?' James queried, running a hand through his hair and not understanding what she meant. Not understanding exactly what she wanted. 'Like with a broom?' he carried on, 'Or…a bus?' he then went into a ramble, 'That might be a bit suspicious. And where would we get a bus. I suppose we could steal the knight bus…Ow!'

Lily had hit him on the arm in frustration. 'Not crash into it.' she clarified, 'Just go to it.'

'But you're not invited.' James pointed out.

'Hence the crash.' Lily said slowly and sarcastically, as if she was speaking to a toddler.

James smirked and folded his arms, taking a deep breath. 'I think I've been a bad influence on you.' he said.

'Yes or no?' Lily questioned, wanting an answer. This was taking a lot of courage and daring on her part. She didn't usually do this sort of thing. That's why she wanted James with her. He was an expert in breaking the rules and just generally getting into mischief. He didn't hold the record for most detentions in a day for nothing. He was skilled in the art of making trouble. Not that she wanted to make trouble for her sister. She just wanted that confident persona with her when she went against her families wishes.

'Are you sure?' James asked, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

'Yes!' Lily said in exhausted exasperation.

'Then yes.' James said, unfolding his arms and putting them in his pockets, his usual smirk returning to his face, 'Can't let you have all the fun now can I?'

'Yay!' Lily said happily. She then threw her arms around his neck and kissed him, catching him off guard. He soon responded to her kiss though and took his hands out of his pockets to hold her closer to him.

At that moment, carrying a Fanged Frisbee he had stolen off of one of the first years in his common room, something he was hoping to use as an implement in the next stage of his plan, Severus Snape walked around the corner. The evil grin he had been emitting as he had thought how he could use the marauders past indescrepencies against them as a way to break Lily's friendship in them, (as his plan in potions hadn't worked), had disappeared. He was halted and his stomach dropped. A bubble of white hot fury rose inside him and, at that moment all he had wanted to do was curse something or someone in particular. But he couldn't because at the same time, his heart had broken. He wanted to cry. It wasn't something he could control at that moment because that was just how he felt as he watched the love of his life in James Potter's arms.

He stood there, unable to move, watching Lily with the boy she had vowed to hate forever. The boy who had bullied him and made his life a living hell. The boy who Lily had said she would never like in that way ever; James Potter. He watched her with him. Her arms draped gracefully around his neck, one of her hands tangling itself in James Potter's hair, the hair which she and Severus had mocked when they were alone together. He watched her with him as he gripped her close to him, one of his arms held tightly around her waist the other running up her back and then down to hold her to him in a very personal manner, in a way that was not particularly decent for public. He was touching her. He was running his hands over her body, over places that he shouldn't be touching, namely her backside. It made Severus' skin crawl at the same time his eyes had filled with furious tears which he just blinked away. He didn't want to feel them fall down his face.

He started to breathe deeply and, not knowing the reason why, he stepped back around the corner, hiding himself from view. He pressed himself against the wall, his hand gripping the fanged Frisbee so hard the fangs were digging into the palm of his hand, starting to draw blood. He stayed there, able to move that far but no further. He was glued to the spot, forced to listen to their conversation.

'Woah!' James whispered against her lips as he pulled out of the kiss, 'I should say yes to crashing your sister's wedding more often it that's the kind of reaction it gets me!' he went on at full volume, Severus hearing every word.

Petunia was getting married. He hadn't known that. He didn't even know that she, the unworthy sister of Lily Evans, was engaged.

'We're only crashing one wedding.' Lily replied.

The word 'we're' dug into Severus like a knife. They were together. If there was any doubt in his mind it was now gone. Any hopes of they kiss he had stumbled upon being a one-time thing were let go. They were together. But how had he not heard of that before now?

'Awesome.' he heard James say, 'One question. How?'

There was a pause where he assumed Lily had hesitated. At least he hoped that was the case. He couldn't bear to think of his lips on hers, on his Lily's, again.

'I've got to figure that bit out first.' Lily said.

'Another question.' James said, 'What we gonna say to Sirius. We gonna tell him about us?'

Then it clicked to Severus. They had kept it a secret. Lily hadn't told anyone. He assumed that she was the one who hadn't wanted to tell anyone. Perhaps it was just a harmless fling that she had kept hidden so that she could move past it quicker. It was a feeble hope, Severus knew. After all, she had asked James Potter to not only attend, but crash Petunia's wedding. It had to be serious for him to know about Petunia. She told no one about her unless she was serious. Unless there was a deep level of trust there. It was becoming apparent to Severus why his attempts to separate their friendship had failed. It was no longer a friendship. It was more.

'James stop pushing me on that.' Lily said, something else in her voice.

'I'm not.' James sighed reluctantly, 'I know what you'll do if I carry on.'

And then it occurred to Severus how he could break Lily's trust in James Potter. How he could prove to her that he hadn't changed and all he thought about was himself. He knew what their words and tones of voice had expressed. He knew what he could do. He knew how he could bring Lily back to him. He knew what to try, what he had to try.

Severus stayed hidden where he was, not wanting to move or breathe in case they heard him. If they heard him his plan would be ruined. He would just have to listen to the end of their conversation and hope they walked the opposite way when they left.

'But what we gonna explain to Sirius?' he heard James ask Lily, 'He lives with me. He'll notice I'm gone.'

'Well how did you get away in the summer holidays?' Lily questioned, reminding Severus of that day in the summer holidays when he had seen James Potter standing outside the house like he had belonged there. It was a horrible day in Severus' memory.

'We played hide and seek.' James answered.

Severus scoffed silently. What did Lily see in him? He was a child.

'You child.' Lily laughed.

'Yep.' James chuckled in reply.

'Will that work again?' Lily said, her voice full of hope.

'Probably. He's not too bright.' James went on.

'Perfect.' Lily said.

And that was the last he heard of their conversation. He peered around the corner to see them locked together again, a disgusted shiver running down his spine as he saw James Potter raking his hands over Lily Evans' body again, laying claim to it as his own, something which she wasn't refusing. Severus loathed it. He hated it. He wanted to kill him. But their relationship would soon be taken care of. Severus would make sure of that. Then, soon, it would be him with Lily. He would be the one kissing her passionately in the halls, no secret about it. He would be the one with his tongue in her mouth, running his hands over her body, claiming it as his own. He would be the one to claim her as his own. For she would be his, and only his. Always.

* * *

**Thanks for reading.**

**Next update will be 29/05/2013**

**Galindaba**


	57. Chapter 56

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader! Just the one chapter today folks, sorry. Erm...I think there was confusion with the update date and it took me a while but I think I figured out why. I live in England and I think the dates are written differently here so the 29/5/2013 is the same as the 5/29/2013. The day and the month are just the opposite way round. But to avoid any confusion I will write my update dates out long hand! SOLOUTION! :)**

**Anyway, here's chapter Fifty-Six!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Fifty-Six**

The next morning, feeling elated that she was actually going to her sister's wedding, something she hadn't thought possible, Lily went into the great hall for breakfast. She was alone. She had just finished dropping Hestia off at the Hospital Wing because she had been complaining of an upset stomach, (very melodramatically), and as Alice usually had breakfast with Frank, this left her by herself. She didn't mind though. Sometimes it was nice to be alone with your thoughts. Sometimes it wasn't. This was one of those days.

She sat down in an empty space half way down the Gryffindor table and looked at the food that appeared in front of her. She reached for a slice of toast when she hesitated and looked up. Opposite where she was sat was the Slytherin table. They were all sneering at her. Well at least most of them were. She took a deep breath and shook her head to herself. They always looked at her like that. To that house, she was dirty. Dirty blood to be precise. She was a mudblood. So this wasn't anything knew to Lily and she powered through, ignoring their sneers and started to eat her breakfast.

The hall was alive with whispers. It always was. Breakfast was the time for gossip. So was lunch. And dinner. Hogwarts liked to gossip a lot. After all, even though it was a school full of witches and wizards, they were still all human. And if something newsworthy came along, Hogwarts would have a gossip-filled day. Usually Hestia told Lily all the gossip. Hestia loved knowing what was going. Lily was sure that if Hestia wasn't her best friend she wouldn't know half of what went on in that school. As it turned out, today, because Hestia wasn't well, Lily didn't know what was going on. So, her curious nature taking over, Lily turned around to see if she could catch a snippet from the Hufflepuff table behind her or the Ravenclaw table behind that.

She got a surprise. When she turned around she found at least a dozen or more eyes on her. A group of fifth year Hufflepuff girls stopped their conversation just to give her an evil look. At the opposite end of the table, a group of seventh year Hufflepuff girls did the same. On the Ravenclaw table, dotted around, were at least fourteen girls scowling at her. Joshua Hunt was scowling at her also whilst it seemed his friend Sean McEvoy tried to talk him round. Lily turned slowly back to her food. Subtly, she glanced sided to side down the Gryffindor table and found that people in her own house were doing the same. She just didn't know why.

Automatically Lily checked her clothing. Did she have something stuck to her robes? No. She picked up her knife and studied her reflection in it. Did she have something on her face? No. She ran a few fingers threw her deep red hair. Was there something tangled in it? No. She glanced over her shoulder again. More girls were glaring at her. Why were people staring at her?

'Hey.' James said as he sat down next to her. He was oblivious to the stares. People often stared at him. He continued in a whisper. 'I think I've thought of a way for us to crash your sister's…wedding. Are you ok?'

'People are staring at me.' Lily muttered through the corner of her mouth.

James looked confused. 'I think you're paranoid.' he joked.

Lily didn't laugh. She was nervous. 'No James I'm serious.' she said honestly, 'People are staring at me.'

'Don't be ridiculous.' James began, starting to turn around to check, 'No one is- everyone is staring at you.'

'I know.' Lily said through gritted teeth.

'Well what have you done?' James asked.

Lily looked at him in shock. 'Who says I've done-'

'Well, well, well!' Sirius said, interrupting Lily half way through her sentence as he sat opposite her, a mischievous smile on his handsome face. Remus sat next to him, opposite James, no change in his natural expression. Peter sat next on James' right hand side and looked at his plate. Sirius was the only clue.

'How's the happy couple?' he asked straight away, glancing between James and Lily with a smirk.

James looked at him with a frown. He couldn't know. Nobody knew apart from Hestia. He had told no one.

'What do you mean?' Lily asked, her breathing starting to get deeper.

'The happy couple.' Sirius repeated, 'Prongs and Lily.'

'Since when do you call her Lily?' James asked slowly, gulping and knowing the answer.

'Since I found out you two started going out.' Sirius grinned, 'I mean-'

'You told him!' Lily said, cutting across Sirius and turning to James with a hurt expression in her eyes, 'After I told you not to! Everyone knows!'

And with that she stood up and ran from the hall.

'Well that could-'

'Thanks a lot!' James snapped at Sirius who was once again cut off in the middle of his sentence. He got stood up also and immediately followed Lily out of the hall, trying desperately to catch up with her.

Sirius looked shocked at James' tone. He had never seen his best friend act like that. James had given him no time to talk. He had snapped at him. James never snapped at Sirius. He always played along with the joke, no matter what it was. He always found the funny side of everything. This should have been no exception. But it was. James was serious. Deadly serious. Sirius had seen that in his eyes. He watched him run out of the hall, very unsure about what had happened.

* * *

'Lily!' James called after her as he followed her running up the stairs just outside the entrance hall, not caring anymore that people were looking at the scene they were creating and knowing what it was all about. 'Lily slow down!'

Lily didn't slow down at all. She had tears brimming in her eyes as she ran down the corridor that led off of the entrance hall steps. She was making her way to the Hospital wing to see Hestia. She needed to see her best friend. She needed to get away from James but he wasn't making it easy. She couldn't bring herself to stop and look at him. Not when he had broken her trust. Not when he had done the only thing she had specifically asked him not to do. But she couldn't avoid him forever on her run because she was getting a stitch in her side from not breathing, (and not running very often). She slowed to a walk as she started to climb up another flight of stairs.

For James, it was harder to try and get in front of her when she was climbing up the stairs, especially as there was a crowd of students moving down them at the same time walking slowly to try and catch what was going on. They were making a public scene, something which Lily didn't particularly care for. He tried to talk to her as they walked.

'Lily! For Merlin's sake will you please listen to me?' he begged her, 'I don't know how everyone knows but I had nothing to do with it! You have to believe me!'

Lily stopped on the stairs, a couple of steps above him, and turned around to face him. James could see the tears in her eyes. 'Why do I?' Lily asked him rhetorically, knowing that she didn't have to do anything, least of all believe him. 'No one knew and we were doing fine! Why did you want to ruin that?'

'I didn't.' James said, urging her to believe him.

'Then how is it your best friend knows? And the rest of the school?' Lily questioned, again rhetorically. She knew he'd have no answer for her anyway. He wouldn't admit anything because of his damn pride. The ever present ego of James Potter.

Her last comment had sent the crowd that had stopped on the stairs to watch what should have been a private exchange between their two head students on their way.

James waited until they had all dispersed, until he and Lily were alone to respond to her. 'I don't know.' he answered truthfully.

'I thought so.' Lily said with a disappointed shake of her head. She turned around to walk away from him, not wanting him to see the tears that were threatening to spill out, the tears she had believed he had caused.

James didn't let her walk away from him however. He grabbed her wrist and turned her around to face him again. He was becoming angry and frustrated now because she wouldn't believe him. He had to make her see the truth he was telling her. He took a deep breath to calm himself as he began to make a make or break speech. It would either save their budding relationship or tear it to shreds and burn out like Fawkes on his burning day.

'Ok.' he began, 'Let's forget for a second that I _promised_ you I wouldn't tell anyone about us per your request. Let's forget that for almost three months you trusted me with that secret and that, during that time, I told no one because it was what _you_ wanted. Let's forget that I've let you call all the shots between us from the beginning. And I mean the very beginning. First year upwards. Everything that has happened between us has been down to you or on _your_ terms. Do you really think, that after all of that, I would risk what we've got going on here? Risk losing you?'

James paused and looked into Lily's eyes, waiting for a response. When she gave him none, he carried on.

'I waited for you for six years. I know I probably didn't handle everything in the best way most the time, asking you out every day and hexing Snape etcetera. I wasn't patient to start with but I still waited and I be_came_ patient. I took everything you said to me, everything you shouted at me, on board and I tried to change myself to be someone who you could see yourself with. Change isn't easy but I did my best for _you._ It took six years for you to finally agree to go out with me and I don't think you realise how happy that made me.'

He paused again and looked into Lily's eyes. The tears that had been gathering there slowly were disappearing. Now she didn't look angry or hurt anymore. James went for it one last time.

'Now I don't know who found out about us. But you've got to believe that I told no one. I kept it all a secret and even when I wanted everyone to know, like with that business with Joshua Hunt, I still kept my mouth shut. Because for these past three months, even though nobody could share in it, I have been happier than I've ever been before. And that's been because of you. So tell me, do you really think that I would want that to end? Do you really think that I would ruin what I have wanted since our first year at Hogwarts? Really?'

Lily took a deep shaky breath and simply said, 'You only started to like me in third year. You asked me out for the first time in third year. Not first.'

James smiled crookedly at her, knowing that he had made her see his way and that she believed him. It was the best feeling in the world to him. Her trust added with the fact that she actually remembered the first time she had asked him out. The fact that she had actually taken notice of the time that his feelings towards her had obviously changed.

'Yeah.' he agreed, running a hand through his hair and then putting them both into his pockets, 'But first year sounded more theatrical.'

Lily looked down and smiled at the floor. She looked up at him through her eyelashes into his hazel eyes, going a bit pink at his gaze butterflies in her stomach, his long declaration from before also having an effect on her blush. He was smiling at her.

'You remembered the first time I asked you out.' he stated.

Lilly looked up at him fully now, at his handsome smirk. 'Of course.' she said, before adding teasingly, 'You remember the day someone starts to bug the hell out of you.'

'I didn't bug you before?' James asked, his smirk turning into a grin.

'Not as much.' Lily replied.

James took a deep breath, took his right hand out of his pocket, offering it to Lily. 'One way to get through this.' he said, 'Are you with me?'

* * *

Back in the main hall, Severus Snape was smiling inwardly to himself. He had seen it all unfold. He had seen his plan to break Lily's trust in James Potter and his plan to actually break them up, unfold right in front of him. He couldn't have asked for it to have gone better. He had seen Lily run from the hall, obviously upset with James not stopping to look at him when he ran after her. He knew Lily. She wouldn't listen to James at all. No, now she wouldn't give him the time of day because she had shared herself with him and he had betrayed her, or so it seemed to her. When James Potter came back into the hall, Severus would go and find Lily and she would be grateful for his company. He just had to be patient.

Of course, when James Potter did return and Severus went to find Lily, he wouldn't tell her what he had done. That would only upset her further and he didn't want to do that. Not at all. He wouldn't tell her that he had caught her snogging James Potter in the corridor the previous night. He wouldn't tell her that. He wouldn't tell her that he had returned to his dorm room and had made twenty noted copies of her secret. He wouldn't tell her that. He wouldn't tell her that earlier that morning he had sent out all twenty of these notes, five to each house table and had let the gossip spread like wild fire. No. He wouldn't tell her any of those things. He would comfort her and tell her that he loved her as he should have done so many times before. That was his plan now. He just had to be patient.

But patience wasn't the problem. He could have had all the patience in the world and it wouldn't have made and ape of a difference. For he had underestimated the connection James had forged with Lily. He had underestimated James' ability to talk her round. He had underestimated the truth.

James Potter walked back into the hall, confidence oozing. He had sureness written across his face and a kind of giddy happiness behind his eyes because, following him into the hall, her hand entwined strongly in his, was Lily Evans. Severus' Lily. Only she wasn't his anymore. She hadn't been his for a long time. She didn't seem as confident as James Potter. She looked nervous, hating the eyes that had swivelled towards them when they had walked in the hall together, not knowing that two of these eyes belonged to Severus and that they were the only ones expressing real pain.

James led Lily into the hall, holding her hand for support.

Lily looked around apprehensively, uncertain about this. She knew that this was the only way to get past this barrier that had presented itself before then, too soon in her opinion, but she didn't think she could manage it. Not like James seemed to be able too. 'James I really don't think I can do this.' she whispered to him tersely.

'Yeah you can.' James assured her, squeezing her hand as they walked past people whispering about them and people staring at them.

'No I really can't.' Lily said, almost stopping.

James didn't let her stop though. He knew she had to get over this hurdle and she wouldn't thank herself later if she bailed out on the opportunity. So, still holding her hand tightly in his, he put his arm around her, holding it around her waist so that her arm was crossed over her flat stomach. He held her to his side in encouragement and said, 'I'm right here next to you. Just ignore them.' knowing it was easier said than done as almost everyone in the hall seemed to be thoroughly captivated by their appearance, whispering and staring at them as they passed by. So he continued to talk to distract her as they walked the last stretch of floor to their seats by his friends.

'Besides,' he started with a smile, 'people would have figured it out sooner or later if I kept turning up with your lipstick on. We'd have had to tell them about us…that or how I like to dress up in drag at the weekends and I think I'd prefer that to stay private for now.' he ended jokingly.

'That should always stay private James.' Lily said with a small laugh as they sat down together, having made the walk, (which had seemed like a lifetime for Lily), from the entrance hall to their seats.

As they sat down, Lily opposite Sirius, James opposite Remus and next to Peter on his left hand side, Lily gave a small smile to the other marauders. Remus smiled back at her kindly, Peter avoided her but he avoided practically everyone, and Sirius grinned broadly at her bobbing his eyebrows in strong insinuation. He carried on until James kicked him under the table to stop.

They sat in a tense silence, James filling his and Lily's plates with breakfast for he had a feeling that she wouldn't eat otherwise. Remus, Sirius and Peter watched him do this. They watched him as he poured her out a bowl of Cheeri Owls, making sure there was no powdery substance falling into the bowl as he knew she didn't like that. They watched him as he grabbed her a couple of slices of toast, buttering one and putting jam on the other. They watched him with raised eyebrows and a sort of fascination for they had never seen James act like this before. Not even Sirius had seen him act like this before. This was new.

Lily didn't notice what he was doing though. She could still feel everyone in the hall looking at her. 'James they're still staring at me.' she said to him.

'Cause you're so pretty.' James replied simply, depositing her toast on her plate. It seemed that Sirius had done her the favour of eat the toast she had had earlier.

'You're a suck up.' she whispered playfully to him.

'Only to you.' he said with a smirk, now buttering his own toast.

'And me!' Sirius said joining into their conversation for he felt left out by his best friend. After all, he should be the one with the attention. He always got attention.

James looked up at him with raised eyebrows. 'And him.' he conceded, gesturing to Sirius with his knife, 'Not him though.' he continued, now motioning his knife towards Remus. He missed Peter out.

'Why not him?' Lily asked James in reference to Remus.

'He's just not worth it.' Sirius said simply with a mouthful of muffin, spraying some crumbs out in front of him just short of Lily. Lily looked disgusted but James, Remus and Peter seemed to be used to it.

'Thanks.' Remus muttered.

The conversation ended there. Peter looked down at his plate and continued to pick at his breakfast. Remus carried on as normal. Lily bit her lip nervously, a tad uneasy at the new situation. She glanced at James who smiled at her supportively. Sirius sat in front of the pair looking back and forth between them, watching their silent exchange whilst chewing hungrily on his muffin.

'Well!' he said, trying to break the silence, 'This isn't awkward at all!'

James looked up at his best friend and laughed a single breathless laugh. 'Is now.' he commented.

'Already was.' Sirius muttered under his breath.

James shook his head at Sirius and smirked mischievously. 'You've got butter in your hair.' he stated.

Sirius acted exactly the way James knew he would and the tension between the small group was broken. They all relaxed into their friendship and everyday personas, accepting the new relationship that had just been brought out into the open with no extra fuss. Exactly how James and Lily had wanted it to be.

'What?' Sirius yelled, immediately throwing his head forwards to search his silky black locks for the aforementioned butter. But when he heard James laughing at him, he slowly raised his head and sent his best friend a dramatically evil stare. 'That's cruel prongs.' he said, shaking his head at James' trick on him before going into his, 'I love me who do you love' routine which James, Remus and Peter were often treated to on occasions like this. 'You're just jealous of my stunning good looks.' he said arrogantly, smoothing down his hair and checking himself out conceitedly in his knife. He was very vain.

'Yeah.' James said sarcastically with a roll of his eyes, 'That's it!'

'You and Moony have always been jealous of me!' Sirius went on to boast, placing his hand across his heart in an attempt to look valiant. It didn't work.

'Why would anyone be jealous of you?' Lily queried in a joking manner, joining in on the conversation hoping to distract herself from the many stares she and James were still receiving.

Sirius paused and let his hand drop to the table looking at her with a neutral expression before turning to James and saying, 'Prongs she's mean. Break up with her.'

'No I agree with her.' James chuckled much to Sirius' fake dislike as he took a bite of his toast.

Playing on his role as being the most dramatic, Sirius took in an almighty fake gasp which earned him a small giggle from Lily. He then huffed a quick sigh and turned to Remus for support. 'Well Moony doesn't do you?' he asked him, fully expecting him to agree with him. After all he had no reason not to.

Remus didn't oblige. He looked around the table saying, 'Was that someone calling my name?' as a way to avoid Sirius' question.

James chuckled.

'Moony!' Sirius said in shock before pretending to be hurt, 'How could you?'

'I really think it was' Remus continued with his gag before turning to Peter to get him involved. 'Was that you Peter?' he asked him.

Peter mumbled under his breath which no one, not even James who was sat next to him, could hear. James shook his head and affectionately ruffled the straw like hair of his wordless friend.

Sirius sneered at the action but swiftly moved on to switch the topic of conversation and attention back to himself. 'See!' he said loudly and proudly, 'That's your jealousy of me right there! Actions speak louder than words my friend!'

James and Remus silently looked at each other and smirked. Then, simultaneously, as if they had repeated the same action many times before, they both picked up a muffin and lazily threw it at Sirius' face; James' aimed well and hitting his forehead and Remus', (who couldn't throw), just hitting his cheek.

'Hey!' Sirius said as he raised his arms from the sudden onslaught of muffins which bounced off of his face and scattered across the table out of his reach so he couldn't even eat them.

'Actions speak louder than words my friend!' James grinned, mimicking Sirius' earlier statement and using it against him.

'Well what was that action supposed to say?' Sirius asked now starting to load his plate with more food as he hadn't realised during his theatrics that his plate was empty and for Sirius, an empty plate was just not acceptable.

'That you piss us off.' James smirked.

'And we want you to shut up.' Remus added.

'It's a long shot but we thought we'd give it a try.' James shrugged, helping himself to another slice of toast.

By this point, half the people in the hall had become bored and had stopped focusing their attention on their head students as they had just acted as naturally as possible. James and Lily, more James than Lily, had acted as if nothing had changed, as if nothing was happening and the school wasn't watching their every move. They acted as if this breakfast was just the same as the day before. So the hall hadn't gotten what it had expected when the news about the new relationship between one of the most popular boys in school and the girl he had chased for many years had arrived. Still, it didn't stop some of them watching to see if anything interesting would happen. Not that the marauders cared by this point. They were carrying on as normal.

'You could have just asked.' Sirius went on in a mumble.

'Would you have done it?' Remus asked him with an exhausted derisive look. The question was pointless. He knew the answer.

'No.' Sirius said after a small thoughtful pause.

Remus and James looked at each other again and once more grabbed a couple of muffins each to throw at Sirius. The first two had hit him. The second two he caught quickly as the group laughed together.

'See, your words say you want me to shut up but your actions say you want me to eat.' Sirius said as he peeled the cake casing off of one of the muffins he had caught, dropping the other on his plate and taking a large bite. He spoke with his mouthful. 'You're gonna have to make your minds up.' he said matter of factly as if he was the boss of the group.

'Just eat your food princess.' Remus said to him as he himself went back to his own breakfast.

'Moony!' Sirius whined, spraying him with food he was trying to eat as he turned to face Remus, 'You promised not to call me that anymore!'

'I lied.' Remus said simply with a shrug as if he didn't care which, in all fairness, he didn't.

'Prongs!' Sirius moaned.

'Calm down.' James chuckled, before placatingly adding, 'We just sent your tiara out to be cleaned. You'll have it back in no time.'

'I hope you haven't sent it to the same place as last time.' Sirius said, now playing along with the joke as it was James who was making it. It seemed as if whatever joke James made, Sirius would play along with, even if he had just rejected it from someone else moments before. 'They tarnished the metal.' he went on.

'Well this has been fun but I think that I've take all the stares I can for today.' Lily sighed to the group. She had tried to ignore the stare and had done so for ten minutes, most of them disappearing but a few were ever present, burning into the back of her head and she just couldn't take it anymore. Hestia was definitely right about that. She turned and spoke solely to James. 'I'm gonna go check on Hestia and leave you to chat to your girlfriends.' she smiled.

'We're guys.' Sirius corrected her in offence.

'Sorry. Boyfriends.' Lily said, turning to smile at Sirius in her joke. She was then about to get up to leave but James stopped her, determined to jump over all the hurdles in one sitting.

'If we're doing this we're doing this properly.' he said seriously, now ignoring his friends who were watching their interaction. But he didn't care. He enjoyed attention usually and revelled in it. Now he ignored it in favour of Lily.

'You've become very demanding lately.' Lily pointed out with narrowed eyes, doing her best to ignore the fact that they were being watched but not succeeding in it as well as James. Her eyes kept flickering away from his to look around her.

'Yeah but you like it.' James smirked, sure of himself.

'Not sure I do.' Lily shook her head.

'Still got to do this properly.' he repeated with a raise of his eyebrows and a serious look.

'You make it sound like a chore.' Lily scowled playfully at him.

'Sometimes is with you.' James replied with a simple shrug of his shoulders and the hints of a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

'You know you like a challenge.' Lily stated.

James leant closer to her and lowered his voice, now, for the first time, very aware and a little self-conscious about the people in the hall watching them. 'And I know that you don't like making public scenes so unless you want me to chase you through the hall again…' he said before he breathed deeply to finally say, 'Give the people what they want.'

It was the last hurdle. If it wasn't now then all eyes would be on them until it happened and Lily knew this. It was all rather pressurised, something which hadn't been present for them since their third date. But the pressure was back and it needed to be done and gotten out of the way. So, with most the eyes in the hall on her, Lily swallowed deeply, placed her right hand on James' cheek and closed the gap between them, kissing his lips for a short amount of time before pulling away. She could feel the blush creeping up into her cheeks as James smirked at her, his permanent expression. So she said her goodbyes and swiftly exited the hall, the student body's curiosity hopefully satisfied.

James watched her walk out of the hall, his smirk still on his face. He then turned to his friends who were smiling insinuatingly at him and simply said to them, 'She never usually turns red.'

And with that, at the same time, Remus and Sirius stood up to give James a mocking standing ovation. They were the only ones. No one joined in. Well Peter tried to but James pulled him down. It was there inside joke because they had always said if James was to ever get Lily to go out with him, he would deserve a round of applause. And that's exactly what he got from them.

He let them carry on for around five second, raising one eyebrow and shaking his head at their behaviour, before he said calmly, 'All right guys cut it out.'

Slowly, Sirius and Remus stopped clapping. Sirius then turned to Remus. 'We've known about this for twenty minutes and I already don't like it.' he said. Before, James would have taken the round of applause and would have perhaps given a little bow but now, out of respect for Lily and worry that it might get back to her, he didn't and he stopped them quickly. For Sirius, this wasn't right and he didn't like it.

'Speak for yourself.' Remus sighed, sitting back down and returning to his breakfast, 'I've known about it for twenty days.'

'Wait!' Sirius said loudly holding up his hand in a stop action. He was still stood up. 'You told him and not me? Prongs!' he then started to go into a quick but short ramble, 'That's it! You're fired as my best friend. Peter you've been promoted…' Sirius paused as if he was thinking better of the decision, looking at Peter with a slightly disgusted sneer.

Peter looked up with wide eyes at being addressed. He wasn't particularly part of the conversation. He had no experience in the area of girls unlike Sirius and, now, James. Remus didn't have experience either as he always shielded himself from girls saying they wouldn't want to go out with a werewolf anyway. But what he lacked in experience, he made up for in knowledge. The marauders had yet to find a topic that Remus didn't know at least something about.

'Actually,' Sirius said, his voice returning to a normal volume as he finally sat down from his standing ovation, 'I'll give you another chance Prongs. All you gotta do is explain why you told him and not me.'

'Hey I told him nothing.' James said in defence as he picked up the slice of toast that Lily hadn't eaten from her plate and took a bite.

'Then how do you know?' Sirius asked Remus with a frown. If what James had said was true, and Sirius had no reason to believe it wasn't, then how had Remus known about that secret relationship?

'Elementary my dear Watson.' Remus replied.

Sirius' frown deepened. He looked extremely confused. 'Huh?' he questioned loudly, making it well known that he had no idea what Remus was on about. Personally he thought he was going a bit mad. He had known him for six and a half years, his hole Hogwarts career. Surely he knew his name by now? 'What's that supposed to mean?' Sirius wondered aloud, 'Who's Watson?'

'Character from a muggle book.' James responded, taking another bit of the toast he had claimed as his. He munched his way through it for five seconds before he realised that Sirius, Remus and Peter had all turned to look at him in muddled inquiry. It wasn't like James to know something like that. That was Remus' forte. He swallowed his toast and explained, 'Lily told me about it.'

Sirius narrowed his eyes and leant over to Remus to stage whisper noisily so that James could still hear him, 'This is weird. She teaches him things. Not even the Professors can do that.'

James chuckled and tore off a bit of his toast to throw at Sirius. Sirius caught it and shoved it in his mouth earning another chuckle form James before he turned to Remus and asked, still carrying on with the muggle reference, 'Alright Sherlock how'd you figure it out?'

'Well,' Remus said, putting down the muffin he was picking his way through so that he could focus his attention on the upcoming conversation, 'you remember that day in Hogsmeade when we went into the three broomsticks and sat in the same booth as Evans and Jones, McEvoy and Joshua Hunt?' he asked.

'Git-face? Sure.' James replied, casually shrugging it off even though it still bugged him deep down.

'The story you told.' Remus said in the start of an explanation.

'Yeah?' James recalled after a moment. He remembered the story told, the lie about why they had been whispering together. He had said that Lily was telling him off for being a bad head boy and had used the patrol where he helped someone break into Professor Linkedin's office as an example.

'Yeah that happened on patrol with me not Evans.' Remus pointed out.

'Oh yeah.' James realised before cursing at his own stupidity, 'Crap! I forgot you were there.'

'That was it?' Sirius pondered with a quizzical expression, (a big feat for him), 'That's how you figured it out?' he continued before adding with a nod of his head, 'Wow your smart.'

'That wasn't just it.' Remus continued.

'So you're not smart?' Sirius smirked, poking fun at Remus who turned to look at him slowly, obviously unimpressed. Sirius' smirk faded. 'Just saying…' he muttered with a small shrug.

Remus shook his head at Sirius once before turning back to James to continue with his explanations of how he had come to figure out James and Lily's secret. 'You were holding her hand under the table, you disappeared to go see Dumbledore which wasn't possible because we went into the hogs head after you left and saw him in there.' Remus accounted.

'Oh yeah…' Sirius murmured, lifting his head and staring into the distance as he remembered himself, Remus and Peter, (along with Arabella who was his date for the day), going into the Hogs Head only to walk straight back out of it when they had seen their headmaster in there. It was a dingy pub anyway and they didn't particularly like it. Avoiding their headmaster was just an excuse to leave.

'So it was just the Hogsmeade trip?' James asked Remus, wanting to establish his slip up, mostly to see if there was anything he could have done differently to hide it. Not that he could change anything now anyway. He was just speculating.

Remus took a deep breath before going into a list of reasons which had tipped him off to what was really going on in James' life over the past twenty days. 'No.' he said, 'There was you wanting to go to Slughorn's Halloween party. You always took at least one patrol together. You kept turning up wearing lipstick-'

'I dress in drag.' James cut in, making a joke, the same he had made to Lily earlier.

'Me too!' Sirius confirmed happily.

'Yeah…' James said with an awkward pause and a frown, 'I was joking.'

Sirius' face dropped. 'Me too…' he established uncertainly.

After this rather uncomfortable declaration which had automatically been rescinded, Remus went on with his list of clues to James' relationship with Lily whilst Sirius tried with all his might to clarify his revelation.

'More often than not I'd wake up in the middle of the night and you'd be gone-' Remus said.

'It was just the one time!' Sirius burst out.

'-you checked the patrol rota with her more times than necessary considering it was posted on the notice board and you helped create it-' Remus continued, ignoring Sirius.

'I was eight.' Sirius said, hauntingly dramatic.

'You took her outside to talk to her in that Potions lesson. I walked out and saw you hugging her.' Remus stated.

'It was my mother's night dress.' Sirius recalled with loathing remembrance.

'You became more excited about Transfiguration lessons because you sit next to her now-' Remus went on with a monotonic tone for his list now.

'But it wasn't just me!' Sirius surged through.

'-you kept going to the library which just isn't your thing-'

'My brother was in there too!'

'-she dragged you off yesterday to Merlin knows where-'

'I mean that thing was _huge!'_

'-and then I also walked in on you two in the Quidditch changing room where she was practically stripping you.' Remus finished offhandedly.

'But we didn't wear heels or make up and-' Sirius paused, his mind just registering Remus' words. 'Evans was stripping you?' he asked James with a head tilt before congratulating him as boys do, offering him a hand in high five. 'Nice!' he said.

James didn't take the high five and instead, out of respect for Lily, he clarified what they were actually doing in the Quidditch changing room before Sirius got the wrong idea. 'She wasn't stripping me she was doing the buttons up on my shirt. I'd done them wrong.' he said, shrugging the insinuation away.

Sirius took his hand down. 'So you haven't-'

'No.' James cut into the question, knowing what it was going to be anyway and answering truthfully. He wasn't the type of person to lie about such a thing just for the approval of his friends. Other things yes, but not that. Not like Sirius who he was sure had over-embellished some of the stories he told. Not all of his stories though as he had dated many girls and it wasn't implausible. He _had_ disappeared with one girl or another on more than one occasion when they were in Hogsmeade. But most of his brags had to be exaggerated just because he was the only one in the group who had actually gone so far. Remus hadn't because of his own reservations to do with his lycanthropy. Peter definitely hadn't. And James had had his eye on Lily.

Remus changed the topic. Not completely but enough. 'When'd you get together?' he asked, knowing they had been together far longer than the twenty days he had known about. The bond they had shown just over a simple breakfast had proved that.

'I asked her out second day back at school.' James answered, relieved for a change of subject.

'That's almost three months!' Sirius exclaimed, shocked that his best friend had kept something from him for that long.

'Glad to know you've finally worked out how to read a calendar.' James said with a sarcastic smirk.

'Thanks!' Sirius said proudly, taking the compliment. Sarcastic or not; it was a compliment.

'So you asked her out on the Friday, when'd you take her out?' Remus queried, now actually going back to the breakfast he had discarded to reel of his list of clues to James. He picked at his muffin again, not unlike Peter was doing. But Remus was picking at his muffin because it was something to do. Peter was picking at his muffin because he wasn't involved in the conversation about girls and relationships. He never was unless he was the butt of the joke.

'Sunday.' James stated, the date imprinted in his mind, emblazoned across the back of his head. It was a Sunday in September. The fourth.

'Can't have done.' Sirius butted in adamantly with a shake of his head, 'You were with us all day Sunday and we had Quidditch trials.' he remembered. Again, a big feat for him.

James simply raised his eyebrows at him once and smiled mysteriously. They would never know. He turned back to Remus. 'So that's how you knew.' he clarified.

'Pretty much.' Remus shrugged.

'Why didn't you say anything?' James asked.

'Seemed like you didn't want us to know.' Remus brushed off.

'Fair enough.' James said hidden thanks in his voice.

There was a pause before Sirius started.

'I mean, I knew there was something going on too.' he said in pretend cockiness, 'Best friend intuition…' he paused, trying to make them believe him which they didn't. 'I knew…I knew something was going on…'

James turned the conversation subject around. 'So Sirius dresses up in drag?' he said.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**I will update on 5th June 2013**

**Galindaba**


	58. Chapter 57

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Just an answer to hpgirl1551's question. I assume you mean the one in Florida so no I have not been to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter though I am desperate to go so if anyone knows my fairy god mother, tell her that's my wish. I have however been to the set tour up near London which was absolutely EPIC! I recommend it to anyone who loves Harry Potter as much as me and even to those who, (for some deranged reason), can't stand it. It's a brilliant day out and, because it was so awesome and, well, because its Harry Potter, I'm going again with my friends from Uni so YAY!**

**And to Awesomeme. Don't worry! :) No need to apologise. Love you for your continued support!**

**Anyway, here's chapter Fifty-Seven!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Fifty-Seven**

Those who expected James Potter and Lily Evans to be all over each other now that their relationship was out in the open for everyone to see were sorely mistaken. Anyone who believed that the change would be easy to spot was wrong because, although they hadn't known about it, it had been there all along; from the beginning of the school year. There was no change to find. James and Lily had been successful in keeping their relationship hidden and, although it had been declared to the school now, they still managed to keep it that way; not secret, just private. So those who had hoped to catch their head students in a compromising situation, snogging in a broom cupboard, a deserted passage way or something similar, were disappointed. All they saw was a couple who didn't have to hide everything anymore, not a particularly packed subject for gossip like they had hoped.

Their relationship was out in the open for everyone to see for the last couple of weeks before the school broke up for Christmas and they had found a routine to settle into. They rather enjoyed it. Not at first because they did attract stares. After all, James had wanted Lily from day one and she had hated him. It was unusual for that sort of association to develop into a relationship but it seemed to have worked for them. After they got used to the stares though, well, after Lily had got used to the stares, they were fine. For her, routine helped.

They walked down to and ate breakfast together every morning but, much to the disappointment of the gossip mongers in the school, they were never alone. They ate with their friends. Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew and Hestia Jones were always with them, (not Alice as she ate breakfast with Frank). They were almost like a big group, something which Hestia wasn't too happy about because Sirius kept stealing her toast. She coped with it for Lily though. After all, what are best friends for? It didn't stop her whacking Sirius when he tried to reach over to her plate though.

They didn't eat lunch together. James sat with his friends and Lily with hers. But after they had eaten, they spent the rest of the lunch hour in each other's company. You could spot the two going for lunch time walks around the expansive grounds, even in the rain which seemed to be there thing; walks in the rain, (a small source of gossip for those who thrived on it). They walked hand in hand or with James' arm wrapped securely around Lily's waist, something which earned her a few jealous glares. She had gotten used to then though. She had had to. Not that that had stopped them bugging her.

The only free periods that Lily spent with James were the ones she already spent with the marauders anyway. The same free periods she had spent with them the previous year as they were the ones where she was on her own; Hestia and Alice being in Divination. In those free periods, the group went on as usual, the only thing particularly changing being how they were sat. Before, James would lounge across the couch in the common room, Sirius would sit on the armchair next to him with his feet plonked up on the small table they were surrounding, Peter would be sat crossed logged on the floor behind the table but in front of the fire place, Lily would be sat in the cushy armchair opposite Sirius and, completing the circle, Remus would be sat on the other end of the sofa where James was. Now, Remus had taken the armchair Lily usually occupied so that she could sit on the couch with James, his arm around her but not always. Sirius and Peter stayed where they were.

James would wait for her outside her Ancient Runes lesson, the only lesson they didn't share, and would walk her to dinner carrying her books. (She had a lot of books for Ancient Runes.) But just like at lunch, they didn't eat together. Instead, Lily ate with and spoke to Hestia and Alice whilst James ate with Sirius, Remus and Peter, messing around with Sirius, pulling stupid little tricks on those around them, trying to get them to, for example, turn around to look at something which wasn't there. It was their little source of amusement; the gullible ones. After that the marauders would either go to the kitchens to let Sirius eat more food, sneak out to Hogsmeade to go to the three broomsticks or, very infrequently now, the room of requirement. Lily stayed with her friends.

In the evenings, they sat together in the common room, sometimes talking, sometimes just sitting together. Lily would be reading a book and James would have his arm around her, twiddling her deep red hair that he liked so much through his fingers. Then he'd get bored just watching her and would start bugging her until she put the book away or, more often than not, hit him with it. After that he would try to convince her to take a walk with him which she would sometimes agree to straight away but not always, especially when she was deep in a book. She'd make him wait until she had finished the part she was on.

But through all this, someone was always there with them, whether it was Sirius or Hestia. Remus, Peter or Alice or just someone hoping to catch them doing something gossip worthy. They were only on their own for their patrols which they either did properly, walking around the school for rule breakers or people out of bed after curfew, or not, becoming rule breakers themselves and sneaking off somewhere private and hidden together.

The biggest thing they did alone which did send gossip ringing through the school was go into Hogsmeade for the final weekend before they broke up for the Christmas holidays. It was the first time they had gone out into what Lily called the 'real public' together. It was their first date out in the open outside of the walls of Hogwarts and was rather exciting, not just for themselves, but for anyone who seemed to catch wind of their plans. James had ditched, (as Sirius put it), Remus Sirius and Peter for his and Lily's first 'real public appearance' together which Remus and Peter had no problem with. Sirius did. He already wasn't particularly pleased that James' life had begun to revolve around Lily. He had gone into his usual dramatic state for a while theatrically yelling that it was the end of an era but had eventually, if a bit begrudgingly, wished James on his way asking him to buy him 'something pretty' as way of apology for 'ditching' him. Lily didn't have the same problem. Hestia and Alice had dates of their own with Sean McEvoy and Frank Longbottom respectively.

So she and James had walked down to the village together for the first time in December, a light spattering of non-settling snow falling to the ground. He took her to The Three Broomsticks and bought her to lunch in true 'date fashion'. They had stayed in the warm pub for a couple of hours in a secluded corner until Sirius tried to interrupt them with yet more insinuations which they withdrew from at the first available moment in favour of doing some Christmas shopping. They bought presents for their friends and family. James wouldn't let Lily buy him a Christmas present, (which she didn't take notice of), but instead insisted she pick something out for herself which he could buy her. After around forty minutes in the book shop, after spending ten minutes trying to choose between two books, she finally made a decision. Not that it particularly mattered as James bought her the other book too when she wasn't looking. After their Christmas shopping was done they went down the back alleys again until they came out to what James had dubbed 'their oak tree' to which Lily had said, 'you're very possessive over trees', making him laugh.

But through these two weeks, they still hadn't labelled each other as theirs. Both were too stubborn to be the first to call the other their boyfriend or girlfriend. So even though others had started to refer to them as 'James Potter's girlfriend' or 'Lily Evans' boyfriend', they still had yet to use those labels themselves. James referred to Lily as his 'casual fling', even though she was anything but, and Lily referred to James as 'a pain in the arse' which, in all honesty, was invariably true anyway. It was James Potter after all. Nobody much cared about their lack of formal declaration though. Nobody, that was, but Hestia, who had known about them far longer than anyone else, (besides perhaps Remus). She thought them both extremely stupid and she took every opportunity to tell Lily this. She was telling her this now as they were packing, ready to go home for the Christmas holidays.

'You're just too stubborn!' Hestia said to her as she chucked her clothes haphazardly into her trunk.

'That's your opinion.' Lily responded, neatly packing her own trunk. She had a system. Admittedly her system had kind of gone out of the window this year because her parents had asked her to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas, something which she was disobeying, and she had left it until moments before they were supposed to leave for the train to finish her packing thanks to James and his distractions. Usually she had a system in which she swapped all her clothes around at home, winter for summer etcetera. But this year she didn't really have to pack anything to take home and swap because, as her parents thought she wasn't going home, they had already sent and received clothes via parcel. All Lily needed to take home was what she wanted to wear and any Christmas presents she had been given.

'My opinions right though!' Hestia defended, fully believing it, 'Wasn't he pushing you to admit you were his girlfriend before everyone found out about you two anyway? Didn't he want everyone to know that?'

'He wasn't exactly pushing me.' Lily sighed as she grabbed a couple of books from her bedside table and placed them into her book box in her trunk, neatly but hurriedly. She was very aware that they had to leave for the train soon.

Hestia gave her a look.

'Ok so maybe a little.' Lily conceded, picking up another book and waving it around in reluctant admittance, 'But he wanted _me_ to be able to tell everyone I was his girlfriend. Not him. He won't call me that until I call me that.'

'Which you won't.' Hestia stated.

'Only because he won't call himself my boyfriend first. And _he_ won't do that until I call myself his girlfriend and _I_ won't call myself his girlfriend until _he_ calls himself my boyfriend.' Lily explained.

'And that's not stubborn because…?' Hestia asked sarcastically with raised eyebrows as she closed her trunk and buckled it up, finished with her packing.

'Alright so, perhaps it's a little bit stubborn-'

'A little?' Hestia repeated in disbelief, a little breathless laugh escaping her. She went to sit on Lily's bed next to her trunk as she continued. 'Lily, that's practically the definition of stubborn!'

'Yes because the dictionary uses me and James specifically.' Lily said derisively. She had finished packing now and closed her trunk, doing the large buckle up over the top of it. She dragged the huge suitcase off of her bed and put it on the floor so that she could join Hestia sitting on her bed.

'It might as well.' Hestia commented, shuffling a little bit further onto Lily's bed as there was now more space. The two girls sat crossed legged facing each other. 'Is it a power thing?' Hestia asked.

'What do you mean?' queried Lily, wondering exactly what Hestia meant by 'power'.

'Well,' Hestia began, 'do you think that, subconsciously, you're both thinking that whoever manages to hold off calling the other their girlfriend or boyfriend the longest has the most power in the relationship?'

Lily frowned at Hestia. 'No.' she said with a shake of her head, 'I think it's just us both being stubborn.'

'Which you admit now?' Hestia asked.

'Yes.' Lily agreed.

'There!' Hestia said loudly, clapping her hands together once and rocking backwards slightly as she had just proved a point. 'Admittance!' she went on, 'It's not that difficult. Just do it.'

'No.' Lily denied, once again being very stubborn. She knew Hestia was right in theory. It wasn't that big a deal and it seemed as if she and James were definitely making a mountain out of a molehill but they couldn't help it. It was just the way they worked. They were both stubborn. That was clear to see from James' persistent attempts at asking Lily out over the years, refusing to give up and Lily's rejection of him, refusing to give in. They had passed that, obviously, but had now moved on to a different kind of stubbornness. Lily thought Hestia didn't get it at all.

'I don't get what the big deal is!' Hestia exclaimed.

Lily was right. Hestia didn't get it at all. She didn't get the reasons behind hers and James' stubbornness revolving around this issue. Not that Lily fully got them herself but, she was closer to the situation so she understood more. It wasn't a power thing. At least she didn't think it was. They were definitely both just being stubborn but didn't want to admit it to each other. She listened to her best friend go on with an exhausted face.

'I call Sean my boyfriend.' Hestia said, 'He calls me his girlfriend. And we haven't been dating as long as you and James have.'

'I'll say you've been on like three dates with the guy.' Lily pointed out worriedly.

Hestia had only been on three dates with Sean McEvoy, the first two of which were rudely ruined by Lily and James anyway in a bid to keep their relationship a secret. Lily was extremely surprised that they had even managed to make a third date after what had happened on their first two. She was worried that she had ruined things for Hestia through the business that surrounded Joshua Hunt, (he was Sean's friend after all), but obviously not. Obviously Sean didn't held nothing against Hestia which was good of him in Lily's opinion. Things could have gone in a very different direction for her. Still, Lily thought she was moving rather fast with him.

'And?' Hestia demanded.

Lily looked down at the quilt on her bed and began drawing circles on it with her forefinger, something she did when she was nervous or uncomfortable. She was now the latter as Hestia had a blazed questioning look. Lily continued though, voicing her concern quietly. 'Don't you think it's a bit soon to be calling him your boyfriend?'

'No.' Hestia stated. She might not admit it but she was stubborn too. Not as much as Lily, but a little bit.

'Ok.' Lily said.

There was a pause. Lily looked down at her hand circling on her bed and Hestia pursed her lips for a couple of seconds before taking a deep breath and continuing.

'If we can label each other than why can't you and Potter?' she asked eventually.

'I guess we're just different to you two.' Lily shrugged.

'I guess you are.' Hestia said.

Again, there was a pause. Lily didn't know what to do. She and Hestia had never had pauses like this before. Usually you couldn't stop them talking. But this was different. There was something tense in the air. Lily had no idea how to move past it because it had never happened in the past. Credit to Hestia though, she did.

'Ok.' Hestia said, wanting to get back to her original question, 'Tell me this.' she then went into one of her 'visualisation' routines. 'You're at your sister's wedding. You're parents notice you. And after the, 'what are you doing here?' conversation there's going to be the 'who's this?' conversation. How are you going to introduce him to them?' she said, using different voices for the questions she assumed Lily's parents would pose to her.

Lily thought about it and said simply, 'I'll say, mum, dad this is James Potter.'

'He's my…?' Hestia pressed on.

'Extremely, annoying…' Lily began, thinking fast, knowing what Hestia wanted her to say. So she wouldn't say it. '…casual fling.' she ended smugly.

'Now you're just using Potters terms.' Hestia said. She knew that was how James had been referring to Lily. He had been doing since they had made their relationship public. When they met in the common room in the morning he'd say, 'morning casual fling', before going down to breakfast. His friends would laugh and Lily would reply with 'morning pain in the arse', but Hestia would just roll her eyes.

'Why is it so important to you for me to admit that he's my boyfriend?' Lily asked with a sigh. She looked at her watch and realised that they needed to be heading down to the entrance hall so that they could catch the carriages that would take them down to Hogsmeade Station and the Hogwarts Express.

'Was that you admitting it?' Hestia jumped in with a smile and bobbing eyebrows.

'No.' Lily stressed. She got off her bed and picked her trunk up, motioning for Hestia to do the same with a nod of her head in the direction of her best friend's trunk. 'That was me asking you why it's so important to _you_ for me to admit it.' she continued, reiterating her question from before.

'It's not important to me it's important to you.' Hestia clarified, doing as Lily had motioned for her to do and grabbing her trunk also.

Lily thought about it for a second. 'No it's really not. And we need to go catch the train.' she said, starting to carry her trunk towards the door of their dormitory. It was quite heavy. She sincerely hoped that James had waited for her in the common room so that he might carry it for her.

'With?' Hestia insinuated, following Lily to the door, dragging her own trunk.

'Alice.' Lily said over her shoulder to Hestia with a smirk. She wouldn't give Hestia her way. After all, Lily was a very stubborn person.

* * *

Severus sat on the Hogwarts Express staring dully ahead at nothing in particular. His mind was blank. He focused on nothing. Not the soft empty seat in front of him, the two second year students in the carriage with him or the chilly window which he was leaning his head against in a coma-like state. The clack of the trains wheels on the rails below echoed through him. He could feel every jerk and clank of the train rack through his body as it sped through the countryside to take him back to the home he hated. Every minute he was on that train, he hated. And the last two weeks he had spent at Hogwarts, he hated.

He had endured two extremely long weeks in that castle watching James Potter's relationship with his beloved Lily being flaunted and pushed in his face. The castle was huge, but never when you wanted it to be. That castle, to Severus during the past two weeks, had been the smallest place on earth. He had been forced to see them together every day. He had been forced to see the boy he loathed and despised with every fibre of his being, with the girl he loved with all his heart. It killed him every moment, every minute, every time he saw them together. When they had breakfast, when they went for walks at lunch time, when they sat together before their potions lessons started and when Potter met her at the end of her Ancient Runes lesson. It killed him.

He had tried to stay away. He hated looking at it. But he had no choice. When they weren't in front of him, James Potter taunting him with the fact that they were now together, (for Lily would never do such a thing), his mind flashed with images of them. Images which burned the back of his retina and which he desperately wished he could clear his head off. But it was no use. They were permanently etched there for him to view whenever he didn't want too. And he never wanted to see Lily with him. He tried replacing James Potter with himself but it was no use. Severus doubted that he would ever be able to rid himself of those images.

Through those two weeks, he hardly spoke to anyone. He didn't talk to his fellow Slytherins or fellow death eaters, for fear they would figure out the cause behind his depressive and angry state. He didn't speak to any of the Professors in the school unless spoken to, volunteering no answers to questions in classes unless he was asked specifically for them. Perhaps most importantly, he didn't speak to Lily. He hadn't spoken to her in ages because she was no longer his friend. The last time he had spoken to her, was the day he had used his own spell, _Sectumsempra, _on James Potter. The day he believed that James Potter had upset his Lily. The last day he had spoken to her. That day was etched into his mind probably as deeply as the images of the new couple together. Severus wasn't sure which one was worse.

He didn't try to stop her like he wanted. He didn't try and find her alone and demand an explanation for what she was doing. He didn't try to remind her that she had promised to hate James Potter forever. He didn't try to remind her of some of the choicest insults she had thrown James Potter's way over the years, her constant rejections of James Potter or the hexes that James Potter had used on him. He reminded her of none of this because she already knew it. If he even tried to reiterate these things to her, he knew he'd push her even further away from him that she already was. So he did nothing. He didn't even try to separate her from James or her friends, to try and break her trust in them like he had been planning to and trying to do since the beginning of the school year. He literally did nothing. He didn't have the energy to.

So for the whole journey, he sat in that compartment. He wasn't alone for it thanks to the second years in his compartment but he felt alone. He felt completely isolated from the world and, for the first time since that night he had spotted Lily and James in the corridor together, his mind had no angry images of them flashing through it. He had no images of Lily alone either. No memories that he shared with her and no imaginings which he wished were true. There was nothing for the whole train ride and he couldn't say that he wasn't grateful that his mind had decided to give him a much deserved break from this heart breaking topic. It wasn't to last though.

When the train pulled into the station, Severus stayed sat where his was. His head was still resting against the window, refusing to move. The two second years who were sharing his carriage, grabbed their stuff from the overhead storage space and clambered off of the train whilst Severus, still sat where he was. He made no attempt to retrieve his stuff and leave the Hogwarts Express. He didn't want to step onto platform nine and three quarters because it was a step closer to going home. He just breathed evenly, his hooked nose and greasy hair pressing against the window, his warm breath steaming it up when her exhaled and sucking the condensation it caused away when he inhaled. His eyes were relaxed as he watched the platform. Then he became conscious of what he was seeing.

He saw Lily first, her deep red hair whipping across her face as she climbed off of the train. Her trunk was handed to her by someone on the train who stepped off after her. Of course it was James Potter. He got off of the train after her carrying his own luggage and the two walked a little bit further into the platform to make way for others getting off of the train. They were followed by Hestia Jones who gave a quick hug to Lily before disapparating, obviously to go home, Peter Pettigrew who, even though he could apparate now, was met by his mother to escort him home, and Remus Lupin and Sirius Black who stayed around James.

Severus watched Lily talking to James Potter, a smile on her face. He watched as Sirius Black pranced around the pair, obviously bugging them, the expressions on their face clear as day to confirm that fact. He watched as Remus Lupin stood by, politely looking away and around the platform so that the couple could make their private goodbye, a courtesy that Sirius Black wasn't paying them. He watched as Sirius Black stopped next to James Potter, a whiny expression on his face. He watched as James Potter rolled his eyes and roughly covered his hand over Sirius' eyes for a couple of seconds whilst he pulled Lily into him for a quick goodbye kiss which she allowed herself to be drawn into. He watched as she pulled apart from him smiling, her right hand on his cheek, her thumb running across his bottom lip to wipe her lip-gloss off of him. He watched her smile at him again stepping back from him and saying some last words to him before grabbing her trunk and disapparating on the spot. Her parents had not come to pick her up.

Then, all Severus was left with to watch was the marauders. Three boys he loathed and despised. He sneered at them through the glass as Sirius pushed James head to the side, obviously mocking him about Lily. Then, suddenly, Sirius Black was staring straight at him, watching him sneer and stare at them. Severus watched as Sirius elbowed James and spoke to Remus, calling their attention to Severus and the audience he was giving them from the train. Severus watched as James Potter and Remus Lupin followed Sirius Black's eye line to him. Remus looked neutral. Sirius Black was laughing. But James Potter. James Potter was staring straight back at Severus, meeting his loathly sneer with an arrogant smirk; a smirk that Severus knew the meaning behind all too well. That smirk was James Potter saying that he had won. He had had victory. Severus had lost. That was what the smirk said.

Severus had venom in his eyes as he sneered back. The boys looked his way for only about five more seconds before Remus spoke to Sirius and James. What Remus said, Severus wasn't too sure about, but it obviously had something to do with leaving as, moments later, he disapparated. James and Sirius did the same seconds later but not before looking back to Severus for one last time; Sirius saluting tauntingly and James Potter smirking yet again and raising his eyebrows once. It made Severus blood boil and when they had disapparated he hit the window with his fist in anger, the bang of it capturing the attention of people on the platform, the other side of the glass.

He brought down his hand, still scrunched up in a fist, and took a deep shaky breath bringing it to his lips. He closed his eyes and tried to calm himself down, knowing he had to clear his head and leave the train for he had places to be. He had places to be and people to see and things to do. His mind had to be free of Lily and the pain she was causing him. His mind had to be free from James Potter and the pure white-hot hatred he felt towards him. He had to protect himself and his thoughts and he needed to start now because as soon as he got off of the train and onto the platform, he would have to disapparate to a place he admittedly didn't want to go to right now. But he had to. So he steeled himself, pushed up out of his seat, grabbed his trunk and left the train.

He stepped out onto the emptying platform. Only people saying long goodbyes and families talking to each other were left. Anyone who could apparate out by themselves had done so by now and those who were meeting their families the other side of the barrier had left. Severus had no family to meet. So, by himself, he turned on the spot and disapparated, being hooked behind the naval and pulled into his bedroom down Spinners End; the loneliest place in the world to him now.

His bedroom looked the same as it had when he had left it. One lonely single bed with crusted sheets in the corner. One splintered desk with scratches and engravings on it pressed against the window, the only source of light the room received, the white paint on the window frame flaking away and the wood rotting. One chair in the corner, the stuffing falling out, the legs scratched to high heaven as if by a cat. But no cat had lived there. Just Severus, his mother and his late father. A miserable house. Sad and lonely and Severus was glad to be leaving it.

He threw his trunk on his bed and, for the second time in five minutes, turned on the spot and disapparated, being hooked behind the naval and pulled out of his bedroom to a different world altogether.

He came out in a forest or a wood; he wasn't sure which. It was shrouded in overgrown trees and weeds littered the floor along with patches of wild flowers. In front of him, amongst the unkempt nature, was a small mouldy looking wooden shack which looked as though it would fall down any second. Severus headed towards it, knowing this was where he was meant to be. He had been here before and the look of that shack was extremely deceiving. Severus knew this now and strode confidently towards it. When he was within a foot of it he felt a cool breeze wash over him. He welcomed the breeze on his face for he knew it meant he was accepted. The protection measure in place which meant only people with the dark mark, or people who were with a person branded with the mark could enter had allowed him through. He was a death eater.

He strolled confidently inside of the shack, the inside of it being a lot different to its outside. Inside, the shack was a grand hall. Expansion charms had been used and it had been decorated royally. It had high raised ceilings which had oak beams running across them. It had stone walls which were lined with candles which were being held in place by carved, wooden, human arms and in the centre of the room taking up most of the space was a long but wide wooden table. It was reminiscent of Hogwarts.

The table that ran the length of the hall was full. There was a space left for Severus, obviously the last to arrive, (bar Voldemort himself). He had moved up the table. When he hadn't been branded with the dark mark on his left arm, the black tattoo covering the expanse of his forearm, Severus had been restricted to sitting at the very end of the table near the door, as far away from Voldemort as possible. Now he was in the middle. Not quite respected and trusted enough to be sitting at Voldemort's side but not looked down on as much, forcing him to the end. He was accepted now and deserved his spot in the middle.

Voldemort entered the room and the quietly chattering death eaters were now deathly silent at his presence. He took his time walking to his seat, his snake Nagini slithering dutifully by his bare feet, as if she were a dog. The room was in awe when he finally sat down on his throne like chair and began to speak.

'Welcome my friends.' he said in a whisper which everyone could hear. He commanded the attention of the room, 'We have some new comers tonight.' Voldemort gestured to the back of the room where three new and nervous people sat.

Severus recognised them, though names escaped him. They were Hogwarts students. Fifth years if he wasn't mistaken.

'My friends,' Voldemort carried on, 'meet Bartemius Crouch Jr., son to Bartemius Crouch Sr. head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation at the Ministry. He will be most useful for us, providing us with as much information as he can about his father's dealings in the Ministry and how other countries are…receiving us.'

There was a silence as everybody in the room looked to the boy Voldemort was referring to. In the darkened, shadowed room, his skin glowed milky white, his brown eyes set deep into his face and alight with excitement at being there. He had straw blonde hair which didn't suit him. He looked weak. Severus doubted how long he would last, as were many around him.

'Meet Rabastan Lestrange.' Voldemort continued, motioning to the boy opposite Bartemius Crouch Jr. 'He is younger brother to Rodolphus Lestrange who we all know has a particular…talent for muggle baiting.'

The death eater crowd chuckled darkly at the 'sport' which they all enjoyed to play before looking over to Rodolphus' brother. Severus had to crane his neck to see him as he was sat on the same side of the table as he was. He had slick brown hair and green eyes. Severus noticed his eyes looked dead. Not like other green eyes he had known which glittered with life. He was stocky. He looked as though he could take a good beating. He probably could.

'And finally,' Voldemort said, 'let us meet Bellatrix Black's younger cousin, a keen enthusiast who had followed my work for many years; Regulus Black.'

Severus' head snapped to look at Regulus Black who was sat next to Bartemius Crouch Jr. How Severus had not recognised him before he didn't know. He was very much like his brother. He had black shoulder length hair, hereditary in the Black family, and a stubbornly handsome face though not as handsome as his brothers. He was smaller than his brother also and his eyes, though grey, lacked the shine of mischief that his brothers had. You could tell that he was the younger brother of one Sirius Black. It was easy to spot and Severus instantly disliked him for it. He disliked him for something which Regulus couldn't actually control. He reminded him of Sirius Black far too much, the boy who had mockingly saluted him on platform nine and three quarters only ten minutes ago. It wasn't his fault, but it was an instant feeling of loathing. Severus looked away, unable to look at him a moment longer, and focused his attention up to Voldemort who was speaking again.

'We are now being ignored.' Voldemort said succinctly, stating the obvious fact, 'The Minister paid no heed to our message. The death of his assistant in his own office has been explained away. It was not even reported.'

'My lord.' said a bored voice near his left hand side.

Severus looked to see who it was. He recognised him. He had steely grey eyes and bleach blonde hair which glowed in comparison to his pale complexion. Severus recognised him. He had been a Slytherin Prefect during Severus' younger years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. His name was Lucius Malfoy. Severus listened to him continue.

'I have heard word from one of your Imperiused subjects.' Lucius said, 'It seems the Minister of Magic himself has ordered the Daily Prophet to cease printing and news of our movements. It seems he would prefer the wizarding community to think that he has everything under control and that there is nothing to worry about.'

'Well then,' Voldemort answered, 'we will attack in broad daylight now then. We will attack a muggle neighbourhood. We will attack in the city.'

There was a murmur of agreement from all of the death eaters around the table, Severus included. He was just thankful that he was about to be a part of something worthwhile. This was what he had been waiting for. For three whole months he had waited for this opportunity and now that it was here, he vowed to do his upmost best for Voldemort and prove to him how loyal a subject he could be.

'The Minister does not have everything under control.' Voldemort's voice rang through the hall, 'He doesn't want the wizarding world or the filthy muggle world to worry! Well then…let's give them something to worry about…'

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Update on the 9th of June 2013 and they will be Christmas chapters! In June...**

**Well I've never been one for tradition! :p**

**Galindaba**


	59. Chapter 58

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**I just want to take the time to thank everyone who has reviewed my story so far and to those loyal readers who read every week and have done from the beginning. It really does make my day to see a review in my inbox so thank you very much! :)**

**So we're around three quarters of the way through this story so it shouldn't be too long now until it's finished and I can get a jump on the sequel I was planning on doing so yay! :D**

**Now the next few chapters do have a bit of mature content in them but I promise that it's nothing too explicit.**

**Anyway, here's chapter Fifty-Eight!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Fifty-Eight**

'You know, Prongs told me to make sure you didn't work on this bike without him here.' Remus said.

He and Sirius were in one of the outhouses on the Potter's grounds. He was sat on the worktop side which had been put in so that Sirius could store all his muggle tools on whilst building his bike. Remus was fiddling with one of these tools now. It was long and thin with a hard black handle and a flat tip. Remus had no idea what it was for but strangely, Sirius did; a screwdriver. Sirius had no idea what the difference between an infusion of Wormwood and Asphodel, but he knew what every single muggle tool in that outhouse was and what it did. Remus thought it was an odd thing to know or to want to know because it would never help him in the wizarding world but at least, he thought, Sirius had taken it upon himself to at least learn something before they left Hogwarts.

Sirius was also using one of these tools. He was using what he had told Remus was a wrench after Remus had commented that it sort of looked like a two pronged fork. He was using it to remove the bolts on the front tyre so that he could install, what he knew was called a calliper guard because, as he had pointed out to Remus earlier when he had begun this process, the front break _needs_ a calliper guard. He was covered in oil and grease thanks to working with the breaks and the tyres which made everything a lot more difficult because his hand kept slipping on the wrench. He wished James was there to help him instead of off gallivanting around with Lily. James would make the work go twice as quick as opposed to Remus who was, in Sirius' opinion, was more a hindrance than a help with this project. All he did was sit on the side. But James had invited him round specifically when he wasn't going to be there and Sirius thought he knew why.

'So what are you my babysitter?' he asked Remus, his hand slipping again on the wrench as it was covered in colourless grease. He wiped his hand down his already messy jeans to try and wipe it off. No such luck.

'Pretty much.' Remus muttered, stabbing the screwdriver into the wood of the worktop side, making a nice little indentation. He was extremely bored.

Sirius was slightly offended that James thought he needed a babysitter. As if his house wasn't in safe hands with just Sirius alone and he'd return to find it crawling with goblins or something. He was also offended that James had chosen to go to some sort of wedding with Lily rather than help him work on his bike. James enjoyed working on the bike with Sirius. At least when Sirius didn't shout at him he did. It was the only this Sirius was really serious about; that bike. Still, he acted like he didn't care about James' abandonment and waved it away in a nonchalant manner. 'Ah what does Prongs know anyway.' he said.

'He knows that last time you worked on this bike you blew up the outhouse.' Remus said, pointing out of the open door of the outhouse they were in to the one about a hundred feet away. It had its roof blown out and scorch stains on the brick inside. Jane Potter had had no time to fix it and, as James and Sirius had no idea how to, they just moved to the next outhouse along.

'Yeah but he was here for that.' Sirius pointed out as he threw the bolt he had just managed to remove into a little tub next to him on the floor where he was sat. 'How do you know that he wasn't the problem?'

'Because you were the one who blew it up.' Remus said, now putting the screwdriver down and hopping off of the worktop side. He walked over to Sirius and leant his hand on the bodywork of the bike that he had already done. 'He said not to let you work on this without him here.' He tapped the bike but received a glare from Sirius. He was very protective off his bike.

One day, when it was finished, Sirius said he was going to ride it to Grimmauld Place, where he used to live and where the Black family still lived, and ride it through the kitchen, stealing their food in the process. He hated his family and knew that if he did that, he could probably kill his mother for shame. For him, the prospect wasn't bad.

'Yeah but he could have been told to say that by evil Wombats.' Sirius said offhandedly at what he had made sound like an everyday occurrence.

Remus raised one eyebrow. 'Evil wombats?' he asked.

'They're real!' Sirius assured him before his expression faltered and he had to ask, 'Aren't they?'

'Yeah.' Remus said, nodding his head sarcastically. Wombats were real but he doubted very much whether they were evil.

'Then there you go.' Sirius said happily, missing the sarcasm in Remus' voice completely and getting started on taking off the next bolt.

'Not sure why they'd be telling Prongs to tell you to stop working on your bike though.' Remus said.

'Who knows?' Sirius shrugged, gritting his teeth as he tried to move the wrench around the bolt. It was being very stubborn and he couldn't get him to move, but he refused to use magic on his bike. He said it was because, when he rode it through his old house, that little gem would kill his father. Again, the prospect wasn't bad. The best thing he got from him was his middle name. 'I'm not clued into the inner workings of an evil wombats mastermind evil plan Moony.' he continued.

'An evil wombats mastermind evil plan.' Remus repeated slowly. Sirius came out with some rather odd stories. He overdramatized practically everything. If it wasn't evil wombats it was bloodthirsty pixies who kidnap people. Usually that was the kind of story Sirius made up whenever James wondered off alone which he did on the odd occasion. They'd be speaking to him and then, suddenly, he'd have disappeared without telling them where he was going.

'It's a thing.' Sirius defended.

'Do you listen to yourself when you talk?' Remus queried, wondering if Sirius actually knew about half of the nonsense he spurted out.

'Nah.' Sirius said with a shake of his head, now using two hands to try and move the bolt, 'It hurts my head.'

'Hurts everyone's head.' Remus muttered, kneeling down on the floor to try and give shifting the bolt a go himself.

'Then don't listen.' Sirius said in reply, letting Remus take over for a short amount of time whilst he wiped his sweaty forehead with the sleeve of his jumper, (it was cold outside today. It was winter after all). Unfortunately, Sirius just wiped a nice long streak of oil across his head. His jumper was extremely dirty and now, so was his face.

'Then you moan.' Remus said, finally shifting the bolt a little then giving the wrench back to Sirius to finish it off.

'Yeah I do.' Sirius laughed, making quick work of the bolt now that Remus had loosened it, 'Don't you just love me?'

'No.' Remus stated. Sirius was very vain.

'Yeah you do.' Sirius brushed off. After all, how could anyone not love him? 'I'm just loveable.' he went on, tossing the bolt into the tub next to him, 'Prongs told me.'

'That's disturbing.' Remus said.

'I was a dog at the time.' Sirius clarified.

'Less disturbing.' Remus conceded.

'Prongs says I should stay like that.' Sirius said. It wasn't untrue. On more than one occasion James had turned to Sirius, especially when Sirius was in a mood, and had told him that he preferred him when he was a dog. He had a better disposition as a dog. Plus, James always said that there was the added bonus of him being silent. He regretted saying that though because next time they had transformed, Sirius had made a point of barking and howling and whimpering just to prove that he was never silent. Still, James told him he was better as a dog.

'He's probably right.' Remus laughed. He couldn't help but agree with James on that point. Point. He returned to his original point. 'He also said you weren't to work on the bike when he wasn't here.' Remus stated before pointing out the obvious, 'And he's not here. Ergo, stop working on that bike.'

'Air go.' Sirius repeated with a smile, 'That's what this bikes gonna do.'

'What?' Remus sighed exasperatedly. What dim-witted idea had he given him now.

'Air go.' Sirius said again, his grin widening, 'Fly!'

'That's not what ergo means.' Remus said, shaking his head. Sure, Sirius knew what bolts and wrenches and things were but Merlin forbid he look at a dictionary.

'Yeah it is.' Sirius enthused adamantly, 'Air go. To go into the air. Ergo, it means to fly.'

'You used it right just then.' Remus pointed out.

'Used what right?' Sirius asked, having no idea what he had just said.

'Why do I talk to you?' Remus commented.

But Sirius didn't answer. He wasn't listening anymore. He was thinking instead about his flying motorcycle. That would be the tip of the iceberg, the icing on the cake for Sirius. When he rode through his old house on his muggle motorbike, his mother would die of shame, his father would die from Sirius' lack of magic, then, when they had both kicked the bucket, Sirius would take off into the night, flying the motorbike away and killing Regulus, his brother, for making a muggle object fly like a broom; for Regulus was to a broom the way Sirius was to his bike. Of course, when Sirius said kill, he didn't mean actually causing their deaths, just really piss them off. That would do for him.

* * *

Lily stayed in her own home the night she had gotten back from Hogwarts. She didn't have to sneak in because her parents were staying at the hotel where Petunia was having her wedding the next day so that they could help her prepare in the morning. So Lily had had the house to herself all night. She liked it as she watched her favourite video, 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', on her families block of a television. After the video had finished though she suddenly felt the house was very big and very empty. She read a book but the house was still empty so she had gone to bed in the hopes that the faster she went to sleep, the quicker the next day would come.

It worked for her and it wasn't long until she was opening her front door to James. They would have left straight away only James was wearing wizarding dress robes which, Lily was sure, Petunia wouldn't have appreciated at all. So she left him at her house and ran out to buy him a suit. She found a nice one in a shop in town and, using the muggle money that James had given her, (for he had insisted that he buy his own suit with the money he had changed at Gringotts), she went back home to give it to James, wondering why he had brought that amount of money with him anyway. After he had changed into it, the two apparated to the hotel where Petunia was having her wedding.

Nobody noticed them during the wedding; all eyes were on the bride as they should be. Lily and James had managed to stay inconspicuous whilst sat at the back of the large but crowded hall-like room where Petunia and Vernon tied the knot. There was a moment where Lily was sure someone would notice them as James was muffling laughter rather badly but no one did. Lily kept elbowing him to stop it only he couldn't help it. He stopped after five minutes though and was quiet for the rest of the ceremony which Lily was thankful for. When the wedding was over and it was time to make their way through the hotel over to the function room where the reception was being held, they still managed not to be noticed. Even when Lily had asked James why he had been laughing and he had replied with 'he looks as though he could eat her' in reference to Vernon and Petunia and _she_ had started to laugh, they still weren't noticed. Again, Lily was thankful. The biggest challenge they had though was getting into the reception.

Lily hadn't counted on Petunia having a guest list where all the guests were checked off on before heading in though. There was some pompous man stood at a maître d podium ticking off a list as people went through into the room. Lily didn't know what to do. They waited for forty minutes watching everyone else go in before James had an idea. He went to the main desk and nicked a piece of paper and, after seeing someone writing with one and realising what it was, a pen. He returned to Lily, took out his wand and used the same handy little nonverbal spell he had used on her Transfiguration notes a couple of months ago. The spell connected the guest list and the piece of paper he had. This meant that anything James wrote the pompous man with the guest list would see and vice-versa. James and Lily watched as the blank piece of paper suddenly filled up with Petunia and Vernon's guest list. James quickly added their names to the bottom of the list, Lily not seeing what he had written, and then stuffed it into the inside of his suit pocket. They then both approached the maître d's podium.

'Names.' the pompous man asked in a bored voice.

'Lily Evans and Elvendork.' James said to the man who frowned.

'Elvendork?' Lily whispered to him in exasperation. Why had he had to do this?

'It's my undercover name.' James replied with a grin as he and Lily were waved into the room by the man who obviously hated his job.

'We're not undercover' Lily pointed out as she linked her arm though James' and walked into the reception with him. She had to hand it to Petunia; she had planned a beautiful wedding reception.

They were in a large room which was the hotels main function room. There were around twenty round tables with ten seats surrounding them. Each table had a purple runner down the middle over the top of a white table cloth with lilac napkins and lilac place cards. Purple and white seemed to be Petunia's theme. There was a clearing in the middle at the front where people were dancing to a live band that was poised on a small stage. There were flowers, orchids, everywhere; Petunia's favourite flower. Each arrangement had purple swirly sticks stuck in them and purple ribbons entangled elegantly through them. There was a finger buffet across the far wall which was meant for the first part of the reception. Later there would be a sit down meal. It all looked beautiful. It was very Petunia.

'Still a cool name.' James murmured to Lily as they walked through the crowded room. He wasn't sure where they were going. He hoped the buffet. He was hungry.

'I'm starting to regret bringing you here.' Lily said.

'Nah you're not.' James laughed, 'You know you want me here.' he continued, poking her waist as he said so.

'Not sure I-' Lily began to tease but she was interrupted. Someone had spotted her.

'Lily!' came a voice behind her.

She turned around to see who it was. She didn't recognise them. 'Oh no.' she said quietly.

'Who's that?' James asked her.

'No idea.' Lily shrugged.

The girl arrived in front of them. She was bouncing. She had obviously been drinking already and was very talkative. 'Hi! We weren't expecting you. Petunia said you didn't break up from your school for another few days.' she said in a grating voice. She was still bouncing and, if she carried on, Lily feared she would fall out of the red dress she was wearing. She clashed horribly with the theme of the wedding. Lily was sure Petunia would be happy about it.

'They let me out early?' Lily answered with a questioning lilt in her voice.

'Really? That's great!' the girl said, pulling Lily into a squeezing hug and away from James. She noticed him then with wide, almost bloodshot eyes. 'Who's this?' she asked, almost throwing Lily back out of her grip.

'Elvendork.' James said, trying his hardest not to laugh at the girl, 'Pleased to make your acquaintance.' he said.

'Likewise.' she said. She then ignored him and started to talk to Lily.

She went on for at least half an hour. James tried to sneak off to the buffet because he was hungry and not part of the conversation but Lily, who was hating every second that she was trapped talking to this girl she didn't know, grabbed his arm and pulled him back, much to his disappointment. The pair was relieved when she left.

'Well it was nice to see you Lily. Elvendork.' she said before she stumbled away in her too tall high heels.

Lily turned to James. 'Why?' she asked him with exhaustion.

'It's fun.' James said, knowing she was referring to his undercover name, 'I don't know anyone here. Join in.'

'They know me.' Lily pointed out.

'Then play with me.' James said, wrapping his arms around her waist and grinning, 'Elvendork. It's unisex'

Lily shook her head. 'Alright _Dork._'she stressed, unfolding herself from his arms and taking his hand to lead him over to the buffet table, 'Let's go eat.'

'Lily!'

Their path was blocked. James was extremely disappointed. The buffet table was in sight but he wasn't allowed to reach it thanks to who Lily recognised as Petunia's best friend from secondary school.

'Hello.' Lily said politely, holding James' hand tightly for she knew that he would try and make a dash for the buffet table if she didn't. They hadn't eaten today.

'Who's this?' Petunia's best friend asked, looking to James who looked back at her as if he was bored.

'Elvendork.' he sighed.

'Elvendork?' Petunia's friend said with a fake smile. 'What an unusual name.' she commented.

Lily remembered her very well now. She was one of Petunia's group of three. One was funny, Petunia was, surprisingly, the kind and smart one, and this girl was the snobbish one. She had always looked down on Lily. So Lily joined in with James just to tick her off.

'It's unisex.' she said, returning Petunia's friends fake smile. 'Dork for short.' she went on.

'Oh.' said the girl, clearly wanting to extract herself from Lily and 'the boy with the strange name' as he would become to be known through the course of the evening thanks to her. 'Well nice to see you again Lily.' she continued before wrinkling her nose saying, 'Dork.' and walking away.

Lily laughed. 'Ok that was fun.' she said to James. Her laugh caught someone's attention

'See.' James said, swinging her hand and nudging her playfully.

'Lily.' a man's voice said from behind. They both turned around.

'Hi.' Lily said, slightly meekly with a small smile. She dropped James' hand.

'Who's this?' the man asked, turning to look at James, unimpressed.

'This is…' Lily began, unable to finish. She was now nervous.

James decided to introduce himself. 'Elven-'

'Real name. Real name.' Lily said, disguising her words badly with a cough.

'Ok.' James said curiously and slowly. This was obviously an important person. He looked important in a black suit, tall and rather foreboding to James. He tried to not let it bother him and he introduced himself. 'I'm James Potter.' James said.

'Richard Evans.' Richard said before clarifying his relationship to Lily. 'Lily's father.'

'Oh.' James smiled, glancing at Lily who now smiled meekly at him and shrugged slightly. James wondered why Lily hadn't just told him that but he couldn't dwell on it for too long as he was now meeting her father. A big step for a 'casual fling'. He held his hand out and offered it to Richard Evans for a handshake. 'Please to meet you sir.' he said politely.

'I recognise you.' Richard stated. He didn't seem pleased to meet James at all. He didn't even shake his hand; just let it hover there in the space between them.

'Unfortunately I can't say the same about you.' James laughed nervously, taking his rejected hand and running it through his hair, ruffling the back up nervously. He then dropped his hand and put both of them in his pockets for something to do. This was slightly awkward.

'You are who my daughter refers to as 'arrogant toe-rag' every time she comes home.' Richard said folding his arms across his chest in an unwelcoming gesture.

'Well it's what my friends call me.' James tried to joke. That didn't go down too well. Richard still looked unimpressed by James. But James was unable to dwell on this either as someone else joined the group looking for Lily's father. She was, who James assumed to be, Lily's mother.

'Richard dear,' the woman said, touching Richard lightly on the arm, 'Petunia wants to-' she noticed Lily. 'Lily.' she said in surprise, hugging her daughter, 'Sweetheart what are you doing here?'

Yes. James was sure this was Lily's mother. She seemed more pleasant that Lily's father. Less scary.

'I couldn't miss her wedding.' Lily said, hugging her mother in return quickly before pulling away.

'I don't know if that's such a-' but again, Lily's mother didn't finish her sentence through spotting someone else. This time she spotted James. 'And who is this?' she smiled.

'Mum this is James Potter.' Lily said, her smile less meek to her mother.

'Pleased to meet you Mrs Evans.' James said politely offering his hand out to Lily's mother in a handshake, hoping that she would take it so that he wouldn't have to face the awkwardness he had had with her father. He was sure muggles shook hands.

'Please call me Heather.' Heather said, still smiling at the handsome boy Lily had brought with her. She reached out and shook his hand. His handshake was firm but gentle and he seemed kind. Richard had always said you can judge a man through his handshake. She doubted, from her husband's expression though, that he had shaken the boys hand at all. He didn't look as if he thought that.

'And just who is this boy to you Lily?' Richard demanded of his youngest daughter.

Lily retreated into herself slowly, not knowing how to answer the question. All she could think of was the conversation she and Hestia had had whilst packing their trunks the previous day. 'Well,' she began, 'he's, err, my…' she stammered on, looking at James and just thinking of their stubbornness.

But in this situation, for Lily, James wasn't stubborn. 'Boyfriend.' he said, completing Lily's sentence for her, 'I'm Lily's boyfriend.'

Lily smiled smugly at him whilst he looked at her with a fond smile and a shake of his head. She was stubborn no matter what. He liked it.

'Lily!' Heather exclaimed in shocked delight at this first for her youngest daughter, 'You didn't tell us you had a boyfriend.'

'No you didn't.' Richard stated. He wasn't delighted. He wasn't smiling. In fact, his expression caused Lily's, Heather's and James' smiles to fade also. He wasn't happy at all. His expression stayed that way, even when they were approached by the happiest girl in the room.

Newly married Petunia Dursley glided over to her parents, looking absolutely beautiful in her wedding dress. 'Mummy, Daddy.' she said sweetly with a smile on her face, 'I want- Lily.' she said, her smile dropping but only slightly. She didn't look mad. 'Hello.' she said in greeting to her little sister.

'Hi Tuney.' Lily said with a happy smile, 'You look beautiful. Congratulations.' she said sincerely.

Much to Lily's, well, everyone's surprise, Petunia beamed at her sister. 'Thank you.' she said, before turning her attention to James, 'Who's this?' she asked.

'This is Lily's boyfriend Petunia.' Heather said to Petunia who looked surprised. Her little sister had never had a boyfriend before. She knew what he would be but, it was her wedding day. She wasn't going to let anyone's abnormalities ruin that. It was the happiest day of her life.

'You're not that Snape boy.' Petunia pointed out. If Lily was to get a boyfriend, Petunia had assumed it would be him. He was clearly obsessed with her.

'No I'm not.' James said shortly with a polite smile to Petunia.

Petunia picked up on something. 'You don't like him?' she asked in more of a statement.

'Well I can't say he's my favourite person in the world.' James said, now genuinely smiling at Petunia for, as odd as it seemed, he sensed he had found some common ground with her; with Lily's sister who he had never liked the sound of. But she obviously disliked Severus Snape greatly. She and James were on the same page there.

'Mine either.' Petunia said shortly back to James with a small smile. She didn't let on how she felt about them both being there. Instead, she turned to her sister and said, 'Lily there's strawberries at the chocolate fountain.'

James turned to Lily. 'Ooh a choc-

'Not at the minute.' Lily said, cutting him off.

'Ok sorry.' James said quickly, knowing Lily wouldn't appreciate it if he ran off for a chocolate fountain and left her to deal with whatever was going on with her father alone. He was looking at James with a clear distaste.

'Thanks Tuney.' Lily said to Petunia.

'Mummy. Daddy. Pictures.' Petunia instructed quickly before turning around and leaving her family in favour of her new husband; the whale by the buffet.

'We'll be right along dear.' Heather called after her eldest child before turning back to Lily and James, thinking she may need to buffer the situation. She could tell her husband was not happy with Lily's choice of boyfriend.

'So you don't like Severus.' were the first words out of Richard's mouth, directed at James.

James saw Lily close her eyes at this topic of conversation and James had to wonder exactly what she had told her parents about this subject. He carried on politely to her father though. 'Afraid not sir.' he answered truthfully.

'Can't say he was particularly keen on you either.' Richard stated, his arms still folded, closed off from James and his daughter. He seemed cold.

'Well at least the feelings mutual.' James tried to joke again. But again, Richard wasn't laughing.

'Yes. You were quite the topic of conversation between Severus and my Lily here when he used to come round in the summer holidays.' he said.

'Why I'm flattered.' James said to Lily with a smile. She didn't smile back. She looked anxious now.

'You bullied him.' Richard stated plainly.

James looked back to Lily's dad and paused. Eventually he said, 'Well I wouldn't exactly call it bullying-'

'So you didn't hang him up on a chandelier and give everybody sticks to poke him with?' Richard cut him off, his voice booming across James' with no effort at all.

'Richard!' Heather reprimanded straight away.

'Well yes.' James admitted. He wasn't going to lie. Obviously Lily had told her parents about him but not in the most flattering light. He poorly tried to defend himself. 'But they weren't particularly long sticks. Not many people could reach him-'

Again, Richard cut him off, 'And you didn't break into his dorm at night, kidnap him-'

'-kidnaps a bit strong-'

'-strip him naked and lock him in the great hall with nothing but a towel.' Richard demanded, a vein in his forehead pulsing. He clearly did not approve of James but, from what he had heard of him, James wasn't particularly surprised.

Knowing that nothing he said or did would change Richards opinion of him today, James decided to do nothing to try and help himself. Instead he answered with honest, if slightly arrogant, replies. 'It was a good towel.' he shrugged, 'We let him keep it.'

'Then in your fourth year you didn't go on a spree enlarging people's heads, tripling Severus' head three times in size.' Richard continued on, not caring if people could hear him or what he was saying to the boy who he believed to be an unsuitable choice for his youngest daughter's first boyfriend.

'Daddy!' Lily hissed at her father. She knew James was no saint and she had told her dad these things but she had never, not in a million years, thought that he might use them against him.

'We were just trying to get his face in proportion with his nose.' James answered nonchalantly, 'It's quite big.'

'So does this mean I'm to understand that in your third year you didn't send him a bottle of shampoo every day of the year?' Richard asked James with yet another unimpressed expression.

'No I did but it was just a friendly tip.' James said, shrugging again. He didn't see that one as that bad. 'He needed to wash his hair. Still does. It's very greasy.' he went on, restraining the smirk that was sure to come out anytime soon.

Lily tried to stop her dad berating James like this. They were at Petunia's wedding after all and she would not thank her for causing a scene and stealing her thunder yet again. Petunia always said that Lily stole her thunder and overshadowed her. Lily did not want this to happen at her wedding. 'Ok.' she said to her father with begging eyes, 'Please stop this now-'

'Do you still bully him?' Richard went on, ignoring Lily.

James saw Lily's face and attempt to unwind the conversation. He took on a very reasonable tone in his voice as he said, 'Again, I don't think I would call it bullying-'

'So what would you call it?' Richard said commanding an answer.

But James couldn't give him one.

Richard continued. 'And if you suddenly decide to bully my daughter as well-'

But it was his turn to be cut off by James because, as awful as he was to Severus Snape, how anyone could think he could do anything to hurt Lily was offensive to him. 'No.' he said surely, a power behind his voice which made Richard stop. It made them all stop.

Richard looked stunned at James' sudden assertiveness. He hadn't been expecting that. Heather smiled. From this challenging response, she could tell that this boy, this handsome boy in his deep, deep grey suit, genuinely cared for her daughter. It was in his eyes too. Lily smiled at James and took his hand, oddly pleased by his defiance to her father. She liked it.

After a suitably awkward paused Heather tried to calmly draw Richard away. 'Richard I think it's time we go and get our pictures taken with Petunia and Vernon.' she said.

Richard didn't move.

'Richard!' Heather said sternly to which Richard responded too. He looked at James one more time with disdain before disappearing with his wife over to Petunia and Vernon who were having their photograph taken in the far corner of the room.

'Well that could have gone better.' James announced to Lily, looking at her, exhausted from talking with her father.

Lily smiled weakly. 'At least my mum liked you.' she said, offering some poor words of comfort.

James chuckled.

Petunia was able to find Lily and James a couple of spare seats at table two as two of Vernon's friends hadn't been able to make it. Lily thought it was very good of her considering they had actually crashed her wedding. She didn't speak to them but, then again, Lily hadn't expected her too really. She had expected her to be angry and kick them out but she didn't. Then again, she could have just wanted to avoid a public scene which Lily was thankful for. To Lily, Petunia seemed to be happy. Not that they were there, just in general. She had just married the love of her life so it was to be expected. Lily thought it was nice. She hadn't seen her sister like that in a long time.

Lily and James enjoyed the rest of Petunia's wedding reception. James enjoyed the buffet especially when they finally found their way over to it. The sit down dinner was nice too. It was chicken. The two laughed and talked together when they were sat down at their seats and then, when James had managed to drag her up onto the dance floor, they danced together as well. Badly though. James couldn't dance. Yet he was the one who seemed to enjoy it most. Lily just laughed at him.

Lily's mother, Heather Evans, spent a lot of time with them during the reception unlike Richard Evans didn't talk to Lily or James for the rest of the evening. Heather talked incessantly to James, instantly liking him as most people did when he turned on the charm. She asked Lily and James how long they had been going out and took a real interest in their relationship which, for Lily, was a little odd. She had never had a boyfriend before James. Was your mother really meant to be that interested in what your first date was like? But she was and she thought that James was a real romantic for Lily. She told him that.

At the end of the night, when everyone had gone home and Vernon and Petunia had gone off on their honeymoon, Heather and Richard, along with the assistance of Lily and James, (much to Richards dislike), had tidied the functions room. Then the Evans family went home. James wanted to accompany Lily home to make sure she got back alright but Richard wouldn't let him in the car so Heather suggested he and Lily apparate back to theirs. Richard didn't like that idea much either. They were there by the time Richard and Heather arrived home about forty minutes later. Then they ran into a snag as James was saying goodbye to Lily. The snag came as a polite invitation from Lily's mother.

They were stood in the back hallway near the back door saying goodbye. Lily and James were next to the door as James was about to leave and Richard was stood with his arms folded watching them to make sure James did no 'funny business' with his daughter. That was when Heather just happened to walk through the hallway from the kitchen on the way to the living room. She looked at her watch and, without thinking twice said, 'James dear you're welcome to stay the night if you'd like.' to James with a kind smile.

James was about to answer, to politely decline her offer and say that he must get home when Richard jumped in.

'No he is not!' he said immediately, outraged that such a suggestion had been made by his wife.

'Richard be nice to the boy.' Heather reprimanded Richard sternly before turning back to James with that same kind smile, 'You're more than welcome James. It is late after all. You can stay in Petunias room.'

'No.' Richard jumped in again. He didn't want James under his roof for any longer than necessary. He would have words with Lily about him when he was gone.

'Richard!' Heather scolded again.

'Petunia wouldn't like it.' Richard gave as an excuse.

Then Lily, who thought her father was being deliberately awkward because he didn't like James had a suggestion. 'I'll stay in Petunias room then and James can have my bed-' Lily began but Richard cut her off, determined not to have James stay at his house.

'No.' he said.

'Richard!' The third admonishment.

'That is Lily's bed.' Richard stated, 'She, and only she, will sleep in it.'

'Richard!' Again. Heather believed he was being purposefully difficult now and there was no need for it. As determined as Richard was to get James out of the house, Heather was determined to keep him in. It was just a question of who wore the pants in the family.

'Mrs Evans it's-' James began, ready to explain to the family that he didn't need to stay, especially if it was just going to cause problems but he was cut off and instructed otherwise. An instruction which he was rather scared to disobey. And this was from the boy who went against instructions and rules just for the fun of it.

'No dear you stay.' Heather said, making it clear to everyone in the hallway that James was staying the night and that she made the rules. 'It's too late to be traveling anywhere now.'

Richard exhaled moodily and simply stated, showing his clear reluctance, 'If he stays he sleeps on the couch.' before marching off upstairs.

'Richard!' Heather called up after him with a reprimanding tone, one she had been using with him all evening since they had met James, 'Excuse me for a minute James.' she said politely to James before going up the stairs after her husband who seemed to be acting like a stroppy teenager.

There was a pause. Then Lily turned to James and said innocently, 'You have to stay now. He's given you the couch. That's as good as a blessing.'

James laughed once and looked down at her with raised eyebrows. 'Really?' he asked, not believing a word.

'No it means he doesn't like you.' Lily conceded with a small shrug of her shoulders.

James sighed and turned to Lily, tilting her chin up with his forefinger so that she was looking directly into his eyes and he hers. 'Do you want me to stay?' he asked her in all seriousness. Whatever she wanted, he would do.

'Yes.' Lily said sincerely. She really did want him to stay if not for her than as a way to prolong whatever her dad would say about him when he was gone.

James smiled a small smile at her. 'Then I'll stay.' he said, before adding, 'On the couch.' as an afterthought.

Lily grinned and stood on her tiptoes to kiss him gently. 'I'll go get you some blankets.' she said afterwards, leaving him in the hall way to go find some blankets from the airing cupboard in the utility room adjacent to the kitchen.

Heather Evans came down the stairs and told James that he was to stay the night but unfortunately he would have to take the couch which James said he didn't mind. She smiled at him and said her good nights to both Lily and James when Lily came through into the hallway carrying a small pile of blankets and couple of pillows. When Heather had gone upstairs to bed, wishing them a goodnight from Richard too which James suspected she had invented, Lily made the couch up for James which he thanked her graciously for. Then went to bed herself, and left James downstairs to settle onto the couch. He had to sleep in his suit but he didn't much mind. It was rather comfortable.

He slept for what he could only guess was a couple of hours before he heard a noise coming from the room across the hall; the kitchen. Instinctively, he went across to see what it was. He got a surprise.

'Mr Evans?' he said tiredly upon seeing him.

Richard turned around from where he was stood in the glow of the open fridge holding a nice big slab of wedding cake that he had brought home with him. He looked as if he was a deer caught in the headlights. When he saw it was James though, he just raged in a whispered explanation, 'If we weren't meant to have midnight snacks then why is there a light in the fridge?' before storming out of his kitchen and back up to his bed.

James raised his eyebrows and went back to the couch in his now crinkled suit. _Maybe_, he thought, _I'll just keep that to myself._

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**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	60. Chapter 59

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter Fifty-Nine!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

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**Chapter Fifty-Nine**

The next morning, James woke up in Lily's house. Both Heather and Richard Evans had gone to work so it was just him and Lily alone in the house. They had a pleasant morning together in which Lily showed James around her home, showing him the book collection which he had said he would have to see in one of their first dates. Then James, who had slept on the couch for the whole night staring at the odd box opposite him, asked Lily what it was. Lily explained to him what a television was and showed him how it worked which he was fascinated by. After he had finished marvelling at it Lily had suggested they watch a video which James agreed to straight away, eager to see the television in action. They watched 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'.

As they watched it James queried Lily about it. He could have sworn she had said that 'Charlie and the Chocolate' factory was a book. But Lily explained to him that Roald Dahl's book had been adapted into a film. He didn't shut up whilst they were watching the film, too filled with questions about why four old people were sharing a bed, why the owner of a chocolate factory felt the need to burst into song every few minutes and why he had decided to fill his factory with other singing people who were _orange _nonetheless with _green _hair. So, to shut him up picking apart her favourite movie, Lily had engaged James in other activities which James had to admit was much better that a film about golden tickets and glass elevators.

When the credits rolled up the screen, the couple pulled apart and sat up from where they had been laid snogging on the couch which James had slept on. Lily had then said she would make lunch for them both as it was now midday. So they went into the kitchen and Lily busied herself making them a quick dinner of fish, chips and mushy peas. James watched her, leant against the door frame with his arms folded and his legs crossed, as she made dinner. He didn't know she could cook and he didn't know how well. He couldn't cook at all so she was bound to be better than him. She had a pan on the stove and was stirring it with a wooden spoon, concentrating on not letting to contents stick to the side.

'What you doing?' James asked her.

'Making smushy peas.' Lily replied with a smile. When James raised an eyebrow at her in question though, she explained. 'Mushy peas.' she clarified.

'Why'd you call them smushy peas?' James wondered.

'I sometimes do that with food.' Lily shrugged, still stirring the peas and giving him some more foods that she used to make up name variations for. 'I used to call strawberries strawbrerries and bananas narners.' she said.

'But you don't like bananas.' James remembered.

Lily paused. 'No I don't.' she said slowly, blinking in an odd disbelief that he had remembered that. 'Well remembered.' she went on. She swore James could probably remember everything she had told him about herself. It was an odd feeling; to have someone listen to you so intently that they knew you so well. Knew all the quirks you had shared with them. She couldn't help but wonder if anyone else would try and remember so much about her.

'Well we spent twenty minutes talking about what fruit you did or didn't like so…' James said with a smile as he pushed himself away from the door frame and walked into the kitchen.

'Yeah we did.' Lily recalled. It was their second date. Twenty minutes on what fruit Lily did or didn't like. 'That was weird.' Lily laughed.

'Yeah but you're weird.' James went on to say, walking round to stand behind Lily as she stirred the peas. He wrapped his arms around her waist and hugged her from behind, resting his chin on her shoulder.

'I am not weird.' Lily said, tapping James' nose with the end of the spoon she was using.

'Oh but you are.' James chuckled, turning his head to kiss her cheek and then continuing to trail kisses down her neck to her collarbone which she let him do, closing her eyes and taking it all in. They were then interrupted.

'Ahem.' Richard Evans coughed from the doorway, a paper under his arm and what James could only describe as a murderous expression on his face at the sight of Lily, his baby girl, in James' arms.

'Oh.' Lily said with wide eyes at her dad's sudden appearance. She quickly pulled out of James' grip which he allowed her to do and said meekly, 'Hi Daddy.' blushing slightly at the fact that her father had just caught James kissing her neck; an intimate action.

'Hello Mr Evans.' James said, shoving his hands in the pockets of his crinkled suit which he had been wearing all night and nodding his head politely at Richard Evans. Richard Evans still did not look impressed at James and James, reading the atmosphere Richard was giving out, eventually said, 'You know what, I should probably get going.'

'I think that would be best.' Richard Evans stated a little stiffly.

James looked at Mr Evans for a couple of seconds before turning to Lily who had left the mushy peas on the stove simmering away and saying, 'I'll see you back at school then.'

'Ok.' she said reluctantly to him. They looked into each other's eyes, both wanting to have a proper goodbye but sensing that it wouldn't actually be a wise idea with Lily's father standing right there.

So James simply squeezed her hand discreetly and turned to Richard Evans to politely say, 'Thank you for having me Mr Evans.'

'Mmm.' Richard said, still unimpressed.

'Bye.' James murmured to Lily before leaving the kitchen with one last look over his shoulder to her. He walked into the corridor leading off of the kitchen and exited the house through the back door into the crisp winter air, not knowing he was going to be going back to a worried but angry Sirius as he hadn't let him know he wasn't returning home the previous night, not knowing that Sirius had been annoyed that he had been left alone and definitely not knowing what conversation he was leaving Lily to have with her dad. If he had known any of these things, who knows whether he would have gone home? But he did and he left Lily in the most uncomfortable situation she had ever been in in the kitchen of her own home.

Lily stayed stood where she was facing her father who looked as if he was at boiling point. She let the mushy peas on the stove bubble, taking no notice of them. 'So,' she said eventually, 'that's James.'

'I know who that is.' Richard replied. He was still speaking rather stiffly. He didn't sound like Lily's dad at the minute. At least he didn't to her. But then again, she had never seen him in what she would later come to refer to as 'full dad mode'.

'Do you want some fish and chips?' Lily asked her father, filling the silence, 'I was making them for me and James but-'

'Lily I need to talk to you.' Richard Evans stated clearly. He cut across her. He had been doing that a lot recently and not just to her.

'Ok.' Lily slowly and anxiously. This couldn't be good.

'I don't think that boy is a suitable choice for you.' he said straight away, no disguise.

'What?' Lily said after a moment's pause.

'Now,' Richard began, walking proudly into the room and turning the mushy peas on the hob off, 'I know that as a young girl you are probably attracted to what some might call the 'bad boy streak'-'

'The what?' Lily asked with her laugh interjecting in what her dad was saying.

'Lily don't interrupt me.' he said to her harshly, shutting her up, 'I am looking out for your best interests here and I think it would be better for you if you didn't see that boy anymore.'

Again, Lily paused. 'Better for me or better for you?' she asked him. She didn't like what he was saying to her. Didn't he trust her?

'Don't take that tone of voice with me young lady!' Richard instructed his young daughter much to her shock. He continued. 'I only have your best interests at heart. That boy will be nothing but trouble for you.'

'His name is James dad.' Lily said, becoming frustrated at her dad's way of speaking about James. 'Stop referring to him as that boy-'

'I'll refer to him however I please thank you Lily!' Richard butted in, once more not letting someone else finish their sentence. 'I seem to remember you referring to him as arrogant toe-rag on more than one occasion.' he said.

'That was ages ago.' Lily said, her voice becoming higher and a little bit irate now. This was going to turn into an argument. She could tell. 'He's changed.' she told her dad.

'He has not changed!' Richard Evans denied, raising his voice now, 'He was rude to me at your sister's wedding-'

'No he wasn't!'

'-which he obviously convinced you to crash!'

'That was my idea!' Lily replied honestly.

'Don't make excuses for the boy Lily!' Richard said sternly.

'I'm not.' Lily said, her voice raising to the volume of her dads. 'It was my idea!' she said adamantly.

'I sincerely doubt that.' Richard sighed, 'And now he's gone and left just when you were in the middle of cooking dinner for him-'

'You scared him off!' Lily yelled in disbelief. This was now an argument, whether she wanted it to be or not.

'And you really want to be with someone who scares that easily?' Richard yelled back at her, his voice raised for no particular reason at all.

'You just said he was arrogant?' Lily shouted back, 'How can someone who's arrogant be scared easily?'

'Lily, I forbid you to see him again!' Richard demanded of his daughter.

'What?' she said back to him, 'You can't do that!' She was now starting to sound like the teenager she had never been. She had never had an argument with either of her parents. At least not substantial like this. They had argued about what channel to watch on television, (an argument which her mother usually won with the solution of Emmerdale), or what to have for dinner. Never over Lily's life choices.

'Yes I can. I am your father!' Richard bellowed at his daughter, pointing his finger at himself to make his point stronger.

'I don't care!' Lily said, 'I like James Dad and I'm not going to stop seeing him! We go to school together!'

'Fine!' Richard said, lowering the volume of his voice slightly to try a different angle. He tried to let her know what he believed James to be like. What any boy who went out with his baby girl would be like in his eyes, 'If you won't stop seeing him I must warn you about what is running through that boys-'

'James!' Lily interrupted, wishing he would just use his name.

'-what is running through that boys mind.' Richard carried on, unperturbed.

'And how would you know that?' Lily asked, her voice automatically dropping to her father's volume like an impulse

'It's the same for every boy. He likes you for one thing Lily.' he stated wisely.

Lily's eyes widened and she muttered, 'Oh God.' under her breath. This wasn't happening.

'And I don't think you should be doing anything with that boy-'

'_Please _say you aren't trying to have the sex talk with me?' Lily begged her father, wishing he would stop. This was embarrassing. She was going red.

'Lily will you stop interrupting me!' Richard yelled at her, raising his voice again, losing his patience. 'That boy is like every other boy his age and only one thing runs through a boys mind at that age.'

'I was right.' Lily said softly, staring at the ground mortified, 'This is the sex talk.'

'I don't want you make a mistake.' Richard went on.

Lily looked to the ceiling. 'Kill me now God! Make it quick!' she begged the roof.

'Lily listen to me!' Richard shouted at her before instructing her once again on what to do or what not to do in this case. 'You are not to take your relationship with that boy any further. Do you hear me? You have no business doing anything with him. A girl your age shouldn't be thinking about things like that anyway.'

'It was you brought it up!' Lily said in a high pitched voice waving her hands at her father to call that point to his attention

'I am at the end of my tether with you young lady!' Richard hollered at her, becoming red in the face himself but for a different reason than Lily. 'I have tried to talk to you reasonably about this-'

'No you haven't!' Lily retorted.

'Lily-' her dad started, for the first time actually using a calm voice. It was just a shame that he had riled up Lily's anger; the inherent temper that came along with being a red head.

'You told me I couldn't see him!' Lily yelled at her dad, getting very mad at what he had said now the dinner she was making completely forgotten and the mushy peas starting to crust on the bottom of the pan on the stove. 'You forbid me.' she continued to shout, not believing she was posing the next question to her dad who had always trusted her, 'Are you now saying I can't _sleep_ with him if I want to?'

'Lily Evans stop speaking about this right now.' Richard Evans said sternly, his voice instructional again but not raised. At least not yet.

'You started it!' Lily shouted back loudly at her dad with a single breathless and disbelieving laugh.

'And I am finishing it!' Lily's dad said loudly back to her, now giving her strict directions that he believed she must follow. 'These are the rules. You are not to see that boy. You are not to talk to him. He is nothing to you.'

Lily was having none of that though. 'He is my boyfriend!' she pointed out, not able to stop and enjoy the moment that she had called James that for the first time. It was shrouded in anger.

'You are not to take this pointless relationship to the next level!' Richard reiterated, his voice back up to full volume. The neighbours could probably hear the argument going on in the Evans' residence by this point.

'It's my body!' Lily said.

'Not whilst you are living in this house!' Richard yelled at her, 'Not whilst you are living under my roof young lady!'

'Fine!' Lily said, storming out of the room and yelling back to her father, 'Then maybe I won't live under your roof anymore!'

'Lily Evans where are you going?' Richard asked following his daughter out of the room and over to the stairs which she was marching up angrily, 'Don't you walk away from me!' he said.

'Guess what? I just did!' Lily retorted cheekily to him.

'That boy has been a bad influence on you!' Richard said, standing at the bottom of the stairs and yelling up to her.

'James!' Lily said, stopping half way up the staircase and turning around, her deep red hair whipping around harshly, 'His name is James!' she shouted down at her father angrily.

'I don't give a damn what his name is!' Richard said as Lily turned away from him and carried on up the stairs into her room. He suddenly panicked. 'What are you doing?' he asked her.

'I'm making a dramatic exit what does it look like I'm doing?' Lily replied theatrically, walking into her room and slamming the door behind her loudly. She locked the door with her wand so he wouldn't follow her into her room.

'Don't be cheeky to me young lady!' Richard said, running up the stairs after her and stopping outside her room.

'Tough!' he heard her yell from within. He heard her drawers opening and closing and he became more worried. But he just couldn't stop shouting at his little girl.

'Lily Evans don't you leave this house!' he instructed her through the door, trying the handle. It would budge.

Inside her room, Lily was pulling out some clothes and shoving them into a small bag which she retrieved from the bottom of her wardrobe. She was extremely mad at her father for speaking to her like that, for not trusting her. He had always trusted her. She knew she had spoken badly of James in the past but she had never expected her dad to not trust her judgement when it came to him. She knew what she was doing. She knew what James had done in the past. She knew he had bullied people. Did her dad think she didn't know that? She was the one who had told him about that. Now she wished she hadn't because now her father couldn't see who James actually was. He saw the person Lily had described back then not the person she knew now, the man he had become. And she definitely couldn't believe her dad had accused her of being attracted to a 'bad boy streak'. That was ridiculous. Wasn't it? Of course it was.

Her dad was still shouting through her door, trying the door handle and at times knocking. But Lily ignored him. She didn't think she could face him. She was embarrassed now. If it wasn't bad enough that he hadn't given James a chance, he had tried to have 'the talk' with her. Was there anything more embarrassing than your parents trying to talk to you about sex? If it was her mother she could maybe have handled it, but not her dad. She had never had that kind of relationship with her dad where they could speak openly about things like that and not be completely mortified. She was spoilt by her dad. She was his little girl and that's the way she wanted it to stay. She didn't want any of this business with him. That was why her mum was there. That was why Hestia and Alice were there. It was called girl talk for a reason. She never stopped to think that it was just her dad being scared of her growing up. Not at all. And who was to say she was even ready for that step yet?

She was still hurriedly gathering some clothes and screwing them up in her bag. She wanted to get out of there. She wanted to get away from this argument, the argument which her Dad was currently still having with her door, so she zipped up her bag and, without saying another word to her father, not letting him know she was going, disapparated to the only place she could think of; Diagon Alley. Her dad wouldn't know she was gone until hours later when he would break down the door.

With a crack she appeared in the bustling street of Diagon alley. She marched down the main street with purpose until she realised, she had no idea where she was going. She was cold in the winter air, had no idea what to do now and realised that she must suddenly have looked very lost and very small. at least that was how she felt. She stopped in the middle of the street and looked down to the ground biting her lip, trying her hardest to think of something to do, somewhere to go. She didn't think of Hestia, her best friend who would have willingly taken her in for a couple of days whilst she and her father calmed down. She didn't think of Alice who probably would have done the same for her. No. She thought of James and, even though going to stop with him would probably make the situation a hundred times worse if her father found out, he was all she could think of and he was all she wanted to see even though she had literally seen him only half an hour ago.

Unlike with Hestia and Alice, she didn't actually know where James lived. He had never mentioned it. He was quite closed up on the subject of his family home and his family history and his family in general as a matter of fact. He had only ever spoken to Lily about his mum and, at a push, his late dad. But even then he hadn't said much. She knew his mum was a Healer at St Mungo's but she had no idea what she looked like or what department she worked in. Going to find her there would be foolish. She would be busy anyway and who was to say that James had even told his mother about her. After all, Lily hadn't told her parents about him. It wasn't that different.

She was stuck. She wiped her eyes for they had begun to fill with angry, hot and frustrated tears. She hadn't realised until she felt one run down her cheek. She felt extremely lost and alone. She watched the shoppers around her continuing with her everyday life, doing some last minute Christmas shopping. She soon realised she was in everyone's way, standing gormlessly in the middle of the street as people tried to push past her. One woman, a sullen looking witch, yelled at her to move. Lily apologised quickly and allowed herself to be moved along with the crowd down the cobbled street. She looked at every shop she passed, hoping desperately that one of them would give her an idea of what to do. Finally, one did.

Lily spotted the post office and breathed a smile. She quickly went into it, keeping her bag close to her to ensure that no one would take it and closed the door behind her. The small post office was warm unlike outside and was filled with dozens of owls. It wasn't like any of the muggle post offices, not like the one her mother worked in, but she was used to it now and it was normal for her now. She walked up to the counter and asked to send a letter. The person behind the counter told her that it would be three Knuts for the owl alone and five Knuts for parchment and ink to write her letter with. Lily took the second action, having no writing equipment with her, and took the parchment, quill and ink that the wizard behind the counter offered her. She leant on the desk and wrote a quick note to James;

_James_

_It's Lily. Can you come meet me now in Diagon Alley please? I need to see you. I'll be a__t __Florean Fortescue's. Please be quick._

_Lily_

_xxx_

She then chose her owl, tied the letter she had now rolled up into a scroll and tied it to the small owls leg before sending it on its way. She didn't know how long the small owl would take to make the journey to James' house as she didn't know where it was but she desperately hoped that it wouldn't be long. There was nothing left for her to do now but go and sit in Florean Fortescue's ice-cream parlour and wait patiently for James to come and get her.

* * *

When James got home he was met by an extremely irate Sirius. He was mad at him for ditching him for Lily and leaving him in a huge mansion all by himself. Sirius didn't like being left by himself. He thrived on company and being the centre of attention and when James had left him in favour of giving attention to someone else, Sirius wasn't best pleased. He moaned at James for twenty minutes when he arrived home, complaining that James was giving Lily more attention than him but when James pointed out that Lily was now his girlfriend, Sirius had just exploded with, 'But I'm your best friend!' James couldn't help but think privately that Sirius was acting like a teenage girl at this precise moment. He said nothing though. He let him continue on and get it out of his system.

It took twenty more minutes, a couple of verses of 'but I'm your best friend' and a few choruses of 'I thought you'd been kidnapped by giants' before James was able to talk Sirius around with a bribe of pie.

'Ooh pie!' Sirius said, forgetting his anger and turning around to go into the kitchen and grab a pie from the cupboard.

James chuckled and shook his head as he followed Sirius into the kitchen. He sat down at the long table in the large kitchen, putting his feet up on the table and watching Sirius amusedly as he found the biggest spoon in the kitchen, sat opposite James and started to dig in.

'Don't fink vis means I foggive choo!' Sirius said with his mouth full, spitting crumbs of pie out across the mahogany polished table and jabbing his huge spoon in James' direction.

'Dude. Say it don't spray it.' James said, kicking a crumb back to Sirius which had landed near his foot.

'I mean it!' Sirius continued on as he swallowed, 'You could have written a note.'

'You'd still be pissed off though wouldn't you?' James stated with raised eyebrows.

'Yeah.' Sirius said, digging his spoon into his pie again and taking another huge mouthful.

James would never win here anyway. Sirius was always difficult when he wasn't getting his own way or when he wasn't getting attention or, strangely, when he was eating pie. All three of these things were happening now so James decided to let it go. So did Sirius apparently, sensing he'd won and changing the conversation.

'Whas wiv ver fancy ge' up?' Sirius asked, his mouth full yet again and spraying food everywhere. Not many people could understand him when he was like this but after six or more years, James had gotten the hang of it.

'It's a suit.' James replied, looking at his suit. Lily had bought him a deep grey suit, a white shirt and a black tie. Of course the sleeves on his jacket and shirt were rolled up together to just above his elbows, his black trousers were creased to high heaven and his tie was hanging loosely around his neck. Still, he thought he looked rather dapper.

'I know what it is.' Sirius said as he swallowed his mouthful, rolling his eyes,

'Really?' James asked in disbelief.

'Yeah.' Sirius said sincerely before adding with a smirk at his own joke, 'You just told me.'

'You're an idiot Padfoot.' James chuckled taking his wand out and summoning is own spoon and pie from the cupboards in the kitchen. The one that Sirius had did look good. Linda, the Potter's house elf, always made good pies. They were apple.

'Thanks.' Sirius smiled proudly, taking James' insult as a compliment as he so often did. 'So what's with the suit?'

'It was for Lily's sister's wedding.' James said with a sigh, catching and digging into his own pie. Sirius knew he had been to a wedding with Lily. He knew that it was Lily's sister's wedding. But he didn't know the whole situation behind Lily's relationship with her sister or the whole 'crashing' aspect of the wedding. Lily had made James promise not to tell anyone that and James had obliged. James always kept his promises so, true to his word, he had told no one. Sirius knew nothing of the reason James had been invited along to Petunia's wedding. He just knew he went.

'Thought you wore your dress robes?' Sirius said, recalling James leaving the previous day in some smart wizarding dress robes.

'Apparently they're not suitable for a muggle wedding.' James said, eating a mouthful of Linda's melt-in-the-mouth apple pie. It was awesome.

'Boring people.' Sirius scoffed. Through all their joking and pranks, people assumed them to be rebels and casually dressed all the time and, even though they were most of the time, they did like wizarding dress robes. They believed the looked, in their own words, 'the bloody be all and end all of life' in them. Very dapper. Obviously muggles didn't agree. Still, James could pull of a suit just as well and, he was sure that if he was to try one on, Sirius could too. They suited smart clothes.

'Yep.' James agreed, taking another bite of apple pie. He wanted cream.

'Didn't like anything you saw then?' Sirius asked with insinuating eyebrows. He had finished his pie now. It didn't take long.

James paused and looked at him with a frown. 'I have a girlfriend.' he said, summoning some cream from the cold storage cupboard in the kitchen. It was like a muggle fridge except that it was charmed magically to keep a certain temperature at all times.

'Don't mean you can't look.' Sirius shrugged, catching the cream in mid-air as it sped towards James. He took a swig as if it was nothing more than milk.

'Does when she's right there next to me and I'm meeting her parents.' James pointed out. He didn't expect Sirius to understand. The term 'girlfriend' meant a completely different thing to both boys. Sirius believed in the short-term version of the word but James liked to think of the long-term. He held out his hand for the cream.

'How'd that go?' Sirius asked him, sliding the cream into James' waiting hand across the polished table leaving a trail of condensation after it.

'Why are you talking to me about this?' James queried, wondering why Sirius' attitude had changed towards this topic, 'You were moaning about me ditching you for her not ten minutes ago.'

'Want to see if you'd have had a better time with me.' Sirius stated simply with a shrug of his shoulders.

James rolled his eyes. 'Why?' he sighed. What on earth had Sirius done now?

'I'll tell you when you've told me how meeting the parents went.' Sirius said, motioning for James to tell him how things went.

James sighed again. 'Her mum was nice and liked me, her dad was…tall. And didn't.' he said succinctly, pouring cream over his pie now before sending it back across the table to Sirius.

'Why?' Sirius asked. Sure it wasn't him but James was likeable enough.

'Lily told him all that stuff we used to do to Snivellus.' James said offhandedly. They had no shame in what they used to do to him, the constant hexing and cursing and cruel tricks. In their opinion, he deserved it. Most of the time anyway…

'Like what?' Sirius asked, taking another swig of the cream. It was sickly sweet but Sirius didn't mind. He could eat or drink anything. Except firewhisky. He didn't like that.

'Hanging him on the chandelier and poking him with sticks.' James said with a laugh into his apple pie.

'Ha! Classic!' Sirius laughed. That was a fun day.

'Yeah.' James agreed

'Well you'd have had more fun with me.' Sirius said, putting his feet up on the table in the same way James was and folding his arms behind his head, a cocky expression on his handsome face.

'Why?' James asked, a grin forming on his face, 'Did you hang him on a chandelier again?'

'No.' Sirius scoffed at the suggestion, 'Why'd we let him here?' he motioned around him before continuing with a smirk, 'Bad enough we've gotta let him into Hogwarts.'

'Too right.' James said in agreement, taking another mouthful of apple pie. He was almost done now.

'I worked on my bike.' Sirius grinned, knowing that James wouldn't be impressed because he hadn't wanted him to work on his motorbike without him there. James had left Remus with him to make sure he didn't work on the bike but Sirius still hadn't taken notice. He thought it was a good job he hadn't taken notice. 'Got the engine going.' he said arrogantly.

'Great.' James said sarcastically with a shake of his head. Sirius was right. 'Didn't blow anything up did you?' he asked raising his eyebrows once and smirking a little.

'No.' Sirius replied, with an almost stroppy tone before getting excited again and saying, 'Let's go work on it!

'Sure.' James said, throwing his spoon lazily into his now empty pie dish. He was about to get up, taking his legs off of the table at the same time as Sirius, when his mum entered the room looking rather harried as she sorted out her healers robes.

'James.' she began with a serious tone in her voice. She was pulling down the sleeve on her robe and then buttoning the St Mungo's logo broach that she had to wear for work near the fold of material near her throat.

'Hey Mum.' James said with a frown, wondering what was going on. He didn't have to wait long for Jane Potter to explain though.

'I'm not going to be back for a couple of days.' she said regretfully to her son. This was the first time she had actually set sight on him since he had returned from Hogwarts. She didn't even know that he had spent the night elsewhere. She hated to leave him again especially due to the fact that, in a few days' time, it would be the anniversary of his father's death. He seemed ok but she didn't know if that was an act and she'd prefer to be spending time with him seeing how he was coping rather than going to work. But the staff at St Mungo's needed her help. 'There's been a large attack in a muggle neighbourhood and we've got a lot to do at the hospital. Seems Fenrir Greyback's been around along with others.'

'Ok Mum.' James said in nodding understanding. He knew of Fenrir Greyback, courtesy of Remus. He understood that his mum needed to help others, especially if he was involved.

Jane sighed and before she disapparated out, left her boys with one instruction. 'Don't work on that bike please boys.' she said, 'I want the house to be in one piece when I come back.'

'Ok Mum.' James repeated.

'See ya Janie!' Sirius said with a winning smile and a wave at James' mum to which James just raised one eyebrow at.

Jane rolled her eyes at Sirius. 'Bye Sirius.' she made a point of saying before walking over to kiss her son on the cheek, (which he wiped off), and saying, 'Bye James.' sadly, then disapparating with a loud crack.

There was a pause in the kitchen. James took a deep breath and the turned to Sirius. 'So…' he began before asking with a shrug, 'Work on the bike?'

'Absolutely.' Sirius said with a nod of his head.

The two boys made the trek from the kitchen across the mansions grounds and to the outhouse where Sirius' motorbike was being stored whilst he was building it. They could have apparated but didn't. The Potter grounds were always nice to walk across, even when the grass was beginning to frost over due to the winter chill. Well, most of the Potter grounds were nice to walk across. Some parts of the estate that the Potter family had had sheep or deer on them. There were chickens too. And horses. And a few ducks in the lake-like pond. But no cows. James didn't like cows.

They worked on the motorbike for a solid three hours, ignoring the cold and becoming quite messy in the process. The suit James was still wearing became stained in grease and oil and Sirius, well Sirius was already stained in oil and grease. When they had begun work, James had laughed at Sirius because when he tried the engine which he had said he had gotten working, it simply spluttered and died. They spent an hour and a half trying to work out what had gone wrong once James had stopped laughing, being squirted with engine oil at least twice. They found that the problem was actually the battery had blown but, as they didn't have another one, they had to leave that for now and instead spent another hour and a half on the body work. Sirius wanted flames on his wheel guards so James had spent an hour painting them on. Then he changed his mind and James had to spend another half an hour painting them black again. Sirius was a pain when it came to his bike.

After three straight hours of working, ending up being covered in grease, oil and, for James, orange, yellow, red and black paint, they were finally interrupted by the sudden appearance of a small brown owl. It had a letter for James.

'What's that?' Sirius asked, taking the paint brush James handed to him so that he could read his letter.

'A letter' James said simply, unrolling it and quickly reading it through.

'Duh.' Sirius said sarcastically, rolling his eyes whilst James read his letter, 'What's it say?' he nosed.

'We've got to go.' James said defiantly only giving, 'It's from Lily.' as an explanation.

Now Sirius, who had been told off by James when the school found out about him and Lily, left at lunchtimes so that James could walk aimlessly around with her, abandoned in the evenings, again in favour of Lily, ditched for the last Hogsmeade trip, left on his own for the whole day yesterday and the whole of the morning today, had had just about enough of Lily Evans by now. He knew that he had tried to convince her to give James a chance earlier that school year, not already knowing they were dating, but he hadn't expected this; James dropping everything and ditching him all the time for her. It was safe to say he was feeling passed over for the girl who had rejected his best friend for so long. 'So?' he said moodily with yet another roll of his eyes.

'So a muggle neighbourhood is attacked and Lily sends me a letter to go get her.' James said, 'Coincidence?'

'Could be.' Sirius retorted.

'Sirius.' James said, with annoyed raised eyebrows and an expression that read, 'why are you being like this?'

Sirius jutted his chin out for a moment in an irritated fashion. 'Fine.' he sighed chucking down the paint brush, 'Let's go.' Though his voice said he wanted to do anything but.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Update on 15th June 2013**

**Galindaba**


	61. Chapter 60

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader! Sorry I'm a little bit late in the update. :( I forget about the time difference with my reader sometimes so I will try to update earlier in the day to avoid confusion! :)**

**Here's chapter Sixty! I have made some choices in this chapter which some may not agree with so I am sorry if you don't think the characters would make these moves but do have reasons behind what I have done and they will appear in a few chapters time. Please don't hate :(**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Sixty**

Lily had been sat wrapped in James' scarf, (which she had kept from the previous year), a thick woollen jumper and a winter coat at Florean Fortescue's ice-cream parlour for about four hours. She had been there so long that Florean had ended up giving her two free ice-creams. They were really good. They were made somehow which meant that when they slid down your throat, they warmed you up. Before coming into the wizarding world, Lily had never eaten ice-cream in the cold winter, especially this close to Christmas but, in the wizarding world, people ate ice-cream all year round. In fact, Florean Fortescue's ice-cream parlour probably had the steadiest business flow in Diagon alley. Lily only got to visit the little shop twice a year if she was lucky so, she really didn't mind sitting there waiting to see if James would show up, (she wasn't sure), but, when the four hour mark passed, she was starting to think perhaps she should just go home and face her dad.

She decided to give it another five minutes and she was glad she did because it was only a couple minutes more before she saw a familiar mess of jet black hair trying to make his way through the throng of Christmas shoppers followed quickly by Sirius Black. Lily stood up as James approached her. He looked worried.

'Hey.' he said breathlessly as he reached her, immediately taking her hand, standing close to her and placing his right hand on her cheek, 'What's wrong? Are you ok?'

'I'm Fine.' Lily said truthfully looking into his warm hazel eyes.

'You're not hurt are you?' James went on, checking her over for any injuries. She didn't have any obviously.

'No.' Lily said with a confused frown, 'Why?'

'Jane said there'd been an attack.' Sirius said with his hands in his pockets. He looked disgruntled to be there but there was a small flash of concern in his eyes. After all, he wouldn't have wanted to Lily to be attacked no matter how much of James' time she was taking up.

'Then I got your letter and-' James began, cluing Lily into what they must have thought had happened.

'No I'm fine.' she guaranteed them with a small smile. Her smile didn't have the effect of reassurance it should have had though. In fact, it seemed to tick Sirius off.

'So we could have carried on working!' he said to James, throwing his arms into the air in a gesture of annoyance.

'Working?' Lily queried. She looked at them both properly now. Sirius was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt covered and caked in grease and oil as if he had specifically designated those clothes to work on something messy. James was still in his creased suit from Petunia's wedding only he had ditched the jacket, his tie was loose around his neck and tucked into his shirt which was undone by a couple of buttons and now, no longer white. It had splashed of oil, grease and assorted paint colours covering it, as had his deep grey trousers. He had ruined a perfectly nice suit.

Lily looked at James, still confused. He took his hand down off of her cheek, taking in deep frustrated breath and his lips disappearing in annoyance at Sirius. His eyes told Lily that Sirius' comment had bugged him though she wasn't sure why.

'Go get yourself an ice cream Padfoot.' he instructed Sirius who, upon the mention of food, needed no more convincing and was immediately side-tracked.

'Oh ice-cream…' Sirius said, his eyes lighting up as he walked into Florean's little ice-cream parlour.

James looked back at Lily and shook his head, rolling his eyes in obvious irritation at Sirius' mood. He then sighed and the annoyance for Sirius disappeared to be replaced with concern for Lily. 'So what's wrong?' he asked her, wiping a bit of oil he had transferred onto her cheek with a clean corner of the sleeve of his shirt.

'I was just…' Lily began, 'I hoped…' she stopped. She had been sat a Florean Fortescue's ice-cream parlour in Diagon Alley for four hours and not once had she stopped to think that by writing to James and asking to stay would inconvenience him. He had a full house already with Sirius staying there and his mother. She hadn't even stopped to think about his mother. Would she let her stay? Was there even room? Did she even know about Lily? Lily hadn't told her parents about him, who was to say he had told his mum about her? Everything fell down around her. 'Oh god.' she said quietly, looking away from him, taking a shuddering breath and bringing her hand up to her mouth. It shook slightly.

'What is it Lily?' James asked her, his voice showing his worry.

Lily looked back to James' eyes and all that ran through her mind were the words, 'tell him, the worst he could say is no.' And besides, if she never asked, she would never know. She bit her lip momentarily before quickly blurting out, 'Could I possibly stay at yours?'

James looked hesitant; however, he didn't say no which left Lily hopeful.

'At mine?' he clarified, subtlety dropping her hand and putting them in his pockets, 'Why?'

Lily gulped. She didn't want to tell him the whole reason she didn't want to go home. At least not yet. She'd probably tell him eventually because, after all, it did actually concern him. But she'd tell him later. Now she just said, 'I've had a massive fight with my dad and…I think we both just need a bit of space at the minute to calm down.' in a way of explanation.

'So…' James started. He was actually rather reluctant to agree to let Lily stay at his for a few reasons. His mum wasn't home and wouldn't before a couple of days thanks to the recent attack. He didn't know how she would feel about him having his girlfriend stop round for the night especially as she wasn't there and he hadn't actually told her about Lily yet. Then there was Sirius. He was being a pain over Lily at the minute. Having her stay over would definitely aggravate him. After that there was the small detail that he hadn't actually told Lily anything about where he lived, how he lived and what he had. He hadn't seen the point before. 'You want to stop at mine?' he asked her again, a part of him willing her to say no. She didn't.

'If that's ok?' Lily said meekly. 'Please?'

'Err well…' James began. He wanted to say that he wasn't sure him mum would allow it considering she wasn't going to be there. He wanted to say that Sirius would just be too much of a pain to contend with and he couldn't do that to her. But he couldn't say either of those things. Not once he had looked into her eyes. She had an expression on her face, something in her eyes which he couldn't refuse. Something inside of him tugged, snapped, and at that moment, he was sure, he would have done anything for her. He couldn't change it, short of cursing her, and in the end he could only say, 'Yeah sure. Of course. Do you have stuff with you?'

'Yes.' Lily said with a relieved smile. She was sure he was going to say no. All the signs had pointed towards it. She had no idea why he had changed his mind.

A smile tugged at the corner of James' mouth at Lily's answer. 'You were so sure I'd say yes?' he said.

'I hoped.' Lily replied, smiling sweetly back as Sirius came out of Florean Fortescue's ice-cream parlour eating a normal triple chocolate chip ice-cream, with hazelnut sprinkles.

'Ok.' James said to Lily taking her hand once more as he turned to Sirius to direct his next words to him. 'Padfoot.' he said, capturing Sirius' attention, 'Let's go.'

'Where?' Sirius asked, licking his ice-cream hungrily and baring the brain freeze that it gave him. He moved out of the way slightly to let a couple of chattering Christmas shoppers into the ice-cream shop.

'Home.' James stated.

'Awesome!' Sirius enthused, thinking that he and James could carry on working on his bike whether Lily was there or not. He wasn't going to let her stop them from finishing the bodywork today.

'Where do you live?' Lily questioned James, grabbing her bag from the chair which was beside the one she had been sat on.

'Err…' James began frowning as if he had never thought of it before and, truth be told, he never had. 'Not sure.' he shrugged as he took her bag from her before half-heartedly suggesting, 'Somewhere in Wales? What do you think Padfoot?' he asked Sirius who also shrugged.

'Could be.' Sirius said, still eating his ice-cream.

'How can you not know where you live?' Lily said in slight shock. It was an odd think to not know where you lived especially at their age.

'We know where we live.' Sirius said rudely and a bit snappily to her which she looked taken aback by.

'Just not where abouts.' James clarified, giving Sirius a look to tell him to stop being so bad-mannered to Lily. He had no idea what was wrong with his best mate surrounding Lily. He had no idea what Lily would have to do for him to stop being so insolent towards her.

Sirius seemed to get the look from James and tried to reign himself in. He couldn't stop being irritated at the situation though. 'It's not in a city like London.' he said, trying to be politer, 'Like where I used to live.' He didn't sound as if he was trying to be polite at all but that was more down to his distaste of his old house.

'It's in some random piece of Welsh countryside.' James explained to Lily.

Then Sirius got excited, his love for the Potter mansion shining through so that even his annoyance at having Lily with them didn't fog it. 'Prongs' house has columns!' Sirius grinned.

'It does not have columns.' James denied.

'Sorry. Pillars!' Sirius continued, his eyes shining happily.

'It doesn't have pillars.' James disagreed, shaking his head.

'Might as well have pillars.' Sirius pointed out to James under his breath, getting bored of his ice-cream now and shoving it in some random passer-by's hand.

'What?' Lily queried. That conversation had made no sense to her. How could James' house have columns? Were they the columns she was thinking of? The basic Greek architectural design? No. It couldn't be.

Then something occurred to Sirius. He began to smirk as he looked between Lily's confused face and James' uncomfortable one. 'Has Prongs not told you what kind of place he lives in?' he asked her.

'No.' Lily said, wondering what he meant. She looked at James to see if she could read his face but he was avoiding her eyes for some reason, only staring down at their joined hands instead. Lily was nervous now.

'Oh.' Sirius said, his smirk now fully pronounced on his face. 'Well then this is going to be good. Prongs, I say we use the front entrance. Give Evans the full effect.'

'Full effect?' Lily said, now extremely anxious about what was going on. Where exactly did James live? She had no idea.

'Fine.' James said simply, and without another word, he squeezed Lily's hand to warn her he was about to take her on side-long apparation and disapparated out of Diagon Alley, immediately followed by Sirius.

With two separate cracks, Lily and James and Sirius reappeared in the middle of a random spot of Welsh countryside, stood on a dirt track. They were facing a small shed, the only structure seen for miles and miles and acres and acres of vast and empty land. Lily assumed that the Potter's house was cloaked and that that shed was the entrance. The three were quiet and, with Sirius grinning at what Lily was about to see, James looking rather uncomfortable and Lily biting her lip nervously, James led Lily into the run down shed which had splinters sticking out of the rotting wood, followed by Sirius. The shed was empty and larger on the inside than it looked on the outside Lily noticed as they went through it, but that didn't really shock her. Most structures or buildings in the wizarding world worked like that through an assortment of expansion charms so no, she wasn't shocked by that. She was shocked by what she saw when she exited the shed. Never in a million years had she expected to see the sight that befell her.

It was huge. Massive. Even from about an acre away. She didn't think there was a synonym she could use to fully describe the grandeur of it; the Potter mansion. She stared at it, the immense Georgian mansion with its tall windows on each of the three levels. She had seen Buckingham Palace. This place exceeded it in size. And she had to assume that it would be considerably larger on the inside too as it was a wizards property. There were no pillars or columns; it didn't need them. It did however have two sets of steps leading from a singular path in front of it, circling around in an oval to meet at a platform where the front door was situated. There was a beautiful fountain a distance in front of the entrance steps encircled by the path which stretched from the front doors to where they were stood. Lily took a shocked breath and held it, bringing her hand up, taking out of James' and holding it over her mouth.

They stood there for five minutes whilst Lily marvelled at the place where James had grown up. They only began to move when he started to lead her up the path guiding her by the small of her back. The three stayed in silence; Sirius was still grinning, James was looking anxious at Lily's reaction and Lily was speechless. All she could think was that James had never told her about any of this. The most arrogant boy she knew had never once mentioned this.

It took them twenty minutes to walk up the path to the front door of the Potter mansion, all the time in silence, the cold winter air and the frost on the grass transpiring to the coolness of the situation. Certain things clicked for Lily as they made their way up to the mansion. James being able to pay for the fake date she had had with Joshua Hunt as well as all the marauders lunches on the same day. Having that much money on him the day before when she went to buy him a suit. Seeing his home made her realise how he was able to do these things no question. Yet somehow, she was unable to relate the James she knew, her James, who was obsessed with jelly, wanted to picnic every day and spun her into random badly danced waltzes, with the mansion in front of her. In her mind they were almost two entirely separate entities. When they stopped at the front door, after saying nothing since they arrived at James' home, all Lily could think of to say was, 'You never told me.'

James turned to face her, not opening the door to let them in. He searched her face to find her reaction but couldn't. He had no idea what reaction he had expected when he showed her this, something which he knew she had never experienced before or even considered in her everyday life with her normal family home. All he knew was what he didn't want to see. His only concern was that she would be angry with him for not telling her. So, after a couple of minutes quiet James finally asked her, rather timidly for him, 'Are you mad?'

'Why would I be mad?' Lily asked straight away with a confused smile. It then dropped as something occurred to her. 'Unless…' she began, choosing her words carefully, 'you didn't tell me because you think…this matters to me…that I'm shallow and materialistic…do you?'

'No.' James said immediately. He was completely involved in how Lily was receiving all of this new information. He had forgotten Sirius was there and didn't see any of the faces he was pulling and it was a good job he didn't

'Then why didn't you tell me?' Lily asked, wondering only if he didn't trust her, 'What stopped you?'

James shrugged. 'I didn't want things to change between us.' he said.

Lily had never seen him like this before. The boy who was always sure of himself, arrogant and cocky looked genuinely troubled that, someway, somehow, by showing her and telling her all this would change their relationship. On this subject, he seemed small and lost and all Lily wanted to do was hug him. But Sirius was there so she settled for taking his hand instead. 'Why would they?' she asked him before gesturing around, 'All this makes no difference to me.'

James didn't look her directly in the eyes. Instead he lifted up her hand and traced her fingers. 'Because of Joshua Hunt.' he said eventually, all the while thinking how strange it was that the tables had turned. He had rushed to Lily when she was worried and in need of someone. Now he was the one who was in need of reassurance.

'What about him?' Lily asked curiously. James had never referred to Joshua Hunt by his real name before. He had called him git-face, Joseph, Joel, Hunt dude and, strangely, Adonis, but never his real name. Lily had to wonder what the reason was.

'You didn't like him and he had money.' James said. He was then completely truthful; no disguises. 'I've got more than he has.' he went on, now looking into her eyes, 'Shouldn't you dislike me more?'

Lily looked shocked. James had thought that she hadn't like Joshua Hunt because he had money. That was what she assumed was worrying him. She assured him that wasn't the case. 'No. God no James!' she said, now not caring that Sirius was there and stepping into James and placing her hand gently to his warm cheek, looking into his hazel eyes so that he would look back and see the truth behind her words. 'I didn't dislike him because he had money.' she said, 'I disliked him because that was all he went on about. His dads job at the bank and his salary; it was all he seemed to care about.'

James broke into a small smile, internally thinking himself stupid. 'Oh. Right.' he said.

'Believe me. This makes no difference to us.' she said relaxing back into their bantering relationship and saying, 'If you piss me off I will dump your sorry arse.'

James laughed and pulled her into him, his arms encircling her waist. 'That's all I'm asking for.' he said with a grin leaning down as if to kiss her.

'Barf.' Sirius said, making his presence known again and sharing his view on what he thought about James' final action and words. At that moment, all Sirius could think of to describe James with was gooey. He was very gooey when he was with Lily. It made Sirius want to literally be sick.

James didn't share Sirius' thoughts. 'Go fix your bike Sirius.' he said, turning his head to face him but not taking his arms away from Lily. His attention was divided.

Sirius stared at James for a couple of seconds with a frown. It was only when James raised his eyebrows that Sirius gave in and left to go work on his bike. He didn't want James to help him when he was being like this anyway. He'd probably leak goo onto the body work.

When Sirius had gone, Lily turned to James and said, 'I have a question though.'

James looked cautious as he said, 'Ok.'

'You bragged about everything from your Quidditch skills to your duelling skills to your looks. Why did you never brag about this?' Lily asked him. She thought it was a fair question. She had never, never in the five years she had hated him or over the last fifteen or so months that she hadn't, heard him mention anything to do with money or an estate. She had to wonder why. It was her curious nature.

'Easy.' James said, 'I didn't earn this. This isn't a talent I've worked on. The others are.' And it was true. James had only ever bragged about things he had a true talent for. Like being a nuisance to Professors.

'Your looks?' Lily queried.

'Ok, so maybe not them.' James conceded before adding arrogantly, 'But, you gotta admit, I'm fit.'

Lily raised her eyebrows and laughed at him. 'I cannot believe you just called yourself fit.' she said.

James laughed with her and, when he was finished, said, 'Want me to show you around?' now eager to share the place he had grown up in with Lily as she had shared the place she had grown up in with him.

'Yes!' Lily smiled.

James showed her the house first. He showed her the Parisian Opera inspired staircase in the main entrance which led to his bedroom and the eighth step that sank after one of his accidental magic bouts. He showed her the library and the drawing rooms with all the antique furniture and the kitchen and the dining room. Then he stopped with the house because invariably he got lost in the rest of it. Lily questioned this, especially as he had Hogwarts rigged and that was a much larger place than his mansion. But James had simply explained that his family had only lived in certain rooms and, unless Sirius or Remus or Peter was round, it was no fun exploring on his own so he had just left it. But Lily was a curious soul and wanted to explore so they had gone up some winding, spiral staircases, back corridors, twisting slopes, attic rooms and through some cupboards which came out in random hallways but, when you went back through them, you came out at a totally different place. One thing that Lily found odd was all the chairs that were dotted every so often along the hallways but James simply explained that when walking through a place like the Potter mansion, you often needed to sit down. Lily felt as if she was in a stately home instead of her boyfriend's house.

When they had finally managed to find a way out of the house, James showed Lily some of the gardens. Not the whole grounds for he explained that it was a one hundred and fifty acre lot, fifty acres of which was covered by an expanse of forest, but the best bits. They wrapped up warm as they ventured out into the gardens, the night drawing in and the bitter winter creating frost. Lily was wearing James' scarf still and they kept each other close as they strolled through part of the Potter grounds. James showed Lily some of the animals that lived on the Potters land; the sheep, the chickens and the deer. He also showed her the horses they had in a stable turned outhouse. He then showed her the outhouse he and Sirius had blown up during the summer and the outhouse where Sirius was working on building his motorcycle in. (Sirius ignored them). After that he showed her his Quidditch pitch which she wasn't particularly interested in that much. Then he took her around the neatly manicured garden area which had hedges and statues and fountains and flowers until finally he showed her the pond which Lily thought looked more like a lake. Then they went inside as it had gotten darker and colder. Winter was like that.

Lily couldn't help but think that there were a lot of useless things in the Potter mansion. Stuff they didn't use. There were four grand pianos yet James had no idea how to even open the lid let alone play. They had horses but James didn't ride. They had an expansive library but James never picked up a book unless he needed too and not even then. Then there was the room devoted entirely to his family tree. What a waste of a room! There was nothing else in it! The only thing James seemed to take advantage of in his own home was the Quidditch pitch that was built specifically for him. The things James was privileged with and he did nothing about astonished Lily. If it was her, she'd want to learn how to play the piano and ride the horses and read the books. Instead, they were just there gathering dust or eating hay. But it wasn't her place to say any of this she didn't think, so she kept her mouth shut.

Eventually, she and James ended up sat on the sofa in James' drawing room talking.

'So,' James began, 'you've not actually told me why you needed to come and stay with me. I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to but, I am curious.'

Lily bit her lip and began to draw circles on James' jeans around his knee, (he had changed out of his suit finally!). She took a deep breath, knowing that James deserved to know why she was here and what happened between her and her dad. After all, it was about him. 'I had a fight with my dad.' she said at first.

'I know that.' James pointed out. He looked completely relaxed, his arm across the back of the couch gently brushing his fingertips along the bottom of Lily's deep red hair. That would soon change

'And…' Lily went on, taking a deep breath; this was a serious conversation for them. It was about the future of the relationship and where they were heading. Some would call it 'the talk'. 'He told me I couldn't see you anymore.' Lily said to which James raised his eyebrows, 'And that I had no business taking my relationship with you any further.' Lily added.

'Further?' James frowned, 'What does that mean?'

'You know…' Lily said, feeling herself going a little bit red at talking about this, 'To the next level.'

'Level?' James asked, confused by Lily's blush, 'What level? There are levels?'

'Sex James. Sex.' Lily blurted out getting redder, subtlety obviously not working. However, being blunt seemed to have stunned James.

'Oh…' he said in surprise with a slow nod of his head. He stopped playing with her hair. 'Well what did- what did you say?'

'I don't remember exactly.' Lily shrugged honestly, 'I kind of got into a temper and stormed out…then I wrote to you.'

'Ok.' James said, still nodding. This was odd for him; he was uncomfortable. He had been uncomfortable and in need of reassurance all in the same day. Not his usual arrogance. It was odd. He took his arm off of the back of the couch. 'Well…err...what do you think?' he asked curious to know what her take on this was. If she wanted to then great, he was up for that. But if she didn't he'd have to be extremely careful and considerate. He didn't know if he had that in him but he hoped he did.

'About what?' Lily said, losing track of the conversation momentarily.

'The next level?' James said then, thinking he may have said something wrong, started to babble. 'Still can't believe there are levels. Do you have to pass a test to get to the next one or-'

'James.' Lily cut him off, placing her hand firmly on his knee.

'Sorry.' James apologised, 'This is new for me.'

'Me too.' Lily assured him.

'So what do you think?' he said, not sure whether he wanted to hear the answer or not. This was the most nervous he'd ever been, he was sure.

'I think that-'

'Prongs, Linda's making dinner. What do you want?' Sirius interrupted them, walking into the room wiping his hands on a towel. He, like James had done earlier, had changed out of his grease covered clothes and washed up.

'Err…' James said, not fancying any of Linda's cooking today, 'How about we all go out tonight instead?' he suggested.

'Sure.' Sirius said, 'Where?'

'Leaky cauldron?' James said.

'Awesome! I'll write to Moony.' Sirius replied, ignoring Lily and disappearing out of the room to go and tell Linda that they were going out and to write to Remus so that he could meet them in the Leaky Cauldron a bit later.

'You were saying?' James prompted, turning back to Lily once Sirius had left the room deciding that he did want an answer. He wanted to know whether she was ready or not.

'Right.' Lily said, looking down at James' knee and once again drawing circles on it, 'I just think that…well we haven't been going out for that long. Only three and a half months, three of which was secret. I just think that, although I'd like to believe that…_that_ would be where we were heading-'

'Me too.' James inputted.

'-I'm just not ready for it yet.' Lily finished, biting her lip and nervously looking up into his eyes. As much as she wanted to rebel against her dad at the moment and just do it, she really couldn't because she simply wasn't at that stage yet.

'Oh.' James said with a deep breath and a nod, 'Ok.'

But Lily still felt the need to explain. The only problem was she couldn't finish any of her reasons. 'Because it's a big deal. I'd be _giving_ myself to you and, until I feel…when we've been together a bit longer perhaps…for me to even consider…I just think that…probably-'

'Lily.' James said with a single laugh, cutting her off and taking her hand understandingly. 'It's ok.' And it was for him. He had waited for her for a long time. He could wait a bit longer. He had no problem with that. He could be careful and considerate. He wasn't sure if he would be able to but, for her, it was no problem. 'Whenever you feel ready.' he went on in reassurance, making sure she knew that it was completely up to her how their relationship progressed in this area, 'I don't want to push you into doing anything you don't feel comfortable doing. So until you decide you want to, we won't. This is your decision.'

Lily smiled at his kindness. Her dad was completely wrong about him. 'My dad told me that sex would be all that was on your mind.'

'Well it is at the minute because that's what we've just been talking about.' James laughed, 'But I don't think about it all the time. That whole 'sex runs through a guy's mind every three seconds' thing is a lie.'

'Really?' Lily asked.

'Yeah.' James said, standing up and holding his hand out to her with a smirk, 'Mostly I think about jelly.'

He pulled her up and they went into the kitchen to find Sirius so that they could all go to the Leaky Cauldron together. They found him searching in one of the bottom cupboards for something to eat. Before they disapparated out Lily looked around the kitchen for Linda whom she assumed was James' mum, not knowing that he had a house elf. She had forgotten Sirius' mention of Jane from earlier in Diagon Alley. She just wondered why she hadn't been introduced to her yet but assumed that it was because she had to keep going back and forth to the hospital. She didn't know that she wouldn't be meeting her at all whilst she was there.

They arrived at the Leaky Cauldron seconds later and found themselves a booth big enough for six so they had room to move around. Lily sat in the middle of Sirius and James. They ordered a round of butterbeers unthinkingly and sat talking and joking. Well James and Lily did. They were unaware that they were sort of leaving Sirius out of their bubble, something he wasn't used to at all and didn't take well. He sat in a strop until Remus arrived. When Remus arrived, Sirius livened up and made a snap suggestion which he thought would be fun to witness. He wasn't wrong. He had fun. He just didn't know who would be witnessing it.

When Remus greeted them all and sat down he ordered a firewhisky. Lily, who had never had firewhisky before, wondered about it so Sirius, in his snap decision, convinced her to have one of her own to try. James tried to warn her against it, warning her of the burning sensation it left in your mouth but Lily, who was still ticked off at her father thought, in childish thoughts, that this would be a good way to act out. He hadn't wanted her to drink alcohol until she was legally allowed in the muggle world at eighteen. However, he had said nothing about the wizarding world so Lily had herself a firewhisky. And another. And another. And another. James wasn't wrong, it had burnt, but after her third one, she couldn't feel it anymore.

The boys watched her drink. James rather worried because he was sure that Lily had never been drunk before and she was steadily pushing herself in that direction. Remus rather impressed and amused because, as he had pointed out in a whisper to James, Lily had been able to drink the firewhisky but Sirius hadn't. Lily didn't notice. She was on her fifth firewhisky now and her inhibitions had been lowered. Sirius was watching her become increasingly drunk feeling nothing but satisfaction for he viewed this as a little bit of payback for taking up so much of his best mate's time. However, his satisfaction turned into aversion as he soon saw that Lily became rather 'touchy feely' when she was drunk.

She kept running her hands over James' shoulders and down his arms which he had coped with at first but then soon became rather annoyed at, shrugging her off and placing her hands by her side like you would do to a misbehaving child. After James had told her off about that, she had resorted to snogging him. James didn't mind that so much and kissed her back the first few time she did it, tasting the alcohol on her lips. But by the fifth or sixth time, whilst Remus and Sirius laughed at his frustration and took the micky out of a drunken Lily, mocking what she did and said, he just sat there. Finally he had to gently prise her away, pushing her back by shoulders. It didn't go down well with Lily.

'Do you not want to kiss me?' she demanded, angry at being rejected.

'Not at this precise moment.' James stated simply and rather harshly, rolling his eyes at Lily's behaviour to Remus who chuckled.

'Fine!' Lily snapped, 'I'll find someone else!' she continued with a slur. Then, before anyone knew what was happening, Lily grabbed the back of Sirius' head and pulled him in for a kiss, snogging him instead. It shocked him but he soon found her rhythm and relaxed into it.

James frowned for a couple of seconds. Then he took a deep breath, sighed, shrugged and took a sip of his butterbeer. (Only Lily and Remus had actually been drinking firewhisky)

Remus raised his eyebrows in astonishment at James' nonchalant behaviour at the scene in front of him. Anybody else would be severely ticked off and furious at their girlfriend and their best friend snogging deeply, tongues in each other's mouths and no sign that they were going to be coming up for air anytime soon. James didn't seem to care though. He just finished drinking his butterbeer calmly and then balanced his empty bottle on top of another one on their table.

'Does that not bother you?' Remus asked him, motioning to Sirius and Lily entwined together.

James looked over to them too before shrugging again. 'Nah.' he said.

'Really?' Remus questioned a little sceptically.

'Yeah.' James replied going into an explanation why. 'Three reasons.' he began, showing the numbers with his fingers, 'One, Sirius knows that if he carries on I'll chop off his arm and beat him to death with it.'

Remus watched Sirius as he opened his eyes and glanced over at James with a scared look. He knew he'd do it. He stopped kissing Lily back so fully but not completely.

'Two.' James went on, showing two digits, 'She's drunk so it really doesn't count. And three,' he continued, showing three digits and a smirk creeping into his face, 'she's just spent the last ten minutes snogging me on and off so, if you think about it, Padfoot's now snogging-'

'Ugh!' Sirius said, pulling away from Lily as quick as possible, drawing himself out of her kiss. He wiped his lips on the sleeve of his jumper hurriedly before quickly gulping down the rest of his butterbeer to wash his mouth out.

James and Remus were laughing.

'Thanks Prongs!' he said with a disgusted look at James who was just grinning in amusement.

They stayed at the Leaky Cauldron for another hour. Five minutes after she had finished snogging Sirius, Lily fell asleep on James' shoulder something which James and Remus mocked Sirius about. They teased him with jibes like 'such a bad snog he puts them to sleep' and 'obviously prefers the taste of James because five minutes later she returned to him'. They took the piss out of Sirius for about twenty minutes before they moved on from that subject, promising to return to it later when Lily was awake so that they could mock her too, and just relaxed and laughed as they usually did. When Lily's head fell off of James' shoulder though, they decided it was time to move their small party back to James'. So James picked Lily up, carrying her securely bridal style as she snuggled herself into his chest, and apparated back to his house, Remus and Sirius followed him moments after.

When back at the Potter mansion, James put Lily to bed in the room next to his, stroking her hair and kissing her lips gently which still tasted like alcohol. She looked so peaceful and beautiful. He felt as if he could just watch her sleep forever but he heard a crash in the kitchen and was reminded that Sirius and Remus were there also. So he blew out the candle next to her bed and crept out of the room to go and discover what the noise was.

It turned out that Remus, who had had a couple of bottles of firewhisky, had had a sudden hankering for an ice-cream even though it was winter and James had none of Florean Fortescue's warming ice-cream, just the normal kind. So Sirius had tried to find him a bowl but when pulling it out, pulled all of the other plates out of the cupboard as well and had sent the crashing to the floor, shattering upon the contact. James shook his head and laughed at the sight, waving his wand to clear it up quickly before tucking it into the back pocket of his jeans. Then he, Sirius and Remus got to work making the ice-cream, putting everything they could possibly find into the bowl. And when they put everything into that bowl, it was literally everything. They put in ice-cream, (obviously), chocolate sauce, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, a pumpkin pasty, some peas, five stale biscuits they found at the back of the cupboard and an overgenerous helping of Cheeri Owls. Then they dared Remus to eat it which he did willingly.

The three boys stayed up together for two more hours laughing and joking. It was three o'clock in the morning before James decided it might be best to go and check on Lily and make sure that she wasn't suffering any other side effects from drinking too much.

'I'm gonna go check on Lily.' he announced to Remus, who was sat on the couch next to him with his watch in his hand, and Sirius, doing a headstand against the wall. Remus was timing how long Sirius could hold the position for.

'She's never been drunk before has she?' Remus asked James with a laugh as he glanced at his watch.

'I highly doubt it.' James chuckled in return. He wasn't even sure if she had even tasted alcohol before. Lily was what people would call a 'good girl' and, just as people would accuse Lily of being attracted to the 'bad boy' image that James had portrayed, he was equally as guilty in being attracted to the 'good girl' image of Lily. The prospect of influencing the other one either way was enticing to both.

He made his way through the darkened and empty mansion, climbing the Parisian Opera inspired staircase with his hands in his pockets up to the room where he had put Lily. He came up to the landing and was about to turn into her room when he noticed the flickering of a light in his own room. He frowned and, resolving to check on Lily after putting out the candle which had apparently been left burning, walked down the hallway and turned into his room. But he got a surprise.

'Lily?' he asked. She was stood at the foot of his bed, absentmindedly playing with the material that draped down one of the posts on his king size four poster bed.

'Hey.' she said to him, something in her eyes which James had never seen before but which instantly drew him into her. He strolled over to her with his hands in his pockets to talk to her instead of staying where he was which he would later wish he had done.

'Hey. What are you-?' he began but was cut off by Lily.

She immediately pressed her lips to his and slipped her tongue into his mouth with no hesitation, pulling him into a kiss and running her hands softly up his chest to his collar and the first button on his shirt. James was distracted by her kiss, a different feel to it than the kisses they usually shared. Instinctively, he took his hands out of his pockets, snaked his arms around her waist and pulled her upwards, closer towards him so that she was on tiptoes and arching her back slightly. Lily started to undo the buttons on James' shirt to reveal his chest, slowly walking them around to the side of his bed. It was then James was alerted to what was running through her mind.

He pulled away from her, taking his arms from where they were wrapped around her waist and moving them up to where her hands were trying to undo his shirt. He tried to stop them but Lily didn't let him.

'My dad can't tell me what to do.' she whispered to him, carrying on undoing his buttons in her still drunken state, James still trying to stop her. But he failed in his attempts to stop her undoing his shirt and it now hung open revealing his bare chest. He tried to subtlety sway her out of her obvious intentions.

'Got to tell you Lils that's not the greatest turn on.' he said with a slightly panicked laugh. But she ran her hands up his toned chest and around his neck standing on tiptoes again to kiss and nip near his ear, trailing kisses down his jawline. He felt powerless against that. '…that is.' he said breathlessly turning his head to kiss her lips ravenously. He brushed her deep red hair brusquely out of her face and held her lips to his, deepening their kiss considerably, indulging himself in her taste a moan emitting from the back of his throat. He was momentarily taken over by his primal instincts but was snapped back into trying to do the right thing again when Lily started to take his shirt down off of his shoulders.

'Lily you don't want to-' he began pulling away from her.

'Yes I do.' Lily replied adamantly, a burning in her eyes as she succeeded in fully taking his shirt off. She kissed him again and he automatically responded, moving his arms to wrap around her and pull her tightly towards him. But James' mind kept dragging him back to reality and he tried once more to stop her.

'Lily.' he began desperately as she started to kiss his jawline again, an action which he hadn't had the power against before, but he continued determined to prevent her from doing this because she had already told him that she wasn't ready. He didn't want things to happen this way.

'This is hard for me to resist.' he went on, his heart pounding and his breathing heavy, 'So can you please st-?' but again he couldn't finish his sentence as Lily had pressed her lips to his once more in a deeply passionate kiss. James' instincts took over again and this time, he couldn't fight them. He pulled her tightly towards him running his hands up her back, under her top, and walked backwards with her, all the while kissing her hungrily before collapsing with her onto his bed. The way she was kissing him back…he couldn't resist.

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**Thanks for reading**

**Galindaba**


	62. Chapter 61

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter Sixty-One!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

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**Chapter Sixty-One**

Lily was woken by a pounding in her head. It was like someone was banging on a drum, the ringing in her ears deafening her. In an attempt to block out the noise she moved her hand to cover her ear but was unsuccessful. The loud beating was still there. She opened her eyes, the light that was filling into the room blinded her so harshly she had to close them and open them again to give her a chance to adjust. When she opened them again and looked around at the room she was in, she had to wonder where she was for a moment. She couldn't remember anything which she thought was a good thing until she looked down and saw an arm which definitely wasn't hers over the top of her waist.. But she knew who's it was.

Like a lead balloon a horrible feeling dropped itself into the pit of her stomach. It was a mix of regret, shame and guilt and something else which she couldn't describe. She didn't know what she'd done but she needed too.

'James?' she whispered, tapping his arm where it was relaxed over her over the top of the covers of the bed, 'James?'

'Yeah?' James replied quietly after a couple of seconds, a break in his voice from the first word of the day.

Lily felt his warm breath tickle the nape of her neck through her hair. She turned over to face him and found that his head was extremely close to hers. His eyes were still closed, his glasses off, his hair a mess as it always was and, Lily couldn't help but notice, his chest was bare as he had no top on. The anvil that had settled itself in her stomach dropped down further.

'What happened?' she asked him nervously, dreading the answer.

'You woke me up.' James smirked, his eyes still closed. He hugged her closer into him using the arm that was relaxed over the dip in her waist.

'No.' Lily said.

'Yes.' James replied. He still had not opened his eyes.

'No.' Lily repeated, shuffling out of his hold and sitting up against the headboard of James' king size four poster bed. She was relieved to see that she still had her own top on even if it was strappy and kind of revealing. It was the top she wore under her jumper to keep warm, sort of like a vest. She had worn in all day yesterday. She wasn't sure if it was a good sign or not that she still had it on. So, with that heavy feeling still in the pit of her stomach she nervously asked, 'I mean…did anything…happen? Between us?'

James sighed. 'How could anything happen with him in the room?' he said, pointing lazily over to the other side of his bedroom as if he didn't care a great deal.

'Wha-?' Lily said, following his arm which was pointing loosely in the general direction of another king size four poster bed a short distance away. She saw a hand shoot up sluggishly up into the air and upon realising what was going on, she quickly pulled the covers of James bed up around her shoulders self-consciously.

'Morning.' she heard Sirius drawl tiredly through a yawn.

'Why is he in your room?' she whispered to James who was reaching over to his bedside table for his glasses.

'Our room.' Sirius corrected her as he sat up in his own bed, rubbing his eyes. He was also shirtless. Lily felt extremely uncomfortable sat in a room, in her boyfriend's bed with a revealing top on and with two topless boys. Safe to say she'd never been in this position before. She was sure she was going red.

'Seriously?' she said to James with raised eyebrows, determined to try and not let her embarrassment show. It wasn't easy. 'A place like this and you share a room?'

'Sirius gets night terrors.' James replied simply, putting his glasses on and also sitting up.

'No I don't!' Sirius replied defensively.

'Then why do I wake up to find you choking on your pillow?' James smirked.

'I thought it was a marshmallow…' Sirius mumbled, picking up said pillow and punching it feebly.

James chuckled but Lily wasn't laughing. She hesitated for a minute before taking a deep breath and looking at James anxiously. She had to know now. She couldn't wait any longer.

'James…' she said quietly for only him to hear.

James looked at her with a slight frown before realising what she must want to talk about. 'Ok.' he said to her before calling across to Sirius, 'Oi! Padfoot! Bugger off!'

'Charming!' Sirius said in a stroppy voice, throwing the pillow he had punched down on the floor, 'You know, I'd have thought you'd treat your best friend a lot better than this! I've stuck by you through thick and thin and-'

'I think Linda's making pancakes for breakfast.' James said in thought.

Sirius didn't need any more convincing than that. 'Awesome!' he said licking his lips hungrily, throwing his covers off of him, and walking out of the room. 'Don't do anything I wouldn't do.' he called back suggestively to James.

'Doesn't leave a lot.' James called after him with a laugh before turning back to Lily and grinning at her. 'Morning.' he said, leaning forwards and kissing her on the cheek.

Lily's stomach swooped. 'So what exactly happened?' she asked James when he withdrew from her, relaxing her hands from where they had been holding the sheets of the bed up to cover herself and her revealing top.

'You tried to take advantage of me.' James joked, trying to ease the tension she had, knowing what she must be thinking and feeling at this precise moment.

'No James I'm being serious.' Lily answered, in no mood to see the funny side of this at the minute. She just needed to know. 'I need to know exactly what happened between us last night. Did we…?

'Ok.' James said with a deep breath, crossing his legs and turning towards her, taking her hands reassuringly with a smile, 'I can promise you that nothing remotely related to actually having sex happened. The most we did was take shirts off…well you took shirts off. Mine than yours.'

Lily looked confusedly down to her own top which was still on her.

'I put it back on you after I cursed you.' James explained with another smile, glancing down at her revealing top and thinking back over what he had seen the previous night. His smile grew slightly.

Lily didn't notice and wasn't thinking about what James must have seen of her last night. Instead, she was focusing on one thing. 'You cursed me?' she asked with raised eyebrows.

'Yeah.' James said with a nonchalant shrug, 'It was the only thing I could think of to do.'

'Well…' she began, her heart pounding. She looked down at her fingers, twiddling her thumbs as her hair fell over her face. She was sure she was going red and, although she was relieved that she and James hadn't actually done anything, she was curious to know; 'Was that because you didn't want to?'

'No.' James said with a single breath and a uneasy laugh as he also looked down at Lily's hands, 'It was because you didn't want to.' he continued. 'Sure you were all fired up for it last night but you were drunk and you'd already told me earlier that day we'd have had to have been together a lot longer than three months for you to even consider sleeping with me.'

'I remember that.' Lily said with a roll of her eyes. She couldn't remember what had happened after Remus had arrived at the Leaky Cauldron but she knew everything that had happened before that. The argument with her dad, waiting for James, going back to James' house and seeing just exactly how much he was privileged with, how rude Sirius was to her for no apparent reason, having 'the talk' with James and finally, going to the Leaky Cauldron. She remembered all that she just couldn't remember what had happened afterwards.

'Wasn't sure if you would.' James laughed, running a hand through his hair, 'You were hammered. You had a lot to drink.'

'That explains the headache.' Lily muttered, rubbing her head where someone was beating some bongo drums loudly inside.

'I was kind of impressed.' James said with a nod of his head. And he was impressed. His girlfriend was able to stand the taste of firewhisky, something which his best friend was unable to do. It was impressive. 'Anyway,' he went on reaching out and taking her one of her hands which she was still twiddling in her hands. He then lifted her head by a forefinger under her chin, forcing her to look into her eyes so that she knew he was serious. 'I didn't want you to look back on our first time as if it was a mistake. When it does happen, I want you to be sure about it. And I'd want you to be sober so you could actually remember it too. But, believe me, you are extremely hard to resist.' he said with the hints of a smile around his mouth. 'Especially once your top was off.' he couldn't help but add, glancing down to her and checking her out, thinking about what he had seen making his heart start to pound.

'Really?' Lily asked, turning slightly pink, still not noticing James' wandering eyes. All she was thinking was that he had said 'when'. 'When it does happen'. He was so sure of himself and that they would get to that stage. Lily wasn't sure how she felt about it. All she knew is that it made her blush.

'Yeah.' James went on with a slight chuckle taking his forefinger away from her chin and tucking the hair that was falling over her face behind her ear. 'If it wasn't for your really bad pick-up lines I don't think I'd have been able to manage. And this morning would be a very different story.'

'Bad pick-up lines?' Lily queried wondering what on earth she had said.

'Yeah. 'I don't have to do what my dad wants' or 'my dad would kill us both' isn't exactly a great turn on.' James replied with a smirk making Lily go even redder.

'No I don't think it would be.' she said before hiding her head in her hands and saying, 'I'm so embarrassed!' her voice muffled through her palms.

'Don't be.' James smiled kindly. When Lily still didn't take her hands down from her face he laughed and said, 'Come here.' pulling her into his lap and hugging her from behind. 'You've got nothing to be embarrassed about.' he went on, kissing her temple before taking her hands down from her face and holding them in his, entwining their fingers together.

'Really?' Lily said, resting her head back on the warm skin of his bare chest and looking down at their hands, moving them together absentmindedly.

'Well…' James began with yet another smirk, 'You did snog Sirius right in front of me so I'd be embarrassed about that if I were you. It's only polite.'

'Oh no.' Lily said, her face dropping as she turned her head slightly to look at James. She stopped tangling their fingers together and let her hands just sit in his.

'Oh yes!' James laughed, his smirk growing.

Lily grimaced. 'I remember that.'

James narrowed his eyes at her disgusted expression. 'What's that face for?' he asked her curiously.

Lily paused and grimaced again. She turned back to look at their hands and sighed before saying, 'Let's just say you're a lot better a kisser than he is.'

James raised his eyebrows and nodded his head. 'Now that's gonna be fun to lord over him.' he grinned.

Lily slapped his hand in mock reprimand and shook her head. Trust James to think about bragging about such a thing before anything else. Never mind the actual fact that she had kissed someone else, his best friend nonetheless, just as long as he was a better snog than him.

Lily relaxed back into James, relieved that they hadn't done anything but loving the feel of him with his arms around her as she sat in his lap. She took a deep breath and felt encircled by the smell of him, the beech wood scent he carried with him. There, in his arms, she felt safe and secure, something she wouldn't have thought possible a couple of years ago. She smiled at the thought of this as she leant her head back onto his shoulder and closed her eyes. Her smile grew slightly as he kissed her cheek and began to gently trail kisses down to her neck to her collarbone as he had done in the kitchen of her own home before her dad had interrupted them. She felt as if she could sit there all day. But she knew she couldn't. She had to go home today and face her parents, her dad especially. She had to get it over and done with. So she sighed and opened her eyes ready to tell James that they should probably get up but she was distracted by something. She frowned.

'I have a question.' she announced to James.

'Sure.' James said between kisses on her neck, not wanting to stop for anything, loving the taste of her, 'Shoot.'

'Why are there six holes in the canopy of your bed?' she asked him.

For this, James stopped. He followed her gaze up to the canopy of his four poster bed where, sure enough, there were six holes. He laughed. 'Funny story…' he said.

* * *

Severus was waiting for a signal. He and some other death eaters including a ferocious werewolf by the name of Fenrir Greyback had successfully attacked a muggle street in Chelsea, London the day before. It had been a massacre. Fenrir Greyback, still in his human state, had brutally mauled six muggles, two of which were children. Severus had felt sick at the sight of their mangled bodies but didn't stop and stare for long as he had gone to torture a small family of muggles in one of the larger houses at the end of the street. There were screams and people crying as no one came to their rescue. Severus was disgusted by what was happening but yet, somehow proud to be a part of it. All of those muggles just reminded him of the dad he had hated and Lily's sister and he just wanted payback. So he did it and after a while, his mind became blind to the wrong he was doing and it seemed right. And now he was waiting for a signal.

The signal was to come in the form of a message. It was a copy of the Daily Prophet he was waiting for. If news of their recent exploits was splashed across the front page, they would know they had gotten through. Severus would know that Voldemort was being taken more seriously than ever before and he would know what the wizarding world was intending to do about it, what they thought they could do about it. Really, the only plausible course of action Severus could see for the wizarding world now was to bow out to Voldemort's power and let him run things the way they should be. But he doubted that would happen straight away. They'd have to work more for that.

He was waiting in the park he and Lily used to visit when they were younger. He never expected to see her there anymore. Besides, the park was very much abandoned now. The swing sets were rusting and the paint on the roundabout was peeling. There was graffiti on the climbing frame and the slide. It looked a mess now, a mess which wasn't helped by the light frost that covered the tips of the grass and the muddy puddles that were dotted about. Nobody came to the park anymore which was what made it the perfect spot for Severus to sit against the bark of a large tree all on his own in his own thoughts. It also made the perfect spot for apparation.

Severus heard the familiar crack of apparation and, immediately through reflex, stood up and took his wand out. He was hidden behind the trunk of the tree he had been leant against and, slowly and cautiously, peered around to see who it was. When he saw who it was, the first thing he wanted to do was send out curses using his wand which he was gripping tightly in his right hand. But he didn't. He just stayed behind that tree and forced himself to watch the exchange in front of him. This wasn't the way he wanted to see Lily Evans in this park again.

'You probably shouldn't come back to the house.' Lily said to James, wrapped in his scarf and his arms, her arms around his neck.

'Probably not.' James laughed, taking one of the hands that was wrapped around Lily's waist to brush some deep red hair out of her face which was being whipped around by the bitter winter wind. 'Your dad would probably kill me.'

'Not kill you.' Lily said innocently, 'Just do some serious damage.'

'Great.' James replied with a sarcastic roll of is eyes.

'You can't tell me you're scared of my dad?' Lily said with a laugh, bringing one of her hands down to bang lightly on his chest in a teasing manner.

'Not scared just…wary.' James answered, taking the hand she had just thumped on his chest in his, his other arm still circled around her waist. 'He's very tall. And he hates me.'

'Yeah he does.' Lily grimaced, 'But I've still got to face him! And it's all your fault!'

'Did I ask you to come and stay at mine or did you beg?' James said in mock thought, a laugh in his voice.

'I didn't beg!' Lily said with a small gasp, hitting him on the chest again only this time with both of their hands.

'You kind of did though.' James laughed before he kissed her.

Severus' skin started to crawl as he watched them in their intimate moment. A scowl appeared on his face as James Potter touched his Lily's face and she rested her hand on his chest. He tightened his grip around his wand, his knuckles going white. He didn't release his hold until Lily stopped kissing James, and that took a good two minutes.

'I'll see you back at school then.' James said against her lips, his forehead resting on hers before adding, 'If you don't write to me begging to stay at mine again.' with a chuckle.

Lily narrowed her eyes at him. She took herself out of his hold. 'I'll leave now then shall I?' she asked, beginning to walk away, only to have James grab her wrist and pull her back for yet another kiss.

Severus sneered, his blood boiling. He was sure that James Potter knew he was here and he was doing this on purpose. Nobody needs to kiss another person that much just to say goodbye. He was doing it to tick Severus off. Or so Severus thought anyway. Really James had no idea he was there. Yet.

'Bye.' Lily said when she finally did pull away from him to leave.

'Bye.' James said, smiling after her, his hands in his pockets his back to Severus. 'Have a good Christmas!' he called after her to which she turned around and smiled at, keeping on walking. She turned a corner and she was gone, but James was still watching where she had disappeared with a sigh. At this point, Severus, his hand still clamped around his wand, came out from behind the tree.

'You don't deserve her.' he snarled at James' back.

James, recognising the venom soaked voice sighed and turned around. 'Thanks.' he said, his hands still in his pockets, 'I'll tell her that.'

'She doesn't really like you.' Severus stated more for himself than James. It was obvious Lily liked him. She was going out with him. But for Severus, saying this made him feel better and he could almost convince himself of the fact.

'Really?' James said in a bored voice, running one of his hands through his hair and messing the back up, 'Because last night would state otherwise.'

'What have you done?' Severus asked, his eyes widening and his stomach dropping at the obvious insinuation James was tossing out to torture his mind. He couldn't believe it. Lily wouldn't do such a thing. She was still innocent. James Potter could not have stolen her innocence. She couldn't have given herself to him. Could she?

'Come on Snivellus.' James smirked, knowing what was running through the slime-balls head and making know attempt to correct it. After all, he was the one who had planted the image there. So instead, he walked forwards and passed him saying, 'I'm not gonna kiss and tell.' enjoying the sick colour of puce that Severus was turning.

Severus walked quickly after James, who had his hands back in his pockets as they so often were, as he turned down a small dark and dank alley which led off of the park. It was shrouded and covered over by over grown trees blocking most of the winter sunlight.

'She hates you.' Severus said quickly.

James carried on walking. 'Stop following me Snivellus.'

'She's always hated you.'

'Stalking's a crime you know.'

'She'll never love you.' Severus spat.

'Well I guess only time will tell.' James sighed, turning around to tell Severus to go away once and for all only he was rudely backed into the wet wall of the alleyway by Severus who held his forearm over his throat and shoulders and pressed his wand into his chin. He had a look of complete loathing on his face as his black greasy curtained hair fell forwards. He was breathing heavily through his hooked nose and sneering into James' face, (who seemed undeterred), and pushed his wand harder into James' chin. He could do it. He knew he could. But something stopped him and he couldn't explain it. All he could see though was Lily's disappointed and hurt face and he knew didn't want to see that in real life.

'Ok this has gone way past your standard stalking now.' James said, his eyes looking down to Severus' wand and trying his hardest not to just reach for his own wand and curse him which he could easily do. But Lily wouldn't want him to. She wouldn't want him to hex Severus Snape but that didn't mean he couldn't torture his mind with the fact that Lily was now his girlfriend, something which he knew Severus despised.

So, with an arrogant smirk James said, 'Sorry to disappoint you Snivellus but I have a girlfriend. And her hair is nowhere near as greasy as yours. In fact, it's grease free. Believe me.' He paused and his smirk grew wider, his cocky ego showing in his hazel eyes as he ended with, 'I think you know her actually?'

Severus roughly pressed his arm into James' throat to push himself away from the boy he despised. His wand was still in his hand but James Potter just seemed amused by this, as if Severus was no threat to him. He hadn't even taken his own wand out to defend himself. Severus raised his arm and swished his wand yelling, '_Sectumsempra_!' out at James the curse shooting forth from the tip of his wand.

James quickly ducked the curse that Severus had sent straight to his face. He stood up and looked around to see the wooden fence where Severus' curse had hit. He turned back to Severus' with raised eyebrows, his hands still in his pockets. 'Now that's just not nice.' he said simply.

Severus tried again and raised his wand, waving it in a large gesture to ensure his curse was powerful. But as soon as he had started to move his arm, James, with his lightning fast reflexes thanks to countless hours of Quidditch, reached into his back pocket and took out his own wand. As Severus began his curse again, '_Sectum_-' James gave a lazy flick of his wrist and sent out a non-verbal hex through his own wand to Severus which took his ankle and flipped him round in the air, cutting him off so that he couldn't complete his spell and dropping him to the pavement with a heavy thud.

Severus stayed down for a couple of seconds before trying to get up but James wouldn't let him. He moved his wand in a swiping action and it took Severus' feet off of the floor and sent him thudding back down to the ground. One more time Severus attempted to stand but one more time James flicked his wrist and Severus fell down, banging his head on the pavement and knocking him out.

James smirked. He had forgotten the feeling kicking Severus Snape's, hell, anyone else's arse in a duel gave him. He threw his wand up, spinning it into the air catching it smoothly, showing off to no one in particular, and put it back into his back pocket before disapparating with an effortless turn. He left Severus Snape lying on the floor out cold.

James had been amused by Severus' wand in his hand ready to attack. He had been amused because, at the end of the day, it was funny to think that Severus believed he could beat him in a duel. He couldn't. He never could.

* * *

Christmas had been and gone. It was January the third and Lily was sat on the last train back to school with Hestia and Alice in their own compartment. They were talking about what they had done over the Christmas holidays. Alice had just had a quiet family Christmas at home but Frank had gone over to hers on Boxing Day. Hestia had gone to Aspen with her parents which Lily was extremely jealous of because she had never been out of the country. She wanted to go to Aspen. They spent an hour talking before the attention was turned to Lily and what she had done over the Christmas break.

'So what'd you do Lily?' Alice asked her.

Lily took a deep breath. 'Well, err, let's see…' she began thinking maybe she'd just tell the facts of her Christmas break. 'I went home when I wasn't supposed to. Crashed my sister's wedding. Introduced James to my parents-'

'As?' Hestia asked immediately.

'He introduced himself as my boyfriend.' Lily said, recalling that the last Hestia would have heard would be that she and James were still refusing to use labels on each other. After the Christmas break she had just had, that seemed a long time ago now.

'So you won.' Hestia stated with a knowing smile.

'It was never about winning Hestia.' Lily said with a shake of her head. Hestia had thought it was all to do with power but it never was. It was just her and James being stubborn.

'But he's your boyfriend now?' Hestia said with bobbing eyebrows.

'Yes.' Lily said with a sigh, a smile and a slight blush, 'James Potter is my boyfriend.' She paused and blinked with a small frown replacing her blush, 'Now there's a sentence I'd never thought I'd say.' she said.

'What else happened in your holidays?' Alice asked, returning them to their conversation.

Lily carried on with the facts. 'Well mum, who loved James invited him to stay but dad, who hated him, didn't. Mum got her way in the end but dad forced him to sleep on the couch even though Petunia's bed was right there.' she said.

'So was yours.' Hestia put in suggestively, not knowing what was coming next in Lily's fact file story.

Lily narrowed her eyes at her but carried on. 'The next day Dad caught James kissing me so James left. Dad and I then had a huge fight because he wanted me to stop seeing James.' she said before reeling of the next few specifics quickly to get them over with. 'I stormed out. Went to stop at James'. We all went out. I got drunk. Snogged Sirius Black. And then I almost slept with James.'

'What?!' Alice and Hestia both squealed loudly at her story leaning forwards in shock.

'You snogged Sirius Black?!' Alice questioned with wide eyes. Lily had one of the most popular boys in school as her boyfriend, not to mention one of the handsomest. But Sirius Black, as handsome as James Potter was, was far hotter. So not only was Lily going out with one of 'the fit ones' she had also snogged a 'fitter one' who was her boyfriend's best friend. This was not the book smart Lily Alice knew and it shocked her.

'Forget that!' Hestia said brushing that part of Lily's story away as if it was nothing, 'You slept with James Potter! As in, you had _sex_ with him?'

'No.' Lily said simply, shaking her head and going redder but knowing that she wanted to talk about this with her friends. Who else could she talk about it to after all? 'I tried but I didn't.' she went on.

'Why?' Hestia asked as if Lily was crazy for not sleeping with James. Then her face dropped. 'Oh Merlin.' she said, 'Did he have lady parts or something?'

'What?' Lily laughed in disbelief at Hestia's crazy suggestion, 'No!'

'Is he gay?' Hestia whispered.

'No!' Lily said.

'Then what happened?' Hestia wondered in confusion.

'If you shut up I'll explain!' Lily said a tad snappily widening her eyes at Hestia who backed off.

So Lily went on to explain everything. She told them, her two best friends in the world, the only two she would trust with this information, about James' first meeting with her father and his instant dislike of him. She then told them about her dad catching her and James in an intimate moment and James being forced to leave because of how awkward things were. Then came the sex talk and the fight she had had with her dad and how she had stormed out to which Hestia gave a small cheer and a 'go Lily' because she always thought it was hilarious when Lily lost her temper. She used to think it was ever so funny when she used to shout at James Potter every day for ticking her off.

Still, Lily went on and told the story of how she stormed out on her father and went to stop at James'. Then she told them how she had spoken to him about not being ready and how kind he had been about it all saying they could wait until she decided it was time. Then she jumped ahead to the next bit she remembered. She informed them how James had filled her in the next morning on how she had gotten drunk and tried to take advantage of him. How he had stopped her by cursing her so that she wouldn't do what she had already told him she didn't want to do just yet and then how embarrassed she had become, especially when he had told her of her drunken kiss with Sirius Black. When she had finished her story, her friends were at a loss with words. Finally, Alice spoke.

'At least he was kind about it.' Alice said with a small half shrug. She wouldn't have thought James Potter, who had wanted Lily for ages, would be able to wait.

'He was very good with me.' Lily said with a remembering smile. She hadn't seen him in just over two weeks so as she thought of him, faint butterflies flew around in her stomach. She moved past it though and turned to her friends to get their opinions. 'I just think to do something like that you should be ready. In love.' she said.

'I agree.' Hestia said thoughtfully, not realising she would have felt that way, especially after the insinuations she had made to Lily earlier and how much of a fool she thought she was for not sleeping with James. Still, she thought Lily was right. It would mean more if you were in love. And Lily obviously wasn't in love with James.

'Me too.' Alice agreed, 'I was.'

'So you and Frank..?' Lily began, not finishing her question as the end was obvious. Not to everyone though.

'Had sex?' Hestia finished bluntly for Lily.

'Hestia!' Lily reprimanded.

'What?' Hestia replied in a high pitched voice before returning to normal volume and saying, It's just a word Lily! Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex!'

At that moment the three girls' eyes were caught by a shadow that suddenly filled their compartment. Simultaneously they turned to the glass sliding door and saw Sean McEvoy, Hestia's boyfriend, hovering deciding whether or not to come in. In the end he walked away, turning a bit red in the face, as was Hestia inside the compartment.

'That'll teach you.' Lily said with a smirk, a habit she had picked up from James.

Hestia stuck her tongue out at her petulantly before turning back to Alice to ask, 'So have you?'

'Yes.' Alice answered.

'What was it like?' Hestia continued.

'It was amazing.' Alice smiled.

'How many times have you done it?' Hestia went on quizzing Alice.

'Hestia!' Lily said after her last question trying to stop her best friend interrogating Alice about this personal matter.

'It's just a question!' Hestia replied with wide eyes, not knowing what she'd done wrong.

Alice saw no shame in answering Hestia's questions and simply said, 'Three.' turning their conversation back to its main subject.

'Only three times?' Hestia queried as if this was the strangest thing she'd heard through her whole life. 'Is he bad at it or something?' she carried on.

'No.' Alice said with a frown before explaining, 'We did it twice at the end of the summer holidays and once over this Christmas when he came round. Never at Hogwarts. There are rules against it.'

'Why not find somewhere in Hogsmeade?' Hestia suggested.

'Because that's tacky Hestia.' Alice sighed.

Lily had been rather silent through Alice and Hestia's conversation about Alice's sex life, (apart from the occasional reprimand to Hestia). She wasn't bothered about how it was, how many times Alice had done it or when. She was only wondering one thing.

'When did you know you were ready?' she asked, wondering if there was a sign or something. Some magical feeling or something written in the stars. It was a very romantic way of looking at things but she had no idea. She simply didn't know what it felt like to be in love and seeing as that was the only way she would consider sleeping with James, she didn't know whether she was ready.

'Just did.' Alice shrugged before saying reassuringly to Lily, 'You'll just know.'

Lily nodded her head slightly. All she could think of was that if she didn't know if she loved James she obviously didn't. She hadn't wanted to sleep with him just yet, but maybe that was a different step all together. She liked him a lot. The way he smelt. His sense of humour. His generosity and kindness. The way he looked. She really did like him but was she in love with him? She didn't think she was. 'Well I'm not ready.' she announced to her friends.

'Not ready for what?' James said hearing her last remark as he opened the compartment door and closed it behind him.

'Hi.' Lily said simply. Butterflies erupted in her stomach at the sight of him. Her palms began to sweat and her heart beat sped up. All of a sudden, her mouth became dry. Her stomach swooped again as he smiled at her.

'Hey.' he said, flopping down next to her and putting his arm around her shoulders. He pulled her in and kissed the top of her head trough her hair.

Lily breathed in that beech wood scent, the best smell in the world to her at that precise moment as she hadn't realised how much she had missed him. It was extremely odd to her. Two or more weeks away from him and her body was reacting like it used to do when she first realised she liked him the previous year. They do say absence makes the heart grow fonder but still, wasn't this just a tad too much? Still, she was certain it wasn't love.

'What are you doing here?' she asked him, loving the feeling of his heavy arm around her, a feeling that she was sure was written across her face as Alice was smiling back at her and Hestia was rolling her eyes.

'Going back to school.' James joked with a smirk down at her.

That smirk. Almost as good as the messy black hair and the hazel eyes, framed by round rimmed glasses. Lily shook herself out of her James filled thoughts and focused on the James in front of her. 'I mean here.' she said, gesturing around the compartment which consisted solely of her, him, Hestia and Alice.

'Ah.' James sighed, resting his head back on the seat in a sign of clear frustration, 'Sirius was pissing me off so I thought I'd come and see you.' he said.

Lily had no idea what Sirius had done to annoy James but she had a feeling that it had something to do with her. Even though she hadn't seen James since he dropped her off in the park a couple of weeks ago, she had written to him and in every letter he sent back there were clear undertones of his annoyance with Sirius. And in every reply, James' irritation with Sirius had always stemmed back to Sirius' bother with Lily. Only Lily had no idea what she'd done to upset him. All she knew was that when she had been at James' over the Christmas break and even before, a few days after Sirius found out about them, he had become rather sullen and rude towards her. She didn't know why.

'How sweet.' Hestia said sarcastically, 'Second choice.'

James looked at her with a smiling frown and a nonchalant shake of his head, brushing her comment aside whilst Lily silently motion to Hestia to shut up for she was sure that she would go onto say something along the lines of 'second choice after she almost gives herself to you.'. She didn't want her to say that. She didn't want James to know that she had discussed their personal business with her friends. He was a very proud, arrogant, ego-centred person along with being rather private when it came to personal matters, only telling the people he trusted the most and sometimes not even then. The only thing he had never been private about was how he felt about Lily. He would tell the world that if he had the chance. But he would never tell them what he did with her.

'What aren't you ready for?' he asked her.

'School.' Lily lied quickly, 'I've not changed into my robes yet.'

'Well we've got ages left yet so I wouldn't worry about it too much.' James answered, believing Lily's lie.

'Yeah.' Lily smiled unsurely. She never liked to lie. She hated being lied to as well.

'I'm hungry.' James declared to the girls before turning to Lily and saying, 'Wanna come and find the trolley with me?'

'Err…' Lily began. It was only finding the trolley. She wouldn't be abandoning her friends too long for James, something she knew Hestia wouldn't like. 'Yeah sure.' she said.

As soon as James got his reply he stood up, took Lily's hand, dragged her up too and led her out of the compartment. Trailing her behind him, his hand still in his and receiving a couple of glances as people remembered the big gossip from before they left, James led Lily down the train. Very suddenly though, he stopped, opened a compartment door and pulled her into it. He closed the door behind him.

'I thought we were going to find the trolley.' Lily stated, standing facing James with her back to the window and the fields they were passing as the Hogwarts Express chugged rhythmically, speeding down the tracks.

'We are. I just wanted to talk to you first.' James said with a lowered voice to make sure no one else could hear him.

To Lily, he looked serious and she couldn't help but think, _see. Private person. _'Ok.' she said warily, 'What about?' suddenly she felt very nervous and the worst thoughts began to occur to her. Thoughts of break ups and other girls and scandals. But what he said was none of the above and if it was, it was more likely the last one.

'Well, I think that, because you know how much this school wants to find some sort of gossip about us, we should just keep what happened at my house between us.' he said, 'I've already told Sirius to shut his mouth about what he knows so hopefully he won't be a problem. I just think it might be for the best you know?'

Lily felt relieved but also a little bit guilty. She had already told her friends. But they wouldn't tell anyone anyway. 'Yeah ok.' she said.

'Cool.' James smiled, taking her hand again and opening the compartment door, 'Let's go find the trolley.'

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Update on 22nd June**

**Galindaba**


	63. Chapter 62

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Here's chapter Sixty-Two**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Sixty-Two**

When it came to the topic of Lily Evans, Severus Snape was completely unmotivated. His plan to break her trust in her friends, to isolate her away from them and force her to see he was her only true friend had failed. Admittedly he had only actually tried to break her trust in the marauders but if he hadn't succeeded in breaking her trust in them, her newest friends and the boys she used to despise, how on earth was he supposed to be able to break her trust in Hestia Jones or Alice Prewett? They had been friends with his Lily for far too long now. Their bond was too strong and, as much as Severus hated it, he had to admit there was nothing he could do there. He could do nothing about any of it anymore. Lily was friends with the marauders, Hestia Jones and Alice Prewett and she was dating James Potter. Severus believed he could do nothing to change that anymore. All he had left now were his Slytherin colleagues.

They weren't his friends. They hadn't even remembered his birthday which had just passed. Severus didn't like any of them. Even sat around with them in the Slytherin common room as he was at the moment, he didn't feel invested in any sort of communication with them. They were talking. He wasn't listening. He hardly ever listened to them but he knew what they'd be talking about and if he tuned into their drone like voices for a moment, he could confirm his suspicions.

'…it's happening for us now!' Bellatrix was saying excitedly, 'We are finally being taken notice of!'

'Took long enough.' Wilkes said in a bored voice.

'What do you mean?' Rabastan Lestrange asked Bellatrix.

It was then that Severus noticed the two new additions to their group. They were two of the three new potential death eaters from the meetings in the Christmas holidays. Obviously they had been charged with taking care of them and steering them the right way. Severus hadn't noticed till now and he didn't particularly care. He didn't like either of them.

The first was Rabastan Lestrange, the boy who had just spoken to Bellatrix. He was sat closer to her and Severus presumed it was because she was matched up with his older brother. As pureblood wizards, they didn't have a lot of choice for spouses and some families preferred to pick partners for their children. Severus was sure Bellatrix wasn't particularly interested in Rodolphus Lestrange, too committed to Voldemort. He was sure that if she could have him instead she would. Not that Severus really cared. She could marry a goblin and he wouldn't give a toss. He didn't like her. She took too much pleasure in it all. Still, it seemed she was looking after Rabastan. Whether she wanted too Severus didn't know, but she was doing it.

The second was Regulus Black. Severus didn't like him either but that was more on principle. He reminded him too much of his older brother Sirius Black. He looked very similar to him with his black hair and grey eyes and haughty good looks. Every time Severus looked at him he wanted to shoot a curse or a hex at him. Just send some sort of painful spell his way and watch him take it. But he had to keep reminding himself that Regulus Black wasn't Sirius Black. Apart from their similarities in looks, there was nothing else remotely comparable about them. And Regulus was going to be a death eater soon. Severus had to respect his dedication to the Dark Lord.

'The Daily Prophet printed news of our attack in Chelsea.' Avery explained to Rabastan.

'And they've not stopped reporting it since.' Mulciber said with an evil grin appearing on his face.

Severus zoned out again. No, the Daily Prophet hadn't stopped printing news about the death eater attack in Chelsea, London since it had happened three weeks ago now. It didn't bother Severus. It meant things were about to change. What did bother him was that Avery, Wilkes, Mulciber and Bellatrix hadn't stopped talking about it for the whole week they had been back at Hogwarts. And now, because Regulus and Rabastan had joined them, they were going through the whole conversation yet again. If Regulus and Rabastan had just read the paper this wouldn't be happening.

Severus had read the paper. He had read it that first day after their attack. And excited as he had been to read it, it wasn't the first thing on his mind. Lily was. He had been waiting for the Daily Prophet and the article that proved that Voldemort was now considered a very serious and real threat to the wizarding world and, before he saw Lily that was all that was on his mind. He couldn't wait to see the Daily Prophet finally admit that the wizarding world was in, what they referred to as 'turmoil'. Then he had heard the familiar cracks of apparation where he was hiding and stumbled upon James Potter dropping Lily off home after she had stayed at his for the night. After that, all thoughts of the Chelsea attacks were put out of his mind.

All he could think of then was Lily. Why had Lily been at James Potter's house? He knew what James had said, what he had smirked about and insinuated but that could have just been to torture him before the arrogant git cursed him and knocked him out. Severus didn't want to believe it. He couldn't believe that Lily would do that. And with James Potter nonetheless. It wasn't possible. It couldn't be possible.

Severus zoned back into the conversation that was happening around him.

'…then we'll finally be able to show them which house is best.' Avery was saying.

'If the Dark Lord has his way, and I sincerely hope he gets it, Slytherin will be the only house at Hogwarts.' Mulciber said.

Severus zoned out again. They were still on the same sort of topic only this time it was centred around what Voldemort would do when he finally came into power. When he finally took over to run things in the wizarding world the way they should be run. They had been talking about this subject endlessly too. It was boring Severus now. All their ideas about what Voldemort would do were stupid to be perfectly frank. Yes he probably could instigate a policy where everyone must prove their heritage. Yes he probably could put in place a system where the muggles began work for them. But under no circumstances could Voldemort gain control of Hogwarts. Severus believed in Voldemort and his cause but he wasn't stupid. Voldemort was still no match for Dumbledore and Dumbledore would never hand over the keys to Hogwarts willingly. He'd have to kill him. And that wasn't ever likely to happen.

Severus agreed with them on some points though. Slytherin should be the only house at Hogwarts. Lily should have been in Slytherin. Severus had wanted her to be but, of course she couldn't be. He had known that really but he had still hoped. She was muggleborn, a mudblood, unworthy of Salazar Slytherin's house of purity. And now that she was with James Potter, she was even less worthy to be in a house of purity. She wasn't pure anymore thanks to him.

Slytherin was a great house in Severus' opinion. People undervalued it and thought that snakes and scroungers and just generally bad people came out of his house but that simply wasn't true. Not always. He didn't think he was a bad person. He was just fighting for what he believed in. How could anyone blame him for that? If people, if Lily looked at things properly, she would see that he was a far better person than James Potter. After all, he didn't strut around the school as a pointless head boy hexing and cursing everyone in sight like James did. And if Severus did curse anyone they probably deserved it. It was all justified. Like when he defended himself against James Potter. It was justified.

Lily thought James Potter had changed but she was wrong. Proof and point was when he had seen them in the park and what had happened after Lily left. James Potter had returned to his usual arrogant self and had cursed Severus, knocking him out cold. He had provoked Severus into shooting the first curse but, in the end, Severus knew that James Potter would curse him anyway. He had been cursing him since first year. The only time he hadn't cursed him was throughout sixth year. Severus knew why. It was to prove to Lily he had changed, to manipulate her thought of him so that she would become his friend, fall for him and go out with him. If only Severus could prove to Lily that that had all been an act. He could prise her away from James Potter if she knew he had returned to his old ways.

A brainwave overtook Severus. James Potter was back to his old ways. He had cursed him once, who was to say he wouldn't do it again. If James Potter cursed him and Lily saw then she would finally realise that James Potter was a good-for-nothing bully and she would believe Severus when he told her that he hadn't changed. Severus' only problem would be getting Lily to witness it. He could get James Potter to curse him, no problem. He would be more than happy to comply in that area, Severus was sure. But he sincerely doubted that he would hex Severus in front of Lily If he did that, his act would be ruined. So really, the only way Severus could prove to Lily that James Potter was still a bully, would be if he used a curse on him that had lasting effects. Visible effects. Like a stinging jinx or something. But that might not happen straight away. Severus would have to be patient. And for this, patience was a price he was willing to pay.

* * *

'He lives!' Remus said.

'He breathes!' Peter said.

'Yippee.' Sirius muttered.

James walked into the kitchens through the portrait of the bowl of fruit which served as the entrance. His grin from when Remus and Peter had greeted him was quickly replaced with a frown from Sirius' comment. With his hands in his pockets, he walked over to his friends who were sat on one of the long tables which ran the length of the kitchen being served and assortment of food by the Hogwarts house elves. He stopped and sat down next to Sirius. 'What's up with you?' he asked him.

'Nothing.' Sirius mumbled, rolling his eyes and looking away from James.

James raised a single eyebrow. 'Obviously.' he said sarcastically but left it there. The whole group had enough sense to leave it there. They didn't know what was wrong with Sirius but if he wouldn't tell James what was bothering him then they knew he wouldn't tell anyone. It wasn't worth pursuing the topic.

Remus changed the subject. 'Where's Evans?' he said, taking another bowl of jelly off of one of the house elves and sliding it across the table to James who caught it effortlessly, 'Thought you'd be with her.'

'Jones dragged her away.' James sighed miserably as if he would much rather be with his girlfriend than sitting around in the kitchens pigging out on jelly with his friends. In all honesty, he probably would be. 'Says I've been hogging her and she wants a girly night.' he went on, taking one of the spoons from the middle of the table and shoving it into his jelly.

Remus chuckled at James' sigh. Peter was expressionless. Sirius wasn't. He rolled his eyes at the conversation being once again turned to Lily Evans. He had had to cope with it steadily becoming all about her since he found out about them before and during the Christmas break. He had tried to be supportive, knowing how much James liked Lily, even going so far as trying to convince her to give James a chance when he didn't know that they were together, but it wasn't easy when he felt as if he was always being passed over for her. Sirius didn't like to be passed over for anyone, especially the girl who had turned his best friend down so many times in the past. But that didn't seem to matter to James now.

'What does that mean?' Remus asked James with a slight frown.

'No idea.' James shrugged, wobbling his jelly on his spoon, 'Only clue I got was Lily said her nails were fine.'

Remus tipped his head onto the side and continued through with his frown. 'Nails?' he queried.

'No idea.' James replied, shoving his spoonful of jelly into his mouth. He had no idea what Lily's nails had to with Hestia Jones wanting a girly night. He had no idea what a girly night consisted of. How was it different from any other night? He'd have to ask Lily about it later.

'How's things going with you two then?' Peter asked James meekly, trying to be a part of the conversation. For once, he believed he had found the right subject to run with.

'Well actually-' James began with a smirk.

'Did you read the Daily Prophet today?' Sirius cut him off with a serious face. He didn't want to talk about Lily Evans again. He had had enough of James talking about her. He wanted a different conversation and didn't particularly care what subject he changed it too. This was the first thing that popped into his head.

James frowned at Sirius' interruption. 'No.' he said before adding curiously, 'Why? Did you?'

Sirius paused and looked at James for a moment before nodding his head slightly and saying, 'Yeah.'

'I didn't know you could read.' James smirked, taking another mouthful of his strawberry jelly, snickering slightly at his own jibe.

'Me either.' Peter said, jumping on the band wagon having feeling a bit deflated at his choice of conversation being passed over and cut off buy Sirius.

'It's a miracle!' Remus joined in, throwing his spoon in his bowl having finished his own helping of jelly. Immediately, his bowl was swept away by one of the Hogwarts house elves only to be replaced by a huge plate of chocolate éclairs, something which all four boys greatly appreciated.

'Bless Merlin he'll be able to take his N.E.W.T's.' James said, reaching forwards and taking an éclair. He ripped it up, the cream inside, spurting out from inside, and dropped it into his jelly before mixing them together.

'Ahh N.E.W.T's.' Remus exhaled, taking one of the éclairs but eating it normally unlike James. 'The bane of my existence!' he continued.

It was true. They had been back at Hogwarts from their Christmas break for just over a week and the professors had been piling on the homework and the study work and the quick-paced lessons. They had been revising every topic they had ever learnt. Remus had never been so exhausted from studying before. Plus he had just had the full moon so he was even more tired thanks to that. It was why he had agreed to come down to the kitchens with Sirius in the first place. He needed a break from it all but it seemed that even in the sacred space of the kitchens, N.E.W.T's invaded them.

'I know.' James said, filling the inside of one of the bits of éclair that he had torn up, where the cream used to be, with jelly using his spoon as a tool, 'All Lily seems to do is study for them.'

Sirius rolled his eyes. They were back on the subject of Lily Evans _again_. Yippee.

'And what do you do?' Remus asked James with raised eyebrows.

James stopped filling his éclair with jelly and looked up at Remus with a serious face. 'I study too.' he said.

'Really?' Remus asked sceptically.

'No.' James conceded, continuing to fill up his creamless éclair, 'I watch her study and I doodle. But she _thinks_ I study and it impresses her so-'

'Dude you got her already!' Remus laughed, watching James put down his spoon and take a huge bite of jelly filled éclair, 'You don't need to keep trying to impress-'

'They're asking for the Ministers resignation.' Sirius interrupted Remus, just as he had interrupted James only moment before. Only Sirius wasn't interrupting Remus to carry on with the line of conversation which their group just couldn't seem to escape from. Sirius interrupted to change the topic to one which didn't make him want to throw his bowl against the wall or use a silencing charm on James. He moved back onto the conversation he had tried to start earlier.

'What?' Remus asked with a frown, wondering what was behind Sirius' sudden seriousness, no pun intended.

'In the Daily Prophet.' Sirius stated, cream from his chocolate éclair sticking to the corners of his lips.

'Wait.' James said, holding up a hand, a completely shocked look on his face, 'You actually read the Daily Prophet?'

'Yeah.' Sirius said, using the sleeve of his robes to wipe the cream away from his mouth, 'I already said I did.'

'I thought you were joking.' James chuckled, finding the funny side as he so often did. Sirius didn't.

'Why would that be a joke?' he replied, not his usual self who would laugh at something James found funny because they invariably shared the same sense of humour. Not this time though.

James' chuckle died out slowly and a little awkwardly. 'You. Reading.' he shrugged, 'It was funny.'

Sirius turned away from James and talked to Remus instead, something which confused James no end. After all, it was usually him and Sirius who ran the conversation, being the ring leaders, or him and Remus, making fun of Sirius. He had never been the third person, (Peter didn't really count). It really confused him. He couldn't figure out what was wrong with Sirius. Usually he'd tell him. Wouldn't he?

'It's cause of the attack in Chelsea.' Sirius said to Remus who was looking at him with a frown, puzzled at his blatant ignorance of James. 'They say the Ministers been covering things up.' Sirius continued, for once in his life actually invested in a conversation of substance to the real world instead of topics based on food or hexing the Slytherins or the next prank they could pull. All three of his friends stepped around this warily, wondering what it was all about. They didn't stop to think that it could be because Sirius was just fed up about James going on about Lily.

'Well that's obvious.' Remus said, glancing briefly at James who was still looking confused at Sirius turning away from him. He shrugged at Remus who returned his baffled look.

Sirius continued on with his subject, disregarding his friends' stunned silence. 'They want his resignation. They want Dumbledore.' he said matter of factly.

'That'll never happen.' Remus went on, proceeding with Sirius in his conversation out of mere curiosity, 'Dumbledore doesn't want to be Minister.'

'Well unless they want another attack like Chelsea they need to get someone in like him.' Sirius said, taking a huge mouthful of éclair. He had polished of three already. This would be his fourth and he still had another one in his hand. He was like a machine when it came to éclairs.

'Mum said that attack was awful.' James inputted, not liking Sirius blanking him out.

'So did mine.' Peter put in. He was talking for the same reason as James was only James would never know it. Peter always entered like that because he had never been one of the leaders like James had.

'Really Pete?' Remus asked Peter in an attempt to include him into the conversation. He noticed that they left him out sometimes and always tried to rectify it. But Peter always made it hard because he would say something and just leave it.

'Wouldn't let me out of the house.' Peter squeaked, leaving it there as Remus knew he would.

'That's tough.' Remus continued, trying his hardest to keep Peter involved and going along a line of conversation which he had started. 'My dad wanted me _out_ of the house.'

'Why?' Sirius asked, food spraying out of his mouth and landing a short distance in front of him on the table.

'Felt safer when I wasn't there.' Remus explained with a grimace. He hated the reason his father didn't want him near him, especially as it was originally his fault. If he hadn't tried to get one over on a werewolf Remus wouldn't have the life he had now. He wouldn't be forced to go under a painful transformation every month, a transformation which caused his dad to swap between feeling guilty all the time or feeling unsafe and anxious. 'All to do with Greyback.' Remus continued, spitting the name out with disgust to which his friends gave sympathetic faces for. They all knew the story. 'Thinks he's gonna come and get him and can sense where he is cause of me and…it's all very weird.' he finished with a sigh.

'Sorry mate.' James said, handing him an éclair as if that would make him feel better.

Remus gave a single laugh and took the éclair off of James. 'He's already talking about me moving out after Hogwarts.' he said, picking the chocolate off of the top of the cream dessert and eating it first.

'You should come live with us.' James said offhandedly.

It was then Sirius, who had been sat moodily and plainly serious in a retaliation to James' choice of conversation, returned to himself and became very enthusiastic. 'Yeah!' he practically yelled, banging his fist down on the table causing Peter to jump and a couple of close house elves. He was spraying food out of his mouth as he continued excitably. 'We'll party it up true marauder style! Just us three!'

Peter deflated. He wasn't part of the three. The marauders were built around a four but he wasn't part of the three.

'Won't just be us three.' James corrected Sirius with a laugh, glad his friend was back. He had no idea what his mood was about but it had concerned him. He had acted like that during the Christmas holidays but that was because he was writing to Lily every few hours. He wasn't writing to her now so he assumed it couldn't be that. Whatever it was, it had seemed to have disappeared. Or so he thought.

'Why?' Sirius muttered under his breath, unimpressed, 'Evans gonna be there too?' he continued to murmur bitterly.

'No.' James said, now extremely confused by Sirius' mood swings. He was acting like Remus during the full moon when the tiniest little thing would set him off. Only he wasn't a werewolf. He had no excuse for his behaviour. Still, James trod lightly, just as he did with Remus all those times. 'My mum will be there too.' he carried on gently, 'Remember? The lady with the pie.'

That returned Sirius to normal. 'Ohh pie.' he said dreamily, looking around at the house elves who sprang into action fetching Sirius a pie. They brought it to him quickly and Sirius dug in immediately.

James shook his head bewilderedly at Sirius behaviour and just continued with his conversation. 'How bout it then Moony?' James asked Remus, 'Gonna come live with us?'

'Possibly.' Remus said with a shrug.

None of them noticed Peter's saddened expression at being left out of this. He'd have willingly gone to live with James and Sirius in the Potter mansion but, he was never asked. He wouldn't be asked. He would be forced to live with his mother. Great.

* * *

Lily Evans, Hestia Jones and Alice Prewett sat on Hestia's bed in their dormitory in Gryffindor tower. Alice was laying over the foot of the bed with her hands in the air, allowing her nails to air dry having just had them painted a ferocious pink by Hestia. Her head was hanging limply off of one side of the bed, her legs the other. Lily was sat crossed legged in the middle of the bed, one elbow resting on her knee in boredom, her head in her hand as she allowed the other hand to be subjected to an attack of nail polish by Hestia. She was sat at the head of the bed, also crossed legged and concentrating hard on painting Lily's nails in a vivid electric blue.

Hestia liked to paint Lily's nails when she let her. They grew better than her own; straight up instead of flowering out to the side. The nail polish she was applying was going on smoothly, unlike Alice's. Alice bit her nails but Hestia had still insisted on painting them. It was harder and the nail varnish went a bit gloopy due to the small surface she had been given to work with but she had done it anyway. Still, she was glad when it was time to switch to Lily. It also meant she could discuss her birthday.

'…and I've found this place to do your cake in Hogsmeade because, although the house elves always do a good job, I just think that as it's your last birthday at Hogwarts we should have something really special.' Hestia went on.

She had been talking about her preparations for Lily's birthday party for a good fifteen minutes now, describing to her about the decorations she had found or bought or even made and telling her all about the food she intended to serve along with the assortment of drinks.

Lily wasn't particularly fussed. She didn't really want a big party like Hestia was planning. If she was honest, this year she just wanted to go out for a meal with Hestia, Alice, James and the marauders. It would mean more to her. It would be her first birthday with a boyfriend and she'd much rather spend it in an intimate situation rather than a lavish party where she would be forced to talk to people she never usually spoke to. But Hestia had already gone through so much trouble so she was just letting her get on with it.

She didn't know why Hestia was bothering really. After all, she knew Lily didn't really like parties. Every time she had thrown one Lily couldn't wait for it to be over. Every time there was another party, usually a marauder party, Lily only went because she and Hestia had a deal that she would stay for a couple of hours, be polite and make the rounds before legging it out of there so she could go do something else like read a book. They had made that deal so that Lily wouldn't seem unsociable and a spoil-sport. She wasn't really she just didn't see the point in parties. She preferred to go out for meals with her friends or just hang out with them in the common room. But when it came to Lily's birthday, Hestia always seemed to forget that her best friend was and anti-party person. When it came to Lily's birthday, all of Hestia's knowledge of Lily's stance and take on parties went out the window. Instead, she seemed to confuse her with someone who wanted a big birthday celebration. Lily would correct her but, as said before, Hestia had already gone through so much trouble. Lily would just have to grit her teeth and get through it.

Hestia's parties were always a dignified affair anyway. Finger sandwiches, savoury snacks, pumpkin pasties, sausage rolls, biscuits, trifles, fruit and an assortment of drinks. Tasteful decorations strategically placed around the common room which was always the venue and a very nice cake with the amount of candles that corresponded to Lily's age that year. Everyone would be invited so as not to leave anyone out. Lily hated leaving people out too but when it came to the guest list of a party, she did wonder why certain people had to be there. For instance, from second year upwards when Hestia had started to throw her these little shindigs, Hestia had always insisted on inviting the marauders who, at the time, Lily detested. Now, obviously, she wanted them there but there were others who she still would prefer not to show up such as some girls in her year who were rather two faced and mean. They had actually liked her in the past but, now she was going out with James Potter, they had changed their opinion of her drastically. They hadn't changed their opinion on James though. The consensus was that he was still hot and free to date even though he had a girlfriend. The same thing applied for Sirius but the difference was, he was _actually _free to date. Anyway, she wished they wouldn't be at her party but, as Hestia was throwing it, she knew they would be.

If the marauders were throwing her a party and she had asked for them not to be there, she was sure they would have made it happen. Well, James would. Sirius would want them there so he could flirt with them. Still, Lily couldn't help but wonder if her birthday would have been better planned by James than Hestia. She wouldn't tell Hestia this though as she would just be offended. She knew what she'd say. How can your boyfriend of only four months plan you a better birthday party than me, you're best friend of more than four years? Lily wouldn't have been able to answer the question, especially as she knew James' style of party already. He and the marauders were notorious for their parties which consisted of no decorations, any venue they could find whether it be the common room, the Quidditch pitch or, on a couple of occasions, a random abandoned hallway and only jelly and butterbeer as sustenance. Who was to say that he would listen to her ideas for her birthday any more than Hestia would?

Well, Lily was stuck. She wouldn't get to do what she wanted for her own birthday. It was inevitable. Her party wouldn't even be suited for her. If she was going to have a big party she'd at least expect the theme to be something to do with her, something personal and meaningful. But no. Hestia had settled on the theme; tea party. She had planned an old fashioned tea party with scones and tea and finger sandwiches and bunting. The whole shebang. Lily found the idea rather dull and boring if she was honest but she didn't tell Hestia that. Instead she listened to her go on and put in the occasional 'yes' or 'sounds good' even though she was thinking anything but.

'…and that shop in Hogsmeade, Madam Puddifoot's is going to lend us the tea cups and tea pots.' Hestia said, moving on from one finger to another, adding a second coat to Lily's nails. 'Oh, and the cake stands.' Hestia carried on. 'Doesn't that sound nice?'

'Mmhmm.' Lily answered, not really paying attention but rather looking at Alice lying over the end of the bed. She had been laid like that for more than ten minutes. Surely it would be hurting her back by now.

'What do you think Alice?' Hestia asked Alice who sat up straight away.

Lily watched her sit up and couldn't help but think she must have stomach muscles of steel. She hadn't used her hands to help her up at all. She had just sat up as if she was doing a painless sit up. Lily knew she couldn't have managed it. She had lousy stomach muscles. If she laughed too hard they hurt. If James even stared at her too deeply, her stomach folded, let alone when he kissed her too passionately. She wondered how Alice had come to have such strong stomach muscles. She didn't play Quidditch and, as far as she knew, there were no other wizarding sports. If there were she was sure James would have tried to bore her with them by now. So how Alice had gotten such a strong stomach she had no idea.

'Lily?' Alice said, waving her hand in front of Lily's vacant expression.

'Yeah?' Lily replied, snapping out of her thoughts and realising she had been staring at Alice's stomach, something which must have seemed odd to both her and Hestia.

'I said how does your party sound to you?' Alice went on.

'What do you mean?' Lily questioned with a confused frown. She had completely missed what Alice and Hestia had just been saying. Alice filled her in.

'Hestia asked me what I thought of her ideas for your birthday party and I said that what I think doesn't matter, it's whether you like it.' Alice said, 'Then she said you loved the idea and I asked you if that was true.'

Lily hesitated and bit her lip. 'Well…' she started.

'Lily!' Hestia exclaimed in shock.

'I'm sorry Hestia!' Lily apologised truthfully. She wished Alice hadn't asked her. She wished she had just let her get on with planning a party and allowed he to just get through it. Now she had cast doubt over it all.

'You said you loved the idea!' Hestia continued, her voice rising a little in pitch.

'Well technically, you asked me if I liked the idea and I just didn't say no.' Lily said quietly, biting her lip again.

'That still leads me to believe you like the idea!' Hestia said, 'Come on! It's an old fashioned tea! It's adorable.'

'Yeah but…' Lily began unsurely, 'It's not really me though is it?'

'Well what would you prefer?' Hestia asked a bit snappily, 'Bearing in mind I've already arranged it all and asked to borrow things.'

Lily sighed and looked away but Hestia didn't seem to want to give up.

'Well?' she said with raised eyebrows.

'Hestia, maybe we should do what Lily wants.' Alice put in, blowing on her nails to continue to dry them. Her gloopy nail polish was taking a lot longer to dry that Lily's smooth varnish. 'It is her birthday after all.'

'No!' Hestia whined, 'I always plan Lily's birthday parties! Even in the earlier years when we weren't that close.'

'That is true.' Lily put in, hating being in the middle of this, literally. She was sat in the middle of Hestia and Alice who seemed to be at the start of an argument.

'Has she once asked you what _you _wanted though?' Alice asked Lily calmly. She had never been involved in planning Lily's birthday before so didn't know what went into it. She had been to her past birthday parties though and they just never seemed to fit her. They had always been great parties though, Hestia had a knack for it, that she couldn't deny, but she couldn't help but get the feeling that Lily hadn't particularly wanted to be there. And now, as she considered Lily to be the closest thing she had to a best friend since she and Emmeline had fallen out, she was determined to find out what she would want for her birthday. Only Hestia, as Lily's stated best friend, wasn't making it easy.

'I always ask her what she wants!' Hestia said in outrage that Alice had even made such a suggestion.

'Do you ask her or just run what you're going to do past her?' Alice asked with raised eyebrows.

'I…I…well we always…its…' Hestia spluttered, realising that Alice was actually right.

Whilst Hestia stuttered, Alice turned to Lily and asked her, 'What would you prefer to do for your birthday? If you could do anything in the world?'

Lily looked down at the bed sheet she was sat on and started to draw circles on it, her nervous habit. 'Well,' she swallowed, 'probably just…go out to the Three Broomsticks or whatever with you two and James and…the marauders. And Frank and Sean if you'd want to bring them.' she added as an afterthought. After all, if she said Hestia could bring her boyfriend along, maybe she'd be more receptive to the idea. She was wrong.

'Then that's what we'll-'

'No!' Hestia whined loudly, 'I've already planned this party! Everyone knows about it! You can't just swoop in and change my plans Alice!' she continued madly. 'Lily is having an eighteenth birthday party. A tea party. In the common room. On her birthday and that's final!'

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	64. Chapter 63

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Welcome Chapter Sixty-Three**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Sixty-Three**

Transfiguration at an N.E.W.T level standard was brutal. Professor McGonagall made no attempt to veil the fact. She had told this them several times already as she revised topics that they had covered years ago telling them that, not only must you learn a completely new set of Transfiguration skills, you must also remember all those you have learnt in the past. N.E.W.T's weren't just testing the knowledge you had learnt in your sixth and seventh year, they were testing the knowledge you had learnt throughout your whole Hogwarts life. She told them, with no polite cover up, if you couldn't remember the first lesson you ever had with her, turning a matchstick into a pin, then you would fail. Full stop. No question. She had lectured them for fifteen minutes on the importance on paying attention now and focusing solely on studying for the upcoming exams, but still, some people weren't that fussed. Some people had other things on their minds and, surprisingly, some people included Lily Evans.

She was sat back in her chair staring straight ahead at nothing in particular. She wasn't paying attention to Professor McGonagall as she explained the intricate details of turning an animal into a water goblet, a skill they should have mastered in their second year. She wasn't even making notes which she would usually be doing. Detailed notes too which would have recorded the lesson perfectly. Everyone else in the class was. _Everyone_. Even those who didn't usually make notes. They all knew the importance of their N.E.W.T's exams. Lily knew this too but still, she didn't pick up her quill. She just sat there. Her eyes were vacant and her head was tipped slightly to the side. She would have stayed like that all lesson if a small sigh hadn't escaped her lips and caught the attention of James who was sat next to her.

James was actually making notes. Well, notes and doodles but mainly notes. He liked transfiguration. He wanted a good grade in it so that he could become an auror, ergo the note taking. But all that went out of the window when he heard Lily sigh. He turned his head to look at her, expecting to see her writing furiously fast in too neat handwriting, her tongue sticking out of her mouth slightly with concentration, but he didn't. He saw her sat back in her chair, staring ahead with no expression. He instantly became worried. It was a very un-Lily thing to do; not pay attention. He had to wonder why she was doing it.

'Lils?' he whispered quietly, glancing at Professor McGonagall briefly to make sure she hadn't heard him. She hadn't. Neither had Lily.

'Lils?' he repeated, his glance still darting back and forth between Lily and McGonagall, hoping one would hear and not the other. Still, neither heard anything.

James put down his quill and turned slightly to face Lily, determined to find out what was wrong with her and why she wasn't making notes on what McGonagall was talking about. 'Lily?' he tried again, this time placing is hand just above her knee under the table and shaking it gently. This caught her attention and she jumped slightly at the attention.

'You're not making notes.' James stated in a soft whisper, looking into her eyes which, although still slightly vacant, had seemed to settle on him, 'What's wrong?' he asked her.

Lily shook her head and sat forwards at the table, realising she must had been worrying him and picked up her quill to start making her own notes. She quickly peeked at his notes to see that he had actually made some along with some rather inartistic drawings; a snitch, a deer and what looked like her initials encased in a small heart. She smiled slightly at that, her heart beating a bit faster, before James' hand covered it up, whether intentionally or not she didn't know, still, she started to pay attention to what Professor McGonagall was lecturing them about.

'…you must have a swift wrist action after the three taps. Lazy wrist flicks will likely result in your water goblet retaining animalistic like features…'

Lily zoned out again, her quill hovering over her parchment, poised to write, but she was snapped out of it again by James who didn't seem to want to give up until he found out what her problem was. It was sweet but Lily kind of wished he'd let her get on with her daydreams.

James squeezed her knee and once again whispered, 'Lils? What's wrong?' his warm hazel eyes searching her face for some sort of clue. 'Come on. Tell me.' he said.

Lily sighed again and tucked her hair behind her ears before telling him, 'It's almost my birthday.'

'I know.' James nodded, talking back to her softly so that only she would hear, 'Five days.'

Lily gave a small smile and a half laugh that he knew that but went on. 'Hestia's throwing me a party.' she said with a small grimace.

'Yeah?' James replied, unable to see her problem or why it would cause her to zone out in Transfiguration. Hestia threw her a party every year. It was nothing new.

'I don't want a party.' Lily explained.

That was new. 'Oh.' James said with a slight turn of his head in confusion. There was an easy way to rectify this. 'Have you told her that?' he questioned quietly.

'I've tried but…she's worked so hard on it.' Lily started, leaning into James instinctively so that their conversation would be kept between them, 'I've tried to tell her but she doesn't listen and what she's planned just so isn't me. I don't want a party, especially not a tea party but I don't want her to be upset either.'

James looked into her eyes. He saw that she really didn't want a party. He didn't understand why as she always had a party. He had loved that she had always had a party because he had always been invited, even when she didn't want him there. But now it was different. He didn't know why she didn't want a party but she didn't. And if she felt that way then he would do what he could to make sure that she didn't have to have a party she didn't want.

'I can talk to her if you'd like.' he murmured to her, glancing back to the front of the classroom to ensure McGonagall hadn't spotted them, their heads close together and his hand still on her knee, visible under their table. They looked as if they were conspiring against her or something. But he was just trying to help his girlfriend.

'You would do that?' Lily asked with a slight smile.

'Course I would.' James said as if there was no question about it, 'I'll talk to her. I'll try and get her to stop with this party if that's what you want.'

'Thank you.' Lily said to him, placing her own hand over the top of his on her knee.

'And if I can't convince her to drop the party idea then I'm sure I can find a way to make it more interesting.' he went on, a smirk now forming on his lips, 'I'm sure spiking the pumpkin juice with firewhisky and watching you snog everyone in sight would be very entertaining.'

Lily narrowed her eyes at him but her cheeks began to powder slightly with a faint blush, her stomach swooping as he looked into her eyes with a mischievous smile. She shook her head at him. 'You dare-'

'Mr Potter!' McGonagall said strictly, finally noticing the pair talking in her lesson, 'Will you kindly remove your hand from Miss Evans' knee, you are causing her to blush.' she continued, earning a wolf whistle, from who James could only assume was either Sirius or Remus, and Lily to turn redder thanks to McGonagall pointing it out to the whole of the class. Still, James didn't remove his hand.

'Really Mr Potter.' she continued sternly, placing her hands on her hips and looking at him disappointedly, 'You are here to learn.'

James frowned thoughtfully for a second before saying, 'Nah I'm pretty sure that's not it.'

Lily hung her head and closed her eyes, her blush starting to regulate itself. James had to have a comeback.

'Your N.E.W.T's are only a few months away Mr Potter.' McGonagall carried on firmly, 'As Head Boy I expect you to set an example and pay attention in my class.'

'You know,' James replied, shaking his finger contemplatively, 'I do remember you saying something about that…'

'Detention Mr Potter.' McGonagall announced reaching the end of her tether, 'Friday. Eight o'clock. My office.'

'Can I bring a date?' James asked, flashing a grin to Lily and causing her to blush again. She leant forwards and rested her head on the desk, an action which caused the whole class to laugh.

McGonagall took a deep sigh and looked between the two head students who were sat together through her own course of action. She had separated James Potter and Sirius Black in an attempt to get them to stop messing around and pay attention to the N.E.W.T's. It seemed to have worked for Sirius who had been sat at the back of the class with Hestia Jones actually writing things down and she had believed it had worked for James to who she had seen making notes earlier that lesson but obviously she was wrong. Obviously, sitting him next to Lily Evans had been a mistake.

'I'm not sure if I preferred it when you two were always fighting or like this.' she stated with a shake of her head.

'I prefer it like this.' James said immediately, 'What bout you Lils?'

'God I miss the fighting.' she said into the table, wishing she could just hex James right there and then to get him to shut up. He didn't know when to stop half the time.

'I'm sure we could arrange something…' James smirked, earning another wolf whistle from Sirius or Remus, he wasn't sure which.

'Not right now.' McGonagall interjected, 'Pay attention to my lesson please Mr Potter. This subject will be on your final exam.' And with that she turned away from James and continued with the lesson she was teaching.

Lily picked her head up off of her desk and shook it at James with narrowed eyes. 'Why?' she whispered.

James rubbed her knee and grazed his hand slowly up her thigh under her robes to the hem of her skirt, looking into her eyes and seeing the flush of pink that started to refill her cheeks at his actions. 'Because,' he whispered back with a mischievous glint in his eyes again, 'I like to see you squirm.'

* * *

After Transfiguration, James Potter went to talk to Hestia Jones about Lily's birthday. He had left Lily with a kiss on the forehead and a promise to try and sort everything out before chasing after Hestia who was on her way to Divination with Alice. He tried to follow her up the staircase but there was a mass of first years coming down it the opposite direction all chattering away excitedly after a Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson with Professor Linkedin. James caught snippets of what they were saying and, from what he heard, it seemed that Peeves had interrupted their lesson by tipping a pint of milk over the Hogwarts Professors head. After chuckling at what he was sure would have been a funny sight, he gave up trying to force his way through the crowd of students flowing in the opposite direction and decided to take a less direct but quicker route through a door pretending to be a wall.

He slipped through the door forwards slash wall and climbed up the twisting staircase that was hidden behind it. He squeezed down a narrow corridor, ducking his head as the passage was quite small, vaguely reminding his of the whomping willow tunnel before coming out onto one of the moving staircases that Hogwarts was famous for and which he knew Lily hated. He was glad she wasn't with him. It would slow the journey up. Plus he was sure she would be uncomfortable whilst he was trying to convince her best friend to drop the idea for a huge birthday party.

When the staircase stopped, James jogged off of it and turned down around three corners before finding himself in front of Hestia and Alice which shocked them.

'Potter!' Hestia gasped, placing her hand over her heart at being shocked by his sudden appearance, 'Where did you come from?'

'That's a completely different conversation all together.' James smirked, 'You see, when a mummy and daddy love each other very much-'

'Eww! Potter!' Hestia cut him off, 'Talk about that stuff with your girlfriend, not me. I meant where did you come from just now?'

'Transfiguration.' James said simply, running a hand through his hair before shoving both hands in his pockets as he usually did, 'Same as you.'

'Great.' Hestia rolled her eyes, knowing she wasn't going to get anywhere with the pedantic head boy.

'What are you doing up here?' Alice asked him looking at her watch. They had five minutes to get to divination. 'Don't you have a free?' she wondered.

'Yeah but I needed to talk to Jones.' James shrugged, looking at Alice briefly before turning back to Hestia who sighed miserably.

'Look I'm sorry I missed Quidditch practice but I forgot.' Hestia said, 'And you've given us a crazy schedule to stick to anyway. If you add anymore I swear-'

'I'm not here to talk about Quidditch, I'm here to talk about Lily's birthday.' James interrupted.

Hestia frowned at him for a moment, pausing and looking at him with narrowed eyes. 'All right.' she said cautiously, 'Do you need help finding a present or something? It's five days away you're running out of time.'

'No I've got a present sorted.' James said, 'Quite a few actually.' he went on absentmindedly. He knew how much Lily loved presents. It excited her and if she didn't get a present, well, she demanded one. James had had that experience the previous year when they had become friends. He enjoyed the present he had given her then though after she had complained that he owed her one. It was when they were in the stage of knowing they liked one another but weren't willing to do too much about it. That was an odd and confusing stage in their relationship, at least for James. He wasn't sure about Lily. He'd never clarified it with her.

'Then what about Lily's birthday?' Hestia asked him impatiently.

'Well, I know you're throwing her a party and-'

'No!' Hestia stated simply, holding her finger out to stop James talking, 'Don't you start! I've had enough of her lecturing me on this.' she said, turning her finger to Alice who looked exasperated at this.

'I'm going to Divination.' she announced to them, wanting to leave this conversation as she was sure Hestia was about to whine, 'I'll tell her you're on your way Hestia.'

When Alice had left Hestia turned back to James who had a similar sort of exasperated expression on his face like Alice had had.

'I'm throwing her the party.' she said stubbornly, 'I'm her best friend.'

'I'm her boyfriend.' James said.

'And?' Hestia demanded.

James shrugged. 'I thought we were just pointing out the obvious.' he said.

'Whatever!' Hestia went on, 'I'm throwing her a party. Everything's already arranged. I've thrown her a party every year since second year. You are _not_ breaking my tradition!'

She stalked past James, pushing him roughly with her shoulder and walked away with her nose in the air. James shook his head and turned around her. He wasn't going to get her to agree to drop the party, he knew that, but maybe he could mould it to be more about Lily rather than what Hestia wanted.

'Jones.' he called after her.

She stopped and took a deep breath before turning and facing him, folding her eyes.

'Lily doesn't want a party but it's clear you're not going to give in.' he said, 'So maybe we can come to a compromise. If you'll listen to me.'

* * *

Lily was walking with James to the Gryffindor common room. He had his arm around her waist and she had hers around his. Her head was resting on his arm as they walked. She felt extremely deflated. It was her birthday and she felt extremely deflated. She had had a wonderful day so far though. James had given her a mass of presents which varied from sweets in an attempt to fill her sweet tooth, to books which he had seen her looking at in Hogsmeade. The best present he had given her though, was a necklace. It was a thin white-gold chain which had a tiny glass tear droplet as a pendant. James had told her that the pendant contained a single phoenix tear. She loved it. He had made her birthday extremely special, spacing out the times when he gave her presents, the last, the necklace, he had given her only moments ago. Lily decided she quite liked having James as her boyfriend for her birthday. The day had been exciting and he had spent every possible minute with her. Even Sirius had been mildly less rude to her courtesy of her birthday but now, she was deflated.

She was deflated for two reasons. The first was stupid, at least in her mind. It also sounded silly when she had pointed it out earlier that day at breakfast. She had pouted slightly because she was turning eighteen and James was still seventeen. She didn't like being older than him even though it was only by a couple of months. Sirius had mocked her about it for a short amount of time before James had told him to stop, (from then on Sirius had given her a break). Hestia had taken the micky out of her for it for most of the morning though but James hadn't. Instead, he had given her a present to take her mind off of it. It had worked at the time but, as it was nearing the end of the day, she was reminded that she was eighteen now and he wasn't. The end of the day was the other reason why she was deflated, but it wasn't because her birthday was almost over. It was because it wasn't.

They were heading to the common room where Lily knew Hestia's tea party, her birthday party, would be taking place. She could imagine it. The common room decorated in bunting, a table filled with cake stands of scones and plates of finger sandwiches and an assortment of drinks. Then there would be the table dedicated to the cake. It would all look very nice and everyone would be enjoying themselves. Hestia would have put some music on and people would be chattering lightly together, perhaps a few couples cuddled up in corners. Yes it would all be very nice but it would also be very un-Lily. She didn't want a tea party. She had tried to talk Hestia out of it. Alice had tried to talk her out of it and so had James. It seemed that all three of them were unsuccessful.

She and James stopped outside of the portrait of the Fat Lady. James brought her round to face him, his arms encircled tightly around her waist. As an instinct, Lily threaded her arms around his shoulders. She pouted slightly to which James chuckled at.

'It won't be that bad.' he said, hugging her closer.

'I hate parties at the best of times.' Lily said looking up at him through her eyelashes.

'I know.' James smirked, 'But I think you should give this one a chance. You might be surprised.'

'What do you mean?' she asked him curiously with a frown.

He didn't answer her. Instead he raised his eyebrows once and grinned. Then he leaned down to kiss her, capturing her lips gently and bringing one hand up to her face to brush her deep red hair behind her ear. Lily kissed him back but was still confused as to what he meant. There was nothing surprising about a tea party. It was all in the name.

James pulled away from her and smirked again. He unwrapped her from his arms and took her hand instead before muttering the password to the Fat Lady who was grumbling at being forced to watch them kiss. Still, the portrait swung open and James led Lily into the common knowing that she would be surprised by the sight in front of her.

It was a party. But it wasn't the tea party that Lily had heard about. Not at all. It was amazing. Lily looked around the common room which had been transformed magnificently. All the chairs, sofas and the tables had gone and it looked like the Chocolate Room out of Lily's favourite book and movie, 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'. The floor was covered in a bright green edible grass and there were trees of jelly apples and bushes of lollipops and a path of hard toffee which lead from the portrait hole to the dormitory staircases. Against the wall in-between the two staircases was a huge chocolate fountain that had the strangest design Lily had ever seen but that fit in perfectly in with the theme of the party. There were three long pipes which came from the ceiling of the common room, spilling out milk chocolate in a type of waterfall which fell into a large bowl that people were dipping marshmallows in to. There were strings and strings of golden tickets strung around the length of the common room which was filled, over filled, with whipped cream mushrooms, sugar cube filled pumpkins, jelly bean stalks, spotted candy cubes and as many sweets as you could imagine. There were chocolate bars everywhere with 'Wonka' written across them, something which she was sure no one would understand but her and James. It seemed as if they had raided Honeydukes for supplies for this party. As every decoration in the room was edible, there was no table filled with food but there was a large candy-coloured mushroom with drinks on it.

Everything looked incredible and Lily couldn't help but beam. She brought her hands up to her face to unsuccessfully hide her huge smile as she looked around the room. She shook her head slightly at the sight she had been greeted with before looking at James. He was smirking at her reaction, knowing she had loved it. This party was more her than a tea party was. She brought her hands down from her face and bit her lip, allowing a small girlish giggle to escape her to which James laughed. He put his arms around her waist and turned her to face him, just as he had done outside of the common room.

'Now, I know the common rooms no chocolate factory,' he began, a delicious grin forming on his lips, replacing the smirk he had had and ignoring the other people in the common room, 'But it's as near as dammit.'

Lily shook her head again, still beaming, thinking that, at that moment, she had the best boyfriend ever. He had showered her in gifts all day, spoiling her with attention and now this. He had somehow convinced Hestia on the unmovable subject of a tea party and had gotten her to change the theme to something she would actually like. How he remembered what the Chocolate Room in 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' looked like she had no idea because, when he was round her house and they were watching the film, they really weren't watching the film. Still, he had and he had transpired it into the Gryffindor common room. 'You're unbelievable.' she whispered to him.

'I like to think so.' James said conceitedly.

'You're also arrogant.' Lily said with happily narrowed eyes.

'I like to think so.' James repeated against her lips before pulling her into another kiss, but a more passionate one than the kiss they had shared outside the common room.

He moved his lips against hers for a moment, before he ran his tongue over her bottom lip, searching for permission to enter her mouth which she immediately granted. She rose up on her tip toes to give him better access, throwing her arms around his neck and winding her hands into his messy black hair breathing in his beech wood scent. He pulled her upwards and closer, almost lifting her off of the ground. For once Lily didn't care who was watching them. She was just so overcome by what James had done for her. He really was brilliant and not just for what he had done but for what he was doing now. His kiss was intoxicating and she felt as if she couldn't get enough, her stomach swooping the whole time. She had no idea what was different but she loved it. She couldn't get her fill though as they were soon interrupted.

'All right stop snogging!' Hestia said, marching up to them and breaking them apart, 'There's more people in the room than you two you know!'

Lily looked around and felt a blush creeping up into her cheeks as she noticed people staring at her and James. She still found she didn't care though. She was proud in fact. James was hers. He had done all this for her and everyone in the room knew it. If she wanted to thank him with a passionate kiss in public then that's just what she would do. But not now as James was leading her further into the room over to the chocolate fountain where the other marauders were stood eating and laughing.

As they went over to them, James whispered to Lily, his warm breath tickling her ear, 'Don't eat the chocolate.'

Lily frowned at him confused and curious. She was sincerely hoping he hadn't done anything that would make her wish she hadn't been thinking about how brilliant and amazing he was or regretting their public snog. She guessed only time would tell really so, curiously, with bated breath, remaining on teeter hooks, Lily patiently waited for the reason why she wasn't allowed to eat the chocolate to come to light. It wasn't long before it did.

She was talking to Remus, Sirius and Peter, James hugging her from behind when she began to notice what was happening. She thought it was a trick of the light at first but when it became more, well, vibrant, she knew she wasn't imagining things. Especially when she felt James' body chuckling against hers. It wasn't long until others started to notice. Most were laughing, some in shock, some at their friends and some at themselves. Sirius, Remus and Peter were among the good natured ones, laughing at Peter who seemed to suit it best. James and Lily laughed at him. Hestia Jones wasn't laughing though. She immediately marched over to James and hissed angrily at him.

'You ruined my party!' she said through gritted teeth to a laughing James. Lily was laughing too. She took one look at her best friend, who seemed to have eaten the chocolate, and just couldn't help it.

'On the contrary, I think I made it better.' James smirked, unfolding Lily from his arms so he could face Hestia better. 'Orange people with green hair completes the illusion.' he continued, waving his hand around the room as if he was a magicians assistant. 'They're gumpa lumpas.'

'Oompa lumpas.' Lily corrected

James paused and looked at her with a confused frown. 'What did I say?' he asked.

'Gumpa lumpas.' Lily said.

James paused again. 'How's that different?' he said to her as she just rolled her eyes and smiled at him. He was truly an idiot but, oddly, she didn't mind.

'You've turned everyone orange!' Hestia raged, motioning around her to the rest of the party who were chattering away, not particularly fussed about their sudden transformation. They were all, including Hestia, Sirius, Remus and Peter, everyone but James and Lily basically, were now a putrid orange with white eyes and forest green hair.

'Yes I have.' James agreed before raising his hand to stroke his chin thoughtfully, 'Now if only I could get them to sing…'

'You've made this party really weird.' Hestia pointed out. She had been reluctant to let James help her create a new theme for the party in the first place but he had insisted. He had threatened that he wouldn't let Lily come to the party if Hestia didn't change her idea for it. Hestia had then insisted that James didn't have that much control over Lily; Lily did what she wanted. But James had told her that he could think of plenty of ways that would distract Lily enough to make her forget about the party all together. Plus he had also threatened to take her off of the Quidditch team and take a load of house points off of her if she didn't comply. So she had been forced in to really. And it hadn't been that bad until now. She had told him when she had reluctantly agreed to change her elegant tea party into a sweet fest that he had better not pull anything but obviously he hadn't paid attention. He had gone ahead, pulled something that she didn't understand and was happy about it. What was worse was that Lily was happy about it too. She must have missed something.

'Yeah but Lily's weird.' James shrugged.

That wasn't it.

'I'm not weird.' Lily defended, slapping James' arm playfully, 'Why do you keep saying I'm weird?'

'Because it's true.' James said with a smirk causing Remus and Sirius to laugh and Peter to titter nervously in their orange states. Hestia huffed a sigh and walked away, not knowing what she had missed but too peeved to stay around to find out.

Lily watched her go, slightly amused by her behaviour, an amusement which she swore came from hanging around James too much. He was now starting to rub off on her. She wasn't sure if she liked it. Still, when Hestia had left, she turned to James and said, 'Prove it.' referring to how he kept referring to her as weird. She had no idea where he had gotten that from.

James thought for a moment, knowing he was antagonising her making her wait for his answer. She stared at him, waiting with raised eyebrows and James looked right back, unwavering in his gaze. Eventually she hit him on the arm, too impatient for her answer.

'Alright,' he said with a laugh at her tetchiness. 'You call bananas narners even though you don't like them because they're, and I quote, 'too stringy'.' he said earning another round of laughter from Remus, Sirius and Peter who were still eating the chocolate from the fountain. They were already orange with green hair so it wasn't affecting them anymore.

Lily blinked. 'That's a perfectly plausible reason for not liking a banana.' she said seriously.

'If you say so.' Remus interjected with a placating smile which caused Lily to look at him with narrowed eyes. She shook her head at him slightly.

'I do and it's not weird.' Lily responded. She gave a little laugh. She couldn't help it, looking at Remus who looked absolutely ridiculous painted orange with green hair. He, along with the other two marauders who she was stood with, looked hilariously funny.

Her party, so far, wasn't bad. In fact, she was loving it. She hadn't thought she would but, thanks to James' involvement, she was. She didn't really care that she wasn't being particularly social, only talking to the marauders and staying with James. She knew it wasn't particularly polite cocooning herself up with her boyfriend but she hadn't wanted a party in the first place, (even if the party had turned out to be rather awesome), so the other guests would just have to deal with it for the time being.

'Being scared of beaters bats is though.' James said, grabbing her waist with his left arm and pulling her to his side.

'You're scared of beaters bats Evans?' Sirius said looking up with a mischievous frown. He dipped a marshmallow in the chocolate 'river' and popped it into his mouth, chewing with his mouth open so that Lily could see everything inside it, 'That is weird.' he said, pushing past her and going up the boys staircase to his dormitory.

Neither James, Lily, Remus nor Peter knew where he was going. James frowned up after him and tightened his grip on Lily, pulling her closer to his side almost possessively as she looked after Sirius with a saddened expression. Remus shook his head exasperatedly and Peter just looked lost. None of them noticed a flurry of whispers whipping through a few in the common room.

Lily paused for a second in the awkward lull that followed Sirius' mystery shrouded departure before placing a hand on James' chest and saying, 'I'm not scared of beaters bats it's the animal I don't like and it's not like you're no weird too.' to continue their conversation from before.

'I'm not weird.' James said, looking down at her and denying the fact, 'I'm completely normal thank you very much.'

'Oh ok Elvendork.' Lily scoffed making Remus laugh.

James narrowed his eyes at Remus who started to muffle his chuckles unsuccessfully. 'You can't use that I was undercover.' James said, turning his head back to face Lily.

'And that's not weird?' Lily replied with raised eyebrows.

'No it's sensible.' Remus joined in sarcastically.

Lily paused and looked at Remus who nodded his head in ironic assurance. She pursed her lips in thought, trying to think of something that would make James seem weird. After all, from the party he had thrown her did make her seem weird, at least to the wizarding world, especially because of the orange people. She racked her brain to find something and when she did, she smirked in a very Jamesesque way.

'Fine.' she said, turning to face him and folding her arms. He was smirking right back at her, obviously amused. 'Toads.' she went on simply.

James continued his smirk but glanced at Remus and Pete who were looking interestedly muddled. He licked his lips and took a breath stepping closer to Lily and whispering, 'Don't.'

Lily smiled, knowing she had him. 'Ribbit.' she said,

'Lily.' James said warningly. She was going to use his odd dislike of toads against him, something which he had told her when they were in Hogsmeade before everyone knew about them. She had been asking him what he was scared of and he had unthinkingly said that he didn't like toads. He had never said that he was scared of them though, something which Lily knew but was obviously discarding in an attempt to prove him weird too. He looked into her eyes, trying to convey to her the message to keep it quiet.

'What's with toads?' Peter asked scratching his forest green hair.

'Tell anyone and I'll attack you.' James muttered to her as a friendly threat.

Lily stared into his eyes, a small glint appearing in her emerald green irises. James shook his head slightly at her but she paid no attention and began to tell Remus and Peter James' deal with toads which they obviously didn't know.

'James is-' she began but never got to finish as James grabbed her from behind and started to tickle her furiously. She squealed with laughter as he continued to tickle her not caring that Remus and Peter were laughing at her or that other people at her birthday party were looking at her as she giggled madly. 'James!' she gasped between hysteric breaths, 'Stop it! Ahh!'

'I said I'd attack you.' James pointed out, his hands still darting out against Lily's stomach and sides, tickling her and keeping her fit of giggles peeling out, 'And knowing you're ticklish is a great weapon!'

'Stop it!' Lily breathed.

'Keep your mouth shut then.' James whispered into her ear, finally stopping tickling her, letting her stand up straight and breathe normally again. He kept his arms wrapped around her waist.

'Ribbit.' Lily said with a badly hidden smile. Before she knew what was happening, James had tightened his grip around her middle and had picked her up. She squealed again. All she seemed to be doing was squealing. 'James put me down!' she instructed him, trying to wriggle out of his hold with a laugh.

'No.' James replied.

'Hey Evans!' Sirius said, coming down the stairs from his dormitory, his sudden disappearance being explained as he held up his beaters bat in front of Lily's face and waved it about saying, 'Wooooo!' as if he was a ghost.

James put Lily down. Neither he, Lily, Remus or Peter were amused.

'Yeah...' James said, 'Moments passed Padfoot.'

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Update on 7th July. Sorry it's a long one :/**

**Galindaba**


	65. Chapter 64

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader! Thanks for being so patient with me for this update. I know it's been long but I had no internet where I was staying for a week so I didn't want to make promises to update when I knew I wouldn't be able too. **

**Thank you as well to everyone who has reviewed! You are the nicest people and really boost my confidence with this story when I read what you've written so a really BIG thank you to you!**

**Anyway, here is Chapter Sixty-Four**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Sixty-Four**

After Lily's birthday, time flew by. The seventh years had homework piled on them for their N.E.W.T's which were coming ever closer. They were just a few short months away, the end of their Hogwarts lives were just a few months away, but by the way the Professors were talking, you'd have thought it was only days. Every Professor seemed to think their subject should be the most important in their students' lives, accepting no excuse if they forgot to do the homework or just couldn't find the time. The Professors weren't considerate of the other subjects their students had taken so, if they didn't have homework because of them, they got detention. James and Sirius got detention a lot.

Between his detentions, Quidditch practices and their head duties and patrols James found that he was so busy that he had been unable to find hardly any time to spend with Lily since her birthday. She blamed him for their lack of or little time together, telling him when he did manage to find time for her, (which was any available time he had much to Sirius' annoyance), that if he just did his homework then they wouldn't be having this problem. He told her he would do his homework but then he'd be changing for the better and she wouldn't want him to do that now would she? Lily said yes.

It wasn't long until the seventh years welcomed a much needed and, for most of them, deserved break. It was a Hogsmeade weekend and James, Sirius, Remus and Peter had decided that their stock of Zonko's products were seriously low. They needed to fill up their supplies. Sirius was extremely excited about this which none of the marauders got the reason behind. If they had been paying attention to his behaviour though, more importantly, if James had been paying attention to his behaviour, he might have known the reason behind his enthusiasm over the Hogsmeade weekend and he wouldn't have done what he did.

'Come on!' Sirius was saying to James who was sat on his bed in their dorm room doing his shoe up.

'I'm coming Padfoot! Jeesh!' James said, moving onto his other shoe to tie that up.

'Ever think that Padfoot was a girl in his past life?' Remus asked James, leaning against the door frame of the dorms bathroom, wiping his freshly washed and shaven face on a towel.

'What do you mean past life?' James smirked at his shoe, looping the black laces together.

'Yeah you're right.' Remus laughed, throwing the towel he was holding at Sirius who caught it with narrowed eyes.

'Oh ha, ha I'm a girl.' Sirius said with a shake of his head as he threw the towel at Peter who was sat next to James on his bed minding his own business.

'Least he admits it.' James said standing up with a grin, grabbing his watch which his mother had had made for him for his seventeenth birthday from his bedside table and putting it on.

'With hair like that no admittance necessary.' Remus chuckled, taking the towel Sirius had thrown at Peter and throwing it towards his own bed, missing it by a couple of feet. He stared at the towel where it fell and shrugged. He couldn't be bothered to walk the couple of feet over to it and pick it up.

'Can we leave my fantastic hair alone for just one day please?' Sirius asked, running a hand down his luscious black locks and giving out what he obviously thought was a winning smile but what James and Remus just raised an eyebrow at. Peter also tried to raise an eyebrow but failed miserably and just received a mocking laugh from Sirius, the only one to see his attempts.

'Sure.' James said as he walked to the door.

Sirius, Peter and Remus immediately followed, Remus closing the door behind him on their extremely messy dorm room.

'If you had fantastic hair.' James carried on, walking casually down the stairs with his hands in his pockets.

'Hey!' Sirius said, following James down the spiral staircase in the same manner, hands in pockets and a casual stroll, 'I have phenomenal hair!'

'Congratulations.' Remus said sincerely. He too was walking in a nonchalant manner down the steps which would lead them into the common room. Only Peter was unable to pull of the cool air the other three marauders seemed to be able to naturally acquire.

'Thanks!' Sirius said happily, taking one of his hands out of his pockets and once again running it down his perfectly styled hair. The hereditary Black hair. He may hate his family but he did love the fact he had their hair.

'I meant for knowing the word phenomenal.' Remus corrected to which James gave out a loud laugh for. He was laughing when they finally came into the common room.

'What's so funny?' Lily asked in greeting to them.

'Sirius.' James said simply, walking over to her and putting his arm around her shoulder, kissing her quickly in greeting.

'Naturally.' Lily laughed as she put her arm around his waist and the pair walked towards the portrait hole expecting the other three to follow which they would have done straight away if Sirius hadn't stopped on the stairs momentarily. When Sirius did start to move, the three did follow Lily and James but for Sirius, it was a bit begrudgingly.

Sirius feelings were hard to explain, even to himself. Steadily, since James had started dating Lily, or at least since Sirius had found out about them, he had grown to dislike the situation, even hate it at some points. It was probably jealousy that James was spending all his time with Lily instead of playing pranks and gags with him. In fact, the last prank he remembered playing with James was Halloween and that was months ago now. But what confused him was the fact that he had been all up for James, his best friend, finally getting the girl he had wanted all along. He hadn't expected to be passed over for her all the time though. Sirius thought he would get over it and just be happy for his friend but something stopped him from being and he had become sullen and rude instead. Again, he couldn't fully understand why. And if he didn't know himself how on earth he could have explained it to James? All he knew is he was extremely pissed off that Lily was joining them today.

He withdrew himself from the conversation as they all walked down to the entrance hall and waited for Professor Linkedin to lead them all down to Hogsmeade as part of the precautionary measures in place thanks to the Hogsmeade attack that had happened over a year ago now. Sirius walked with his head down, his jaw set stiffly and his eyebrows furrowed down in an irritated frown. He shot angry glances at James and Lily who seemed to be wrapped up in each other. His glances sent whispers through the group that the marauders and Lily were walking with down to Hogsmeade but he didn't notice and he didn't listen to what they were saying.

James noticed his silence as they were on the path to the village. 'What's up Padfoot?' he asked him, looking past Lily to Sirius who shot him a slightly evil look. Again, whispers.

'Nothing.' Sirius answered, looking at the ground, 'Wanna roll into Hogsmeade?' he asked through a tense jaw knowing that, as Lily was with them James wouldn't do it. He would have done if Lily was with them and they weren't going out but not now they were.

'Nah the grounds wet.' James said. What he said wasn't untrue. As they were just into February, the ground was damp from the spattering of rain they had had. Plus it was morning the wet ground was even worse from the morning condensation that was floating about in the air.

'Course.' Sirius muttered.

'Are you sure you're alright?' Remus asked Sirius, patting his shoulder in a brotherly fashion.

'Yes.' Sirius said snappily, in such a way that caused Remus and James to share a look and stop asking.

They walked into the village, James remarking that he was surprised that Sirius hadn't done anything to bug Professor Linkedin against whom he had sworn a vendetta, all because she had given them homework on their first day back at school. Sirius just murmured back, not trying to be part of the conversation at all. Instead, he mooched along, slightly behind the group in Peter's usual position with his hands in his pockets. He let Remus and James lead the conversation as they went into Zonko's joke shop and Honeydukes and the other picturesque shops down the main street of Hogsmeade only grumbling back responses when he was spoken too. He stayed like this for about an hour as they walked through the crowds until a suggestion was made.

'Let's go to the Three Broomsticks.' Lily said happily, hugging James' arm and smiling up at him.

'Ok.' James smiled to her straight away, kissing her cheek, 'Everyone up for that?' he asked the group as a courtesy, knowing that they'd all agree with him anyway. Or so he thought.

'Yeah sure.' Remus said, heaving a sigh and silently thanking Lily for the suggestion. He was thirsty.

'Absolutely.' Peter said, agreeing to it just because Remus and James had.

'No.' Sirius said loudly and defiantly.

'What?' James said, turning to him in surprise at his rejection of the idea of going to eat, 'You're turning down food? Are you ill?'

'No I'm just not hungry.' Sirius stated shortly.

James raised his eyebrows at Remus who returned his look and turned to Sirius to repeat James' previous question. '_Are_ you ill?' he asked.

'No.' Sirius said harshly.

James took a deep breath. 'Well I am and Lily's suggested it so-'

'Oh well if _Lily's_ suggested it then we've _got_ to do it!' Sirius exaggerated, 'Come on then, let's all go _skipping_ down to the Three Broomsticks.' he said with a large gesture of his hands before stalking away in the direction of said pub.

Lily's expression was taken aback. She looked up at James whose lips had disappeared through annoyance. He shook his head after Sirius and looked at Remus, almost in need of assurance that that was odd behaviour. Remus shrugged at James. Peter copied the shrug. They all followed Sirius.

When the four reached the pub they saw that Sirius had managed to nab them a table for four in the corner; one seat short for the five of them there. They walked over to the table, James grabbing a chair from one of the tables next to theirs for him to sit on. Remus sat down next to Sirius, Peter opposite Remus, Lily in front of Sirius and James sat down at the end of the table in his stolen chair, Sirius on his left, Lily on his right. He had his arm across the back of Lily's chair. Sirius was sat back in his chair with his arms folded, looking away, everywhere but the eyes of his friends. And Lily. Knowing that Sirius was avoiding them, James and Remus started a conversation about their future applications for the auror training programme. Peter joined in which was fine, Remus and James welcomed his contributions with kindness. Sirius still wasn't speaking.

Lily sat at that table feeling extremely uncomfortable. She zoned out of James' conversation and stared at Sirius, trying to catch his eye so that she could see, as she assumed, if she was the problem. As she stared at him, she felt others staring at her. She looked around though and found that no one was. Or at least, no one was that she could see. Maybe she was paranoid but maybe not. She shook her head at people's perverse interest in her relationship with James. Didn't they care that something else was going on here? Couldn't they quit it long enough for her to focus her attention completely on what was wrong with Sirius? After all, he was James' best friend and whatever was bothering him was annoying James. The only problem was that Sirius didn't seem to be in a sharing mood. Whenever James or Remus had asked him what was wrong he just blew them off. Maybe if someone else asked he would be more inclined to ask. She decided to give it a try.

Whilst Remus, James and Peter talked about aurors they admired, Lily tentatively leaned over the table to Sirius, off of where she was leaning against James' arm and asked him, 'Are you sure you're ok Black?'

James noticed the sudden lack of weight on his arm and turned to pay attention to Lily's whisper to Sirius. Remus and Peter carried on with the conversation James had previously been in.

'Yes.' Sirius snapped at her.

'Really?' Lily asked sceptically, 'Only you seem a bit…well...hacked off?'

'Oh you're very perceptive aren't you?' Sirius said not looking at her but rather down at his right hand, picking his nails in irritation.

'Percep-' Lily started to try and lighten the mood, only Sirius interrupted.

'I'm not stupid Evans! Though I'm sure you'd like me to be-'

'Alright Sirius that's enough!' James cut in loudly and rather madly over the top of Sirius who turned to face him.

Remus and Peter stopped their conversation and turned their attention to what seemed to be a sullen and grumpy Sirius, an uncomfortable and taken aback Lily and an angry James who looked to be at the end of his tether.

'I don't know what you're problem is but can you please get over it?' James said to Sirius, trying his hardest to level his voice to a volume which wouldn't attract unwanted attention.

'I don't have a problem.' Sirius said slowly, looking James dead in the eye with a slight frown. He was unwavering in his gaze.

'Clearly you do!' James replied in irked disbelief, 'Since we've been going out you've been very rude to Lily.' he went on, motioning to Lily who leant back in her chair with a slightly saddened expression on her face, looking around her and now noticing a few people whispering. James didn't notice. He carried on. 'I don't get it.' James said, 'What's she done to deserve it.'

Sirius breathed deeply and looked at James who was waiting for an answer. An answer which Sirius couldn't really give him. He didn't know himself really. Lily technically hadn't done anything. Yes she was taking up a lot of James' time but that was as much James' fault, perhaps even more. He just didn't like it. He didn't like them together as he thought he would. He wasn't going to tell James that though. But then again, what else could he tell him?

'I just don't like you two together that's all.' Sirius said with a shrug. He watched James and Lily's faces fall before adding, 'I'm sorry.' He wasn't sure if he was though.

James took a deep breath. 'Well you're just gonna have to get used to it.' he said. He wasn't going to break up with Lily for anyone. He had waited too long for her, something which Sirius knew and had, James had thought, supported. If Sirius had suddenly decided he didn't like it then he would just have to lump it. It would be easier if he liked Lily but if he didn't…no. Sirius would have to learn to like her.

'You know,' James started with an annoyed sigh, 'I'm not sure what else she can do to win you over. She's already snogged you.'

Lily looked down and flushed at the memory of that embarrassing event. Sirius wasn't embarrassed though. He did however fold his arms and jut his jaw out.

'You were all up for us going out last year.' James continued, reminding Sirius of his past backing of James' pursuit. He knew it had wavered at times but mainly it was there.

'You tried to convince me to give him a chance a couple of months ago.' Lily inputted quietly.

James looked at Lily in small shock. He looked between his girlfriend and his best friend. He knew them both very well and, even though he was sure what Lily said was true, he couldn't help but seek assurance from Sirius. 'You did?' he asked him.

Sirius spluttered slightly. 'Yeah…well…', then everything he had been feeling, everything he didn't understand in himself burst out and came to a boil. 'Well that was before your life became the Lily show! All about what Lily wants and what Lily needs and what Lily wants to do!' he said loudly, before standing up, his chair bouncing back slightly and wobbling, threatening to fall over. 'Just because you've got a girlfriend doesn't mean you ditch your friends!' Sirius stated finally, pointing his finger on the table to emphasise his point before stalking away to the bar.

James watched him go and gave a single disbelieving breathless laugh. He looked at Remus who was just looking back at him with raised eyebrows and that disappointed expression he used to wear when Sirius and James cursed Severus Snape. Then he looked at Peter who was looking at him, not disappointedly, but with less admiration than usual. He didn't look at Lily. He couldn't because he knew that what Sirius had said was right. And it made him feel horrible.

He looked down at his lap and sighed, closing his eyes and biting in his top lip in, almost in shame, knowing that ever since his relationship with Lily had come out he had been spending more and more time with her and less and less time with Sirius and Remus. And Peter of course. He hadn't stopped to think that any of them would take offence to this. He hadn't stopped to think that Sirius, who had been disowned by his family, (even though he liked that fact), could start feeling as if he was being passed over by James for someone else. That this could touch a nerve. He hadn't stopped to think of that at all.

He started to run a hand through his hair to mess it up as he usually did but stopped halfway through, his hand resting on the back of his head. He knew he was now sitting in an awkward silence where Remus and Peter were waiting for him to go and sort Sirius out; to apologise. He brought his hand down heavily to the table with a sigh and stood up to go do just that when Lily stood up also and put a hand on his arm to stop him.

'Let me go talk to him.' she said, looking into his warm hazel eyes with a small grimace.

James looked down into her eyes, her brilliant emerald green eyes and stopped. The same feeling he had felt over the Christmas break when he had rushed to her side in Diagon Alley, when she had looked into his eyes then and had asked to stay at his, presented itself again. He felt a tug, a snap and at that moment, could not deny her anything let alone this simple request. He wanted to say, 'no he's my best friend I'll go talk to him' but he couldn't. He didn't know why but at that moment, just as in Diagon Alley, he would have done anything for her, given anything to her. He nodded and she left but not before he realised that whatever hold she had over him could one day prove dangerous.

Lily made her way through the crowded pub over to the bar where she could see Sirius leaning almost depressively. She made a beeline for him until she finally came to his side, not noticing the whispers as she leant next to him. Sirius didn't notice the whispers either but he did notice her.

Sirius glanced at her once. 'Great.' he spat sarcastically, turning his head away from her with a roll of his eyes.

Lily jumped straight in. 'Why don't you like me now Black?' she said in a soft demanding tone.

'Cause it's all about you!' Sirius burst out turning to face her but keeping one arm leaning on the bar, 'Sitting there…' he motioned over to the table where Remus was looking at him. So was Peter. James had his back to him, too ashamed (he hoped), to face him. He turned his head back to face Lily and said in complete seriousness, 'I don't recognise James and he changes when he's with you.'

Lily looked a bit shocked. 'I don't think he does.' she said with a small shake of her head.

Sirius took a deep sigh. 'He does.' he said nodding his head and turning back around to lean fully on the bar. 'He's not as fun.' he continued, smearing a wet ring of condensation which had been left by a cold bottle, 'He cares more about what he's doing. He's careful. He's not himself.'

That was when Sirius realised part of his problem with James dating Lily. He had lost his friend in the process. He had lost the carefree prankster who would curse or hex people, (Severus Snape), in the hallways and joke and mess around. Sure he still answered back to teachers, built barricades in lessons, didn't do the homework, doodled in class instead of paying full attention and had always been an ear to bend if you needed him, the fiercely loyal friend, but he wasn't the same boy from fifth year. James had changed, all for Lily, the girl who had always rejected him, and that's what he didn't like. He supposed he would have to get used to it at some point but at the minute, he didn't see Lily as a person worth changing for. Until he did, he doubted he would like the new James.

'Believe me he's still an arrogant idiot.' Lily said with a laugh that said she would rather him not be. But then he wouldn't be James so she supposed she didn't want him to change anymore. Just stay the boy she had fallen for.

Sirius shook his head. 'Bet he doesn't try to spellotape his head to the table.' he said with a bitter recalling laugh at that memory. They had been in fourth year and had snuck out to The Three Broomsticks a few days after the full moon to celebrate Remus' good health and their nearing the success of their Animagus transformations. They had nicked a load of the schools spellotape and James, on a mere whim, instead of taping all the shop doors in Hogsmeade shut ready for the schools trip down to the village the following day, had decided to tape his face to the table, declaring that he had finally completed the Animagus transformation. His Animagus state; a table. Then he had gotten his face stuck, (obviously), and Madam Rosmerta had called Dumbledore to take the boys back to Hogwarts, James still attached to the table. They had earned a month's worth of detentions for that but had decided it was worth it. Sirius doubted James would do anything like that now. Especially as he was also head boy, a position given to him, Sirius was sure, because of the change he had made in himself for Lily.

'No he doesn't.' Lily said slowly, wondering why on earth James had spellotaped his face to a table. That was weird. Ha! He was weird. She made a mental note to tell James that later when this mess was sorted out but for now, she continued to talk to Sirius.

'He's still an idiot though.' Lily said, dropping the arrogant, 'At my sister's wedding he kept introducing himself as Elvendork.'

'Was he undercover?' Sirius asked.

Lily paused. Why did people keep asking that when it came to this anecdote. He introduced himself as Elvendork, an oddity in itself. 'He said he was.' she said cautiously.

'Doesn't count.' Sirius muttered sulkily.

Lily paused, looking at Sirius' sullen face, his haughty good looks masked with a bitter annoyance. She took a deep breath and reached out for his arm but he flinched away. She pulled back her arm.

'I'm sorry I take up so much of his time.' she apologised quietly, 'But relationships are hard and…if we want to make it work then we need to spend time together.'

'Time yeah.' Sirius agreed. He wasn't going to deny that. James did need time with Lily for his relationship with her to succeed. 'Not every single second of every single bloody day though!'

Lily retreated into herself a little bit before starting meekly. 'We don't-'

'Well it bloody well feels like it!' Sirius swore, cutting her off. He breathed deeply to calm himself down and carry on. 'Even over Christmas it was all about you. Even when you weren't even there! It was always, 'I've got to write to Lily' 'I've got to tell Lily this'. You didn't spend as much time with him when it was all a big secret did you?'

Lily paused and looked at her hands, knowing he was right just like James had. 'No I didn't.' she said.

Sirius sighed and now, for the first time since he saw Lily in the common room that morning, was calm and, for the first time since this problem first arose, was also honest about how he was feeling. 'It may seem selfish,and James and Remus are going to take the piss out of me for being such a girl, but…I was looking forwards to this Hogsmeade weekend because you weren't gonna be here. It was just gonna be the guys.' he stopped and laughed slightly, looking up to the ceiling of the bar. 'I just wanted to spend some time, with my friends, relaxing and joking and pissing about. But I can't.' he stopped his laugh and looked at Lily with an ever so slight disdain. 'Because of you.' he said bluntly.

Lily blinked and knew he was right. She had had no right to intrude on this weekend when she already spent all of James' free time with him. She hadn't stopped to think, just as James hadn't. He needed to manage his relationships better, whether romantic or friendship.

'I can go if you'd like?' she said.

Sirius shook his head and looked back to the water ring he had been smearing earlier. 'Then Prongs will just be mad at me for making you leave.'

Lily shook her head determinedly, fully prepared to do the selfless thing and give up her own time with James for Sirius' sake. 'No he won't.' she said, still shaking her head before going into a mini speech. 'I agree with you. He needs to manage his time better and perhaps, I don't know…allocate a time when it's just you guys and a time where it's just him and me. Just because he's going out with me doesn't mean he can start disregarding his friendship with you and taking it for granted. Both relationships are important and both need time spent on them. So…I'll go. I'll leave you boys to do whatever the hell it is you do when I'm not here.' she finished, standing up from where she was leaning on the bar and turning around saying, 'Discuss the important issues was it?' before walking over to James.

Sirius looked over his shoulder from where he was still leant on the bar and watched Lily bent over talking to James. He had no idea what she was saying to him. It was less than a minute though before he saw James nod his head, stand up, give Lily a fleetingly passing kiss and Lily leave The Three Broomsticks flashing Sirius a friendly smile, a smile which he returned sending unnoticed whispers through a few people around him.

Sirius turned back to the bar and looked down at it for a few seconds, steeling his confidence before going to face James. He didn't know what Lily had said to him and so had no idea what James would be like. But he had to find out so he pushed himself off of the bar and walked back to his table. When he got there, James grinned at him and patted him on the back in a brotherly manner as he sat down as a way to let him know he was sorry. Also in aid of this, James acted completely normally and began to discuss the 'important issues'.

'So a griffin and a dragon flying contest.' James said, clapping his hands together once and leaning forwards on the table to ask the group, 'Who wins?'

* * *

Since the Hogsmeade visit, James had made better use of his time. He began to manage it better under the instruction, help and guidance of Lily. He made sure that when Remus and Peter had Care of Magical Creatures and Lily had Ancient Runes, he spent time with just Sirius and _didn't _talk about Lily. He made sure that there were free periods where it was just the four marauders either eating in the kitchens or hanging out in the room of requirement or, when they felt daring enough to brave the wet February, hanging out underneath their beloved beech tree. Then there was his time with Lily. He ensured that he spent at least an hour with her every evening which Sirius came to terms with. The only day he insisted spending with all day her was Valentine's day, a Tuesday, which Sirius understood perfectly announcing, in his usual innuendo insinuating way, that he already had plans.

Remus, who hadn't particularly taken a great deal of notice of James' abandonment of them for Lily, did notice his phased return to the group. Sure he had realised on occasion that James hadn't been spending a lot of time with his fellow marauders but he, unlike Sirius, hadn't made that big a fuss over it. Then again, he had had a lot more to deal with. The full moon, studying, actually doing the homework they were set whereas Sirius had only really partaken in the full moon on Remus' list of activities. Still, he found himself thankful for James' return as he hadn't realised how stroppy Sirius had gotten until he was lifted out of his mood.

Peter was ecstatically happy that James was now spending more time with the group, though he didn't really show it to them. Secretly, he was extremely glad that James had returned because it meant that Sirius wouldn't snap at him quite as much. Sure he would still be mainly a background figure, one that followed the other three around, trailing after them as if they were his gods or heroes or something along those lines but her wouldn't be cowering from Sirius' temper. Instead he could bask in the popular light his friends were blessed with, soaking up whatever rays he could catch that fell from them now James was back, (something which the school didn't fail to notice).

Lily was oddly happy with the new 'arrangements'. It gave her a chance to miss James when he wasn't with her, something which she didn't think would be at all possible but was. It gave her time to study and finish her homework and be with her own friends who she realised, after her talk with Sirius, she may have been neglecting also in favour of James. It also gave her an opportunity to be excited to spend time with him, as she had been when they had kept their romance a secret. She loved looking at the clock and realising that she and James had made plans to meet somewhere in five minutes. She loved the butterflies that built up in her stomach as the clock struck down the time until she saw him then, when she did see him, the swoop it gave her stomach, a swoop that was always repeated when she took that first inhale of beech wood or when he gave her a kiss. She loved spending time with him and, when she was with him, she thanked god that she was disobeying her father in his wishes of her not seeing him. She really, really liked him.

Sirius, the one who James' new time management was actually for, was starting to get used to the new James. He wasn't all that different from the old James if you really looked at him. Sure he wasn't hexing everyone and anyone anymore and, sure, he wasn't always up for pulling a prank or a trick, but he was most of the time. It just depended on what it was. Shoving gum in all of the key holes and blaming it on Peeves he would do, messing with the house point trackers, he wouldn't. Still, Sirius was starting to recognise his old best friend again, something which he pointed out to James who only replied with the answer, 'what do you mean? I haven't changed?' Sirius decided not to point out that James had changed for Lily, afraid that it would just make James mad, so he just left it. He still couldn't see why Lily was worth changing for anyway. He was getting along better with her but still hadn't found what James was obviously so keen on. He saw no outstanding quality which made her worthy of such a change. He decide to give it a bit more time though. After all, James was content.

Everyone was happy with James' new way of managing his time. But James, James was most happy when they were all together. In that rare free period where it was him, Lily, Sirius, Remus and Peter all together, having a laugh. He loved it when he was with them all, the people he cared most for in the world. Strangely, when he was running a Quidditch practice, was one of these times.

Lily had taken to watching James run his Quidditch practices from the stands with Remus and Peter. She watched them for Hestia as well but she did like to see James taking control, something he rarely did in his role as head boy. He just let her take over. And it wasn't like he was domineering in their relationship either, demanding and arrogant sometimes, yes, but never domineering. So it was nice to see him leading a Quidditch practice, his enthusiasm captivating. However, on the 19th of February, Lily didn't stay long at the Quidditch practice. James' role as Quidditch captain was unable to keep her from someone who clearly needed help.

She watched James and Hestia tossing a Quaffle about in the air along with the third Hufflepuff chaser whose name escaped her. Her eyes darted over to Sirius who wasn't doing what James had told him to, instead batting a spare Quaffle into the air repeatedly. She watched him carry on doing this with a bit of fascination, (she wouldn't have been able to do that on the ground let alone on a broom), until James called everyone to the ground with a loud whistle. Her eyes followed them to the ground and she tuned into what James was saying, only just catching his words.

'All right guys, before we get started properly I've found out the line-up for the Slytherin Quidditch team.' he was saying. Lily watched him as he turned his head around the team to look at everyone individually as he said this, his gaze resting on Sirius a bit longer than the rest. Lily wondered why.

'The Keeper is Nicholas Tyler.' he said, looking at his Keeper who nodded. James then looked at Hestia and the other Chaser and told them who the three Chasers on the Slytherin team were and did the same with his Beaters, Sirius and another Gryffindor, telling them who their positions were being played by on the opposite team. But when it came to announcing the Seeker on the Slytherin team, James didn't look at his own Seeker. He carried on looking at Sirius.

'Finally,' James began slowly.

Lily wondered what was with his snail's pace on announcing the Seeker for their opposing team. She listened to him continue.

'The Seeker is,' He paused again.

Was it for dramatic intentions. If it was, Lily thought it was silly. But then James announced the Seekers name, and she realised the reason for his pauses.

'It's Regulus Black.' James said.

Lily watched with a puckered brow as Sirius' expression dropped. Beside her, Remus sat forwards and Lily saw him frown with concern. She looked back to Sirius who had dropped his broom and was shaking his head to himself. Suddenly he walked forwards, pressed his Beaters bat roughly into James' chest, (which caused him to step backwards slightly from the force Sirius had given), and walked off of the pitch. Lily expected James to follow him and thought he was going to when he turned around to watch him walk into the changing room, the exit to the Quidditch pitch, but was surprised when he turned back to the rest of the Quidditch team and continued with his practice.

'Isn't he going to go after him?' Lily asked Remus, very surprised at James and a little disappointed in him.

'He will do soon.' Remus said assuredly.

'Why not now?' she questioned.

'He's got to finish the practice.' Remus pointed out as if it was obvious, 'There's a game next week.'

'But Black is his best friend-'

'And he needs time to cool off.' Remus said, turning to watch the practice again where James had sent everyone off into the air to do drills.

'So you're not going to go find him either?' Lily demanded.

'James has the map.' Remus shrugged, 'I doubt I'll be able to find him if he doesn't want to be found and he needs time to-'

'Peter?' Lily said, turning to Peter who was shocked that she was talking to him, let alone using his first name. (Really Lily just hated saying Pettigrew all the time. It was such a mouthful)

Lily waited for Peter to answer but he just sat there in silence with wide eyes. She shook her head at him and stood up. 'Fine.' she said, 'I'll go find him.' And with that she walked out of the stands in search of Sirius.

* * *

**Thanks for Reading**

**Galindaba**


	66. Chapter 65

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader!**

**Welcome Chapter Sixty-Five**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Sixty-Five**

Lily searched the castle for half an hour for Sirius with no success. She searched the most obvious places at first; the common room, his dormitory, the great hall, the beech tree outside and the kitchens. But she couldn't find him anywhere. So she decided to check the less obvious but more secluded places that Sirius could hide. She searched the secret passage ways that James had taken her down, a couple of broom closets, (kicking people out of them who looked a bit too comfortable), some class rooms and some back staircases, still she couldn't find him. In the end she resorted to asking people if they had seen him, asking the girls mostly because they were more likely to have paid attention to him if he passed them. But none of them were willing to help her. Instead they shook their heads at her and looked down their noses at her with disdain, something she didn't fully understand. Then they'd walk away from her, giving her no information of Sirius' whereabouts but whispering as they left. She never did fully catch what they were saying but she swore she heard the words 'poor James'. Still, she brushed it aside so that she could continue in her search for Sirius. It worked and she finally found him sitting at the bottom of a staircase.

'Black?' she said tentatively walking towards him.

Sirius looked over his shoulder slightly and saw Lily. He turned back to look at his feet and sighed. 'Don't call me that please Evans.' he said, fed up of being referred to as if he was part of that family. 'I've had enough of Black.' he spat at the floor miserably, 'I'm not a Black.'

Lily looked at him sadly for a couple of seconds, never having seen him in this sort of position before, He, like James, was always sure of himself and was cocky and arrogant and, at some points, just unbearable to be around because he was so vain. Now he looked vulnerable. She walked forwards towards him and stood next to where he was sat on the steps. 'Are you ok?' she asked.

Sirius rolled his eyes. 'Oh yeah!' he said sarcastically, 'Peachy keen!'

Lily took a breath and brushed his sarcasm aside. 'Do you want to talk about it?' she queried quietly.

'Not with you.' Sirius stated simply, trying not to be rude but failing. Besides, he wasn't in the mood to try and get along with her at the minute. And anyway, James wasn't around.

'Ok.' Lily said, overlooking his rude tone and sitting on the step next to him, much to his dislike. 'I'll just sit here then and if you do decide you want to talk, I'm right here.' she went on, clasping her hands together and looking at Sirius' haughty handsome face.

Sirius gave a bitter laugh. 'You're very full of yourself aren't you?' he said.

'You're one to talk.' Lily retorted.

Sirius looked down at his feet. 'What makes you think I can talk to you?' he asked her, wondering what made her so sure that he would. Why had she found him? 'All you are is my best mates girlfriend.' he said.

'I'm also your friend.' Lily said sweetly with a small half shrug, surprised at how true the statement actually was. 'At least, I see you as my friend.' she carried on, realising that he may not be her friend as she was his, 'And I've been told I'm a very good listener.'

Sirius gave a single laugh. 'By James?' he asked.

'No actually I gave myself that title.' Lily smiled.

'Ha.' Sirius chuckled. He paused and took a deep breath, heaving a great sigh before looking at her. He thought as he looked at her. She was looking kindly back at him. Maybe she could…no. Possibly? 'Alright Evans.' he gave in reluctantly under her friendly and compassionate gaze, a level of compassion not unlike what James had. 'It's my brother.' he went on, 'Think you can help me on that subject?'

'I didn't even know you had a brother.' Lily replied honestly. She knew there was a relationship, a family connection there as soon as James had announced that Regulus Black was the Slytherin Seeker. She didn't have to be a pureblood wizard to know that all the Blacks were related. She just didn't know how.

'Well I do.' Sirius said matter of factly, 'Regulus 'golden child to my parents who think the sun shines out of his arse' Black.'

There was a pause where Sirius said nothing and neither did Lily. But Lily wanted to talk. She had believed that Sirius was about to talk to her, to share what the matter with him was. She wanted to help him. She wanted to help him because it was obvious he was in need. But there was a small part of her that saw the personal gain in it. If she helped him and they started getting on better, things would be easier for James. She decided to prompt the conversation to start again. 'I thought he was your cousin.' she said.

'No that's Bellatrix.' Sirius answered immediately. 'She's a pshyco.' he laughed before sighing yet again and saying, 'But most in my family are. I did have hope for my brother though. Small hope.'

'Hopes still hope.' Lily said, understanding that level of hope. It was the same sort of hope she carried around for her sister. That one day she might finally accept her. She recognised it in Sirius.

'Yeah.' Sirius said before stopping again.

Lily once again prompted. 'Do you get on with him?' she asked.

'Nope.' Sirius replied, popping the p, 'Used to when we were little. When he used to look up to me. Then I was sorted into Gryffindor.'

Lily frowned. 'And?' she asked, not realising that this tiny little question was all Sirius needed to get started.

'And when you're a Black you don't get sorted into Gryffindor.' Sirius explained, looking at Lily before going into a small speech complete with arm gestures and, as usual for Sirius, humourful laughs. He went on, 'You especially don't go get sorted into Gryffindor and go around your house plastering the walls with red and gold paraphernalia using permanent sticking charms, just to make sure they couldn't take them down and their shame would be there forever. You also _don't_ take muggle studies because muggles are nothing to learn about and you _don't_ start an obsession with motorbikes, buy muggle posters and magazines and stick them all over your walls. (Again, permanent sticking charms.) Add into that the fact that I get ten detentions a day for pissing about, pulling pranks and not paying attention and it's safe to say I brought shame to the house of Black. Then I ran away.' He stopped and looked at Lily. 'Suppose you know all about that though?' he said with a small nod of his head.

'No.' Lily said with a shake of her head, 'I don't know anything about that. All I know is that you went to live with James. He wouldn't tell me why.'

'No he wouldn't.' Sirius shook his head also. Typical James really. Wouldn't tell a soul anything you told him in confidentiality. Very trustworthy. He was a private person, not just about his own personal life but also about what ever others told him. That was why Lily knew nothing about Sirius' family or why he had left them. He didn't know what made him do it but he carried on, telling Lily everything James hadn't. 'Well,' he began, 'Regulus stopped looking up to me and stopped thinking of me as his 'big brother' when I was sorted into Gryffindor, a decision I couldn't control and didn't want to change. Because of that he conformed to the 'Black way of life'. He's everything a Black should be.'

'And you're not?' Lily said.

'No.' Sirius replied.

Lily thought for a second. 'Is that what's wrong?' she asked cautiously.

'No.' Sirius said simply, at last the hints of a smile gracing his handsome face. 'I love being me.' he said before smirking and saying, as if it was the best thing in life, 'The rebel of the family.'

'Ha.' Lily laughed once, also smiling now Sirius was, and gently pushing him to the side in a friendly manner.

'It's true!' Sirius chuckled, still smiling. Then his smile dropped and he continued. 'It's just,' he said, looking at Lily briefly as she looked at him before dropping his gaze away from her startling eyes to the ground, wondering how on earth James got any work done with those eyes watching him. He shook his thoughts away and went on. 'Regulus reminds me of the family I hate, who I should have been, who I was expected to be if I'd never been sorted into Gryffindor. So during a Quidditch match…well, it's not good to have a reminder when you're flying a hundred foot in the air.' he pointed out.

'No I don't suppose it is.' Lily said.

Sirius stopped again, waiting for Lily to ask another question or say something. When she didn't he suddenly felt rather stupid over what he had been talking about and attempted to brush her off, just when he thought he was starting to see Lily as someone that James would deem worthy to change for. But if was just going to see him as silly, well he didn't want to see that. So he just said, 'Yeah, well, thanks for listening but James is the one I usually talk to about this stuff. He understands it.' He paused and looked at her. 'You probably just think I'm being stupid.' he said bitterly.

'I don't' Lily said honestly.

'Yeah right.' Sirius rolled his eyes, not believing her.

'I have a sister.' Lily said, assuming he knew about what he relationship with her sister was like, assuming James had told him anyway. She was wrong.

'That's nothing like this.' Sirius said, 'You're still close with your sister.'

It was then Lily thought exactly what Sirius had thought moments before hand, unbeknownst to her. James; wouldn't tell a soul anything you told him in confidence. Very trustworthy. He _was_ a private person, not just about his _own_ personal life but also about what ever _others_ told him. That was why Sirius knew nothing about Lily's sister or what went on between them. It was exactly what Sirius had thought only Lily had an element in her that Sirius didn't; a warmth spreading through her as she thought that James was a very decent person. He had kept her secrets. He was very good to her.

'You went to her wedding.' Sirius pointed out.

Lily took a deep breath, knowing that if she was to prove to Sirius she was trustworthy, it was a two-way street. He had shared. She had to too. 'I crashed her wedding.' she corrected him.

Sirius chuckled and looked at her with raised eyebrows, clearly shocked. 'Perfect prefect Lily Evans crashed a wedding?' he said before thinking something and asking, 'James' idea?'

'No.' Lily said with a shake of her head. 'Mine. And I'm head girl you dolt.' she continued, pushing him to the side in that friendly fashion again.

'Perfect prefect rhymes though.' Sirius shrugged.

'No it doesn't.' Lily said.

'Sounds cool though.' Sirius muttered before turning to her again and asking, 'So you crashed her wedding?'

'Yeah.' Lily replied with a small laugh. 'Now,' she went on seriously, placing a small hand on Sirius' arm and forcing him to look at her as she said, very compassionately, 'I'd never dream of comparing my situation with yours because they're not the same. But I can empathise. My sister stopped liking me when I started Hogwarts because I was a witch. _That_ was a decision I couldn't control, couldn't change and didn't _want_ to change, just like with you being sorted into Gryffindor. She is everything I could have been if I had been born what _she_ would call 'normal'. But I wasn't. And it kills me that she can't accept me for who I am. Now, as I said, our situations aren't the same, and I'm _not_ gonna pretend they are. But I do understand. And I don't think you're being stupid. Not at all.'

Sirius saw the genuinely kind expression in her eyes. 'Thanks.' he said. She wasn't all that bad. She was a nice person. Caring.

'If you need to talk, I'll listen to you.' she went on, 'I know you said you'll only talk to James about this but if you do decided you want to talk to me, then just know that you do have the option. I won't tell anyone anything. Just like James.'

'Just like me what?' James asked, appearing behind them just at the right time. He had a knack for doing that.

Lily looked at him and smiled, a smile which he returned and which sent butterflies flying through her stomach. She turned back to Sirius and rubbed his arm supportively before standing up and saying, 'Just think about it Sirius.'

She waited for Sirius to nod before she left, leaving James to talk to Sirius which he was obviously there to do. As she passed James she kissed him softly on the cheek, unable to help herself. He hadn't told anyone her secrets. There was a new level of trust there. She had to thank him.

James let her kiss his cheek with an ounce of surprise, wondering why she was doing it. When he frowned, smiling at her, she simple smiled back and squeezed his hand before walking away. He watched her go, not able to take his eyes off of her retreating figure until she turned the corner, out of view. Then he pulled his attention to Sirius and went to sit next to him on the stairs.

'Been looking for you everywhere mate.' he said as he sat down and clapped Sirius in a brotherly manner on the shoulder. 'You alright?' he asked.

'Mmm.' Sirius nodded. He was alright.

'Black family crap?' James queried, knowing it was.

Sirius gave a breathless chuckle for James' name for his problem. James had names for everyone's problems. A prime example; Remus. Remus had a 'furry little problem'. Sirius had 'Black family crap'. He confirmed James' theory. 'Black family crap.' he repeated.

James paused. 'Wanna talk about it?' he asked.

'Nah.' Sirius sighed, 'It's ok actually. Evans helped.'

'Yeah?' James said with raised eyebrows, surprised that Sirius had let her help. Still, his thoughts sank into her and he couldn't help but say, 'Mmm. She's good like that.'

'Yeah she's not bad.' Sirius agreed, 'Better than you.'

He turned his head to look at James who was looking at him with that same surprised expression he had just been wearing with raised eyebrows, only it was joined by a grin. He knew that was as closest thing to Sirius admitting he liked Lily that he'd ever get.

Sirius chuckled at his smitten friend and pushed his head to the side in a brotherly way. He could see it. He could see why James would want to change for Lily. He accepted it. James liked her. Sirius had to like her. And they were friends. Friends. He wouldn't say any of this to James though who had known it all along, known that Lily was worth changing for. Instead, he simply said, 'You could do a lot worse.'

James chuckled and ran a hand through his hair. He sat with Sirius for a couple of minutes, neither of them talking. Sirius broke the silence.

'I just can't believe Regulus is the Seeker.' he said in disbelief with a shake of his head. 'He couldn't catch jack!'

'Hopefully that'll work in our favour.' James laughed, 'And just remember, you're the one yielding a bat and Bludger. If the sight of him bugs you too much you could always whack one his way.'

'The look of him don't bother me too much.' Sirius said, returning to his usual self and flipping his black hair over his shoulders and saying vainly, 'Least I know I'm better looking.'

'Not more than me.' James smirked arrogantly.

'You wish.' Sirius laughed.

'How sweet.' came a snide voice from behind them.

Sirius and James looked over their shoulders to see the all too unwelcome familiar face of Severus Snape; hooked nose, paled skin and greasy black curtained hair. They both rolled their eyes and turned away from him.

'Ah sod off Snivellus.' Sirius snarled at him, putting no effort into it really. He wasn't in the mood.

'Yeah.' James said, hints of his 'fifth year self' sneaking through in his voice as he said, 'We're not in the mood to kick your arse today.'

Sirius noticed this and smirked at it. Maybe he hadn't completely changed for Lily. Maybe there was still that part of him which enjoyed kicking Severus to the curb and besting him at a duelling match. Maybe.

'Doubt you could anymore.' Severus sneered, wanting James to rise to the bait. He did.

'Why Padfoot,' James said, 'looks like he thinks we've gone soft in our old age.'

Sirius' smirk widened. 'Can't have him thinking that now can we?' he said.

In unison, fluently and effortlessly, James and Sirius took out their wands and flicked them over their shoulders, specific in their aim even though they couldn't see him, and shot a double curse at Severus which sent him into the air and falling down to the ground with a thud, tied in ropes. As soon as they heard him crash dully to the floor, not a moment before, Sirius and James stood, wands held limply in their hands and walked past a bound and gagged Severus. They high fived as they passed him as they used to do before James suddenly became against cursing him. They returned to their fifth year selves only with one change.

'Don't tell Lily.' James said.

* * *

'Welcome to the first Quidditch match this season!' Mary MacDonald shouted through the enchanted microphone that magnified her voice tenfold around the Quidditch stadium for everyone to hear.

The Quidditch stadium was alight with cheers, everyone excited for the Slytherin versus Gryffindor game. The cheers became almost ear splitting when the Quidditch teams actually walked onto the pitch. From the stands, where she was stood with Remus, Peter, Alice and Frank, cheered for James as he came onto the green, waving down at him. When he returned her wave with a simple lift of his hand, she waved to Sirius and Hestia. Sirius acknowledged her wave just as James had done but Hestia waved back excitedly. Lily didn't notice the whispers around her.

The game got off to a quick start. James and the Slytherin Quidditch captain shook hands. The Slytherin Quidditch captain, Nicholas Tyler who also happened to be the Keeper, tried his hardest to crush James' hand but James withstood it, smirking at him and unnerving him just as he was trying to do the same to him. After Madam Hooch had told them they could hold hands afterwards, she gave her usual warning for a nice clean game and sent the group of witches and wizards into the air. She sent the Quaffle after them and began the match which Mary MacDonald began to commentate immediately. Well, commentate amongst other things.

'Hestia Jones takes possession of the Quaffle.' Mary said, telling the crowd what they could see obviously anyway, her voice echoing around the Quidditch stadium, 'She dodges a Bludger. Passes it to James Potter. Potter with the Quaffle. Potter shoots…HE SCORES! Ten points to Gryffindor. Wow. Good on him. Can still do his best for his house even with a broken heart.'

'Miss MacDonald.' Professor McGonagall said sternly.

'Sorry Professor.' Mary replied quickly, returning to commentate on the game.

Hestia flew past James and gave him a high five along with a questioning look. What broken heart? It seemed James didn't know either as he just shrugged at her, brushing it off and continued with the game.

Mary continued to inform the crowd of excitable Hogwarts students about the game that was going on in front of them. For a Slytherin versus Gryffindor Quidditch match, there wasn't a lot of excitable things going on. It wasn't nearly as entertaining as the Ravenclaw versus Gryffindor match where the Ravenclaw Beater literally broke most of the Gryffindor team; giving Hestia a dislocated shoulder and James a broken foot. Compared to that game, this one was quite tame. And boring. Everyone thought so.

'Twenty minutes into the game and nothing's happening.' Mary announced lazily to the crowd, 'Who else is bored?'

'Miss MacDonald.' McGonagall reprimanded.

'Well if you let me talk about something other than the game Professor-'

'We are here for the game Miss MacDonald.' McGonagall said shortly.

'Yes Professor.' Mary replied glumly. Then something happened. 'And Gryffindor's Sirius Black whacks a Bludger to the Slytherin Keeper!' she said standing up, she and the crowd captivated in the path of the Bludger which was nearing Nicholas Tyler, the Slytherin Quidditch captain. 'Ohh!' Mary said as the Bludger hit Nicholas square in the stomach, 'Down goes Tyler! Gryffindor captain high fives his Beater. Don't know how he could do that after what I've heard.'

'Miss MacDonald!' McGonagall said reaching the end of her tether. Her stern voice shut Mary up.

The game continued with only game related commentary from Mary. She told the crowd of the battles for the Quaffle between James, Hestia and the Slytherin Chasers. She informed them of Nicholas Tyler's return to the pitch and then his departure from the pitch again when Sirius once more whacked a tormenting Bludger towards the Slytherin Quidditch captain. When Nicholas finally returned to the pitch for good, Sirius concentrated his aim on his brother, but always managed to miss. Whether it was on purpose or not, nobody knew. But everyone liked to guess.

'And the Bludger sent by Black misses t'other Black by a mere three inches. Jealousy can put one off his game-alright Professor I know!' Mary said, anticipating Professor McGonagall's reprimand. She went back to the game. 'Gryffindor lead Slytherin sixty to forty.' she began before seemingly absentmindedly saying, '…Sad to say I share a dorm room with the cause of James Potters broken heart.'

She was talking about Lily. James stopped in the air, long enough for the Quaffle to be stolen from his possession, something which McGonagall wasn't too pleased about.

'Miss MacDonald!' she reprimanded loudly, her voice, being picked up by the enchanted megaphone and echoing out across the stadium, kicking James back into action.

'It slipped out!' Mary defended before muttering supposedly under her breath, '…Cheating with your boyfriend's best friend. That's low.' Everyone heard it though.

In the stands, Lily started to frown as everyone turned to look at her. She was confused. She hadn't cheated on James. She thought about it hard and realisation struck her. There was only one thing she could thing of. But they couldn't know about her drunken kiss with Sirius could they?

'Mary!' McGonagall said strictly, now using her given name to show her anger.

'Again, slip of the tongue Professor!' Mary said defensively before adding quickly, getting as much out as possible before McGonagall cut her off. 'Shame the same can't be said for Lily Evans in the leaky cauldron when her tongue slipped into-' she said.

'Mary!' McGonagall interjected.

Up in the air, James was fuming, hating the twisted truth that Mary was spreading across the stadium. He didn't like his private business being told to the whole of the school. Sirius was hating it too as, not only did it show Lily in a bad light but him too. He'd been best friends with James throughout his whole Hogwarts life. How could anyone think he would do such a thing to hurt him? In the stands Lily had gone red and wide eyed, shrinking back between Remus and Peter who were trying their best to shield her from the vicious stares and glares she was now receiving from people around her.

'Gryffindor still lead Slytherin eighty to seventy.' Mary said, returning to the game, 'Come on Gryffindor!'

'You are supposed to be impartial Mary.' McGonagall reminded her.

'Come on Gryffindor!' Mary repeated before cowering under her Transfiguration teachers glare and saying, 'I meant Slytherin Professor. Gryffindor with the Quaffle. Jones. Potter. Jones. Still Jones. Over to-ooh! She drops the Quaffle…but Potter gets it back. Jones. Back to Potter and…James Potter shoots another goal! Well done Potter! Very forgiving to his chaser who dropped the Quaffle! He saved it though. Seems to be very forgiving on and off the Quidditch pitch.'

James had had enough of his business being aired to everyone.

'Miss MacDonald I will not tell you again.' McGonagall reprimanded severely.

'Sorry Professor.' Mary said, not sorry at all, 'I swear I'll shut up. Wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of one of Sirius Black's jealous glares every time he sees Lily Evans with-HEY!'

James had flown down to where Mary was sat in the commentators stand and snatched the enchanted megaphone off of her.

'A personal life is just that! Personal!' he said, the megaphone catching his voice and ricocheting it around the Quidditch pitch softly.

Form where she was in the stands, Lily leant forwards to see him hovering on his broom over Mary, megaphone in hand. She broke into a small smile.

'Mr Potter!' McGonagall said.

'Just doing what you were gonna do Professor.' James shrugged with a smirk. He took the megaphone and flew with it over to where Lily was in the crowd. Only he wasn't flying there for her. He didn't even look at her. He spoke to Remus. 'Remus!' he yelled, tossing the megaphone lazily over to him, Remus just about catching it. 'Commentate on the game please?' he called over his shoulder as he flew back to join the match.

'Ok.' Remus said, turning the enchanted megaphone over in his hands. 'Hey everyone.' he said to the crowd, 'Err…what's the score?'

* * *

The game had finished. Gryffindor had managed a win even after Mary's wary commentary and James' momentary departure from the game. Everyone in the stadium had gone away buzzing with the gossip that Mary had leaked out into the stands. Lily hadn't. She had headed straight down to the Gryffindor changing rooms to meet James, humiliated, embarrassed, angry and upset. She had marched into the changing room, not caring that the Quidditch team would be doing just that, changing, and had gone into a sort of flurry. James had sent the Quidditch team, bar Sirius and Hestia, out of the changing room, let Remus, Peter and Alice in and then sent Hestia out to try and find where the rumour had started from. As the biggest gossip amongst them, she would be the one most likely to find out. He then tried to calm Lily down. After ten minutes of trying though he gave up.

He sat on a bench in the changing room, his school shirt hanging open for he couldn't be bothered to do it up, his head leaning back against the wall with his eyes closed. He had been watching Lily pace back and forth but she had started to make him go dizzy so he stopped. He was tired of her rant now, tired of trying to reassure her when she wouldn't take it. So he had stopped trying. He wasn't the only tired one though. Sirius was lying down on the bench opposite James, still in his Quidditch robes, his eyes also closed. Peter was sat on the floor near the changing room door, watching Lily go back and forth, his eyes darting like a he was watching a tennis match. Alice was sat on the same bench as Sirius, near his feet wishing Hestia would come back with news of who had started the rumour so that she could leave the smelly room. Remus was leant against the wall just west of where James was sitting, his arms folded. They were all tired. James sighed as Lily started again.

'How did everyone find out?' Lily wondered agitatedly, still pacing, 'It was one time.'

'Lils don't worry about it.' James said for about the fifth time, bringing his hand up to his eyes and pressing his thumb and forefingers into them.

'Everyone thinks I've cheated on you!' Lily said in a slightly high pitched voice which caused Remus to widen his eyes. Lily stopped pacing and stood facing James.

'With me!' Sirius chimed in, sitting up finally and swinging his legs around to sit up properly.

Lily looked over her shoulder to see him.

'I'm your best mate.' Sirius said, obviously as miffed about this whole thing as Lily was, 'They think I betrayed you. They think I'm jealous.' he went on, holding his arms out and looking around as if the situation had just gotten more serious. 'Now that's bad.' he pointed out.

'No it's not.' James said finally standing up and walking over to Lily. He took her hands and looked into her eyes, a look she returned only, she had a slight pout and was looking up at him through her eyelashes. 'I was there.' he went on, 'You didn't cheat on me and as long as we know that, then I don't see the problem.'

'You don't see the problem?' Lily repeated in disbelief.

'No I don't.' James exasperated, his annoyance finally coming through in his voice, taking one of his hands out of hers and holding it up to his forehead. He noticed the silence around him and Lily taking her other hand out of his. He brought his hand down and saw Lily looking at him stonily with folded arms. 'I'm sorry.' he said shaking his head at his snap. He sighed and pulled her into a hug. 'Come here.' he said, folding his arms around her in an apologetic hug, 'We can't let this get to us.'

'Too late.' Lily said into his bare chest which she was pressed against because he still hadn't done his shirt up. She threaded her arms around him, under his shirt and hugged him back, breathing in his beech wood scent. They stood in the middle of the changing room hugging for a couple of minutes, the eyes of their friends watching them until Hestia barged into the room and provided a distraction.

'Ok.' Hestia said, running into the middle of the room to stand only a short distance away from Lily and James. She was still in her Quidditch robes, carrying her broom for some unknown reason. Probably to complete the outfit. 'I've found out what's happened.'

'What?' Lily said immediately, withdrawing herself from James' hug but keeping her arm around his waist under his shirt as he kept his arm around her waist.

'Someone overheard you telling us about it on the train back from the Christmas holidays.' Hestia said unthinkingly.

James blinked and took a deep steadying breath. He turned his head slowly to face Lily. 'You told them on the train?' he asked her.

Lily looked back at him guiltily. 'Well…' she started, unable to finish

'What else did you tell them on the train?' James went on, closing his eyes and praying that she hadn't revealed anything else about what had transpired between them during the Christmas break. He couldn't understand why she would. It was more embarrassing for her than it was for him.

'Well…' she started again, still unable to finish.

'_Everything?' _James said in disbelief, taking his arm from around her. He had told her not to tell anyone. He had told her not to tell anyone because he knew how much Hogwarts wanted a piece of gossip on them. He knew how they would try to twist it so he had asked her to keep it private. But she hadn't and now exactly what he thought could happen had. And the whole school was talking about them again, something which he knew she didn't like. Yet it seemed to be because she had told her friends about her drunken kiss with Sirius. He didn't want to blame her but it was hard not to.

'They're my friends.' Lily said with a pleading tone, wanting him to forgive her, 'I needed advice. I told them before you told me not to so you _can't _be mad.'

'If it helps we both think you were very gentlemanly.' Alice said with a small shrug, walking over to join Hestia in front of an abashed Lily and a slightly embarrassed James at finding out more of his personal life had been spread about. This time by his girlfriend.

Sirius snorted.

'Great.' James said shortly shooting a glare at Sirius who was silently laughing at him.

Lily looked into his eyes again. 'I'm sorry-'

'No it's fine.' James said, shaking his head and brushing it away. He couldn't be mad at her. That damn look in her eyes that made him snap, gave a tug. It was dangerous. 'It's done now.' he said to her before turning to Hestia and asking, 'Do you know who overheard you?'

'Well…yes.' Hestia said uncomfortably.

'Who?' Remus asked, pushing himself off of the wall and walking forwards to join James, Lily, Hestia and Alice in the middle of the changing room; the main group. He stood next to James with his hands in his pockets.

Hestia took a deep breath and looked slightly angry as she said, 'Sean.'

'Sean?' Alice asked Hestia, 'Your Sean?'

'Yes.' Hestia said shortly, 'He told Joshua to prove to him why it was a good reason you chose Potter over him and it kind of spread from there. From them.'

Lily gave a single breathless laugh of disbelief and folded her arms again. James put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into his side, kissing her hair. Remus shook his head in disappointment at what some people would do to try and make themselves feel better over someone else's choice. Peter scrambled to his feet and went over to join the group in the middle of the changing room, shaking his head as Remus had done. Sirius took a more vocal approach, the only one not to join the group in the centre.

'That git!' Sirius said loudly.

'Don't worry Lily I'm gonna break up with him.' Hestia said immediately, 'I can't be with someone who's gonna come between us.'

'He's not gonna come in between us Hestia.' Lily assured her with a shake of her head.

'He's spread around the school that you're a cheater.' Hestia pointed out.

'But she's not.' James put in, determined to have it known that he didn't believe Lily could cheat on him at all, much like he could never cheat on her.

'I know that,' Hestia said with a roll of her eyes to James before turning back to Lily, 'but he still spread it. I mean, he could have really ruined everything.'

'You don't have to break up with him for me.' Lily insisted, not wanting to feel guilty over Hestia's break up. She had hated the last break up Hestia had gone through, all down to the subject of cheating, she didn't want to be responsible for another failed relationship for Hestia.

'Yes I do.' Hestia maintained, not listening to Lily's objections. 'You'd do the same thing for me if I were in your position.'

'Really Hestia-'

'No it's fine.' Hestia said shortly as if the point wasn't worth arguing anymore, 'You're more important to me Lily. It's not like I'm in love with him or anything. I can cope.'

There was a tense silence in the room where nobody dared argue with Hestia any further. Remus puffed a sigh and looked up to the ceiling. Peter copied him. Alice admired her nails. Lily leant into James and James ran a hand through his hair. Sirius stood up and walked over to the group finally, standing next to Peter. He looked around the group and smirked, ready to break the silence.

'If you want Jones,' he began, clapping Peter on the shoulder, 'Peter's available for a rebound.'

Hestia looked at Peter who was a tiny bit shorter than her. She looked back to Sirius and said sarcastically, 'Gee. Thanks.'

'Well you could have me but I'm taken.' Sirius said big-headedly, running a hand down his smooth black locks.

'Again. Gee. Thanks.' Hestia said with a roll of her eyes. She didn't know which was worse. Sirius Black or Peter Pettigrew. She shook her head. 'See you later Lily.' she said to her best friend before turning to Alice, 'Coming Alice?'

'Yeah.' Alice said, turning and walking to the door to the changing room with Hestia calling, 'See you Lily.' over her shoulder.

'Bye.' she said to her friends as they walked out of the room. When the door was shut behind them she turned to look at James and asked him, 'What are we going to do now?'

Remus had an answer. 'I think Prongs and Padfoot need to change.' he said, pointing out the obvious fact that Sirius was still in his Quidditch robes and James was in a state of undress, his shirt still flapping open.

Lily looked at Remus with a derisive look. 'I meant about this mess.' she stated.

'Only thing we can do.' James said with a shrug, the attention of the other four people in the room immediately turning to him as he explained, 'Ignore it. We know it's not true and as long as we know it I don't care what others think.'

Lily nodded her head slowly before sighing and shaking her head with a roll of her eyes. 'This school has a sick fascination with our relationship.' she said.

'Well we are fascinating people.' James said arrogantly, high fiving Sirius with the hand that wasn't wrapped around Lily's waist.

Lily rolled her eyes again, but this time at James' ego. The ever present ego of James Potter. Typical really. She took her arm from around James' waist, signalling Peter and Remus to start moving towards the door as she said, 'Get changed. We'll be outside.'

She began to walk away, to follow Remus and Peter who were making their way out of the changing room when James grabbed her wrist and pulled her back to him, crashing his lips down onto hers and slipping his tongue inside her mouth quickly thanks to her gasp of shock from when he pulled her in. He threaded his hands into her hair over her cheeks. She kissed him back and ran her hand up his chest, winding it around his neck, her other hand tangling itself into his alluringly messy hair. They broke apart thanks to a wolf-whistle coming from next to them. Simultaneously, they turned their heads to face Sirius who was standing to the side of them with his arms folded and bobbing eyebrows. Their hands stayed rested where they had been during their kiss.

'Imagining me Evans?' Sirius said, flashing a cheeky grin to Lily who just raised her eyebrows at him.

'Good god no.' she shook her head, 'Sorry Sirius but he's a better snog than you.'

'Ha!' James laughed once to Sirius before turning Lily's head back towards him with a finger under her chin. 'We're gonna laugh about this one day.' he told her with a sure nod.

'Yeah?' Lily said, not believing him.

James nodded and smirked at her, bringing his lips softly down to capture hers and kissing her gently once with a lingering kiss before pulling away.

Lily looked into his eyes. 'Today is not the day.' she said.

* * *

**Thanks for Reading!**

**Update on 12th July**

**Galindaba**


	67. Chapter 66

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello reader! Just the one chapter today folks! Sorry. :( I do like this chapter though :) hopefully you will too!**

**Heres Chapter Sixty-Six**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Sixty-Six**

Most of the chatter about the Quidditch match and the gossip gold discovered there began to die down by the end of February. As they made their way into March, the spring weather finally making an appearance, nearly all the chatter about the supposed 'love triangle' between James, Lily and Sirius had disappeared. And if James or Sirius did happen to pass anyone talking about it or overhear any gossip about it, they played on it fully, fake duelling each other in the corridors and earning detentions or creating big dramatically fake arguments about who Lily belonged with. Lily wished they wouldn't do this but she did start to see that, as James and Sirius were making a joke out of it all, a lot of the people in Hogwarts began to discredit the rumour. When she saw that this was happening, she didn't mind as much.

She and James carried on with their relationship as if no gossip about Lily's 'indiscretions' had been spread. James made sure that everyone knew he, Lily and Sirius were fine and that there was nothing going on between them that was newsworthy at all. If anyone asked he simply stated that Lily did not cheat, he was not nursing a broken heart and Sirius was not jealous of his relationship with her. Of course, he joked about it all within the group. If Lily said she had to go study he would clutch his chest and tell her he was heartbroken and if Sirius took the micky out of him over being smitten with Lily he would just state rather simply that he was jealous. He went back to normal. If you didn't know it, you wouldn't have thought anything had happened at all.

When they were in March though, and the gossip dying down, James focused his attention on more exciting things. Something which always got him buzzing even though there was still a bit of time left before the event was actually to take place. Still he was excited.

He was sat in the great hall with Lily at lunch. He was excited and she didn't seem to notice. Whilst eating, she was busy reading her Charms text book, revising the last chapter they had covered for Professor Flitwick had hinted that he would be giving them a test for their next lesson. But that was a couple of days away yet so James saw no harm in interrupting her with a subject he loved. A subject which, unfortunately, he had already gone on about far too much already.

'Hey Lils.' he said with a smirk, poking her shoulder, 'Guess what?'

Lily didn't look at him, knowing what he wanted her to guess and feeling that studying was more important that his repetitive guessing game. 'I don't need to guess.' she said in a bored way, turning the page in her book, 'I know what.'

'No you don't.' James insisted, poking her forearm now, 'Go on guess.'

'No.' Lily said, a crease furrowing itself into her brow as she attempted to concentrate on her Charms book, 'I already know what you're going to say.'

'No you don't just take a guess.' James said, covering the passage she was reading so that she would be forced to join in his game.

Lily sighed, wanting so much to be mad at him for interrupting her studying or just not studying himself but she couldn't. She turned to look at him, a small amused smile on her lips as she looked into his hazel eyes and saw the clear enthusiasm he had sparkling there. She shook her head and gave in, reluctantly beginning with, 'It's almost your birth-'

'IT'S ALMOST MY BIRTHDAY!' James said loudly causing her to laugh at his delight. He leaned forwards and quickly kissed her on the lips excitedly before pulling away and grinning.

Lily laughed at his grin, his face only a couple of inches away from hers. She shook his head at him. 'It is not possible for someone to be this excited about their birthday.' she said.

'Is for James.' Remus said as he, Sirius and Peter sat down opposite them at the long table in the great hall which was claimed by Gryffindor.

'Yeah.' Sirius put in, grabbing a crumpet from the middle of the table and having the decency to say, 'Prongs loves his birthday.' before shoving the whole thing, unbuttered, into his mouth.

'Yeah.' Peter agreed, having nothing else to say whilst fixing himself a bowl of cereal.

James sat back, moving his head away from the close proximity of Lily's lips, for it was far too tempting, and grabbing her charms book, absentmindedly flicking through it. 'You should love my birthday too Lils.' he said offhandedly.

'Why should I?' Lily sighed exasperatedly in question, knowing he would have told her anyway, even if she hadn't asked. He loved his birthday too much.

'Because it celebrates the day I deigned to bless this earth with my presence.' James said arrogantly with a cocky shake of his head earning choked back sniggers from Remus and Sirius.

Lily paused and raised her eyebrows. 'Poor earth.' she stated simply.

James narrowed his eyes playfully at her and shut the charms text book he had stolen off of her. She held her hand out for it but he didn't give it to her. Instead he smirked and passed it between his own two hands saying, 'You should thank Merlin for my birthday Lily. Just think, if I was never born you'd have had to go out with someone like Peter.'

Peter dropped his spoon.

Lily looked at him, not particularly please at the prospect. Peter was no James. And he had milk dribbling down his chin. But Lily didn't want to inflate James' head any further so she took a breath and, in her most convincing voice, or at least the most convincing voice she could muster, and said, 'I don't see any problem in that. Peter's a perfectly nice person.'

Peter smiled shyly, believing her. Sirius snorted, not. Remus just shook his head and grabbed himself a slice of toast, taking out his own book to study from, something which Lily was now being deprived of by James. But not for long.

'Yeah but he's not the eye candy I am, is he?' James boasted, now placing Lily's charm book atop his head, flattening his messy hair and balancing it there.

'Did you just call yourself eye candy?' Lily asked in amused disbelief whilst Sirius and Remus sniggered with muffled laughter again; Remus into his book to try and hide it and Sirius into his crumpet.

'Well it's true.' James shrugged.

'Ok 'eye candy',' Lily said sarcastically, swinging her legs over the bench and standing up, 'I've got to go.'

She grabbed her bag from the floor and, taking it off of James' head, shoved her Charms book into it roughly. She then laughed once at his book flattened hair before running a hand quickly through James' soft black mop to ruffle it up again, something which he did himself again after she took her hand away. She turned to leave but James' voice stopped her.

'Where are you going?' he asked her, almost demandingly as if it was his right.

Lily turned back around to face James with raised eyebrows. She folded her arms, surprised that she actually found she liked the demanding tone in his voice but determined not to let it show. 'The library.' she stated, 'Do you really need to know?'

'Yes.' James said simply, that same challenging tone still present in his voice as he went on. 'As your boyfriend it's my job to know where you are every second of every day.'

Lily bit back a smile and took a deep breath, unable to keep it from reaching her glittering emerald green eyes. 'No.' she said, 'As my boyfriend it's your job to stand next to me, smile and look pretty whilst I study and work my arse off to be a success.'

'Well I am good at that.' James conceded with a nod.

'What else would you expect from 'eye candy'?' Lily teased with a mischievous glint in her eye before she said, 'Bye.' and turned around to walk out of the hall.

'Bye.' James said after her as he tipped his head to the side and watched her stroll away. He took in a deep breath and turned back to the table, letting his breath out with a dopey grin on his face.

'Well, well, well!' Sirius said, noticing his best friend's sappy expression, he nudged Remus who looked up from his book and also saw James' face. Remus smirked. Peter noticed and looked between his three friends with anticipation, wondering what they were going to say. 'Look who's whipped!' Sirius announced in continuation.

'Yep.' Remus agreed, joining in and closing his book. 'She's tamed that wild stallion-'

'Corralled him into the stable-'

'And groomed him to be the perfect steed.' Sirius finished.

James laughed and shook his head, standing up and pointing his finger to Remus, Sirius and Peter in turn as he said, 'Jealous. Jealous. Just figured out what a stallion is and thinks we're actually talking about horses.'

Peter looked confused as James walked away. He turned to Remus and Sirius who were laughing at his expression. 'Was he not talking about horses?' he asked.

* * *

Lily settled herself in the library, determined to study the whole way through her free period. She was fully prepared to cocoon herself into her own little world, where everything was set out the way she liked it across the table, and was able to for at least half an hour of the non-lesson. She managed to read through three chapters of her Charms book and make one and a half feet of notes on a piece of parchment which was already half filled with Defence Against the Dark Arts notes, before she was interrupted. She felt a presence sit down closely next to her. Only one person was allowed to sit that close to her.

She sighed. It had been fun in the great hall, James referring to himself as eye candy but he really needed to stop distracting her now. He had meant to at breakfast but he was able to distract her just by being there. She didn't know whether he knew it most of the time but when he was around her, her concentration flew out of the window. Instead of studying she focused on talking to him, taking in his beech wood scent, (which seemed to be missing now), revelling in the comfort he gave her when he was around, kissing him and studying him. He had many ways to thoroughly distract her. She prayed he didn't know it otherwise he would be doing it on purpose and, not only would that annoy her, but the fact that he was aware he was distracting to her would inflate his ego further. It was big enough as it was. Still, today she was determined to continue with her studies. He had distracted her from them for three days straight now, she needed to break the streak. N.E.W.T's were soon.

'James I know it's almost your birthday but our N.E.W.T's are soon and I've got to study.' she said, not looking at the person next to her whom she assumed was James. 'Go away.' she said, able to be surprisingly determined for when she was talking to James.

'It's not Potter.' the person next to her said.

Lily stopped writing and began to feel uncomfortable. She recognised the voice. She hadn't spoken to him in almost a year. She hadn't been his friend in almost two. And he had the nerve to sit that close to her. She shifted slightly in her chair, moving away from him and realising why she hadn't smelt beech wood. Knowing why she didn't feel comforted but rather ill at ease. She took a deep breath. 'Same goes for you.' she said boldly, getting ready to write again, 'Go away.'

'Lily-' Severus started reaching out to stop her from writing.

'I said go away.' Lily cut him off, speaking through gritted teeth and pulling her hand away from where his hand was reaching for it. She turned her head to look at him defiantly, his eyes deep pools of black which unnerved her. He was still too close for her liking and she edged further to the side of her chair, feeling she was now the farthest she could be on the chair. 'We're not friends anymore.' she stated.

Severus paused but didn't move away from her as he knew she wanted him too. 'Because of Potter.' he blamed.

'Because of you.' Lily said with disbelief, 'Now leave me alone.'

She turned back to her Charms notes and carried on writing, knowing straight away he hadn't taken her instruction. She attempted to ignore him but he was staring at her with a severe glare which she couldn't shake. It was odd. A few years ago, she didn't mind him looking at her or sitting close to her. They were best friends and she had loved him for that. Now it made her skin crawl. Again, it was odd. A few years ago she would have hated James Potter to have barged in in an interruption yet now she felt herself wishing, praying, longing for him to do so. She even let her eyes flicker to the door in hope of seeing him, knowing that if he came in she would feel immediately at ease. With a boyfriend like James, his presence was able to do that. But he didn't come. And it allowed a gap for Severus to ask her questions. Well, question.

'Did you really kiss Black?' he asked in a low voice which grated against her.

'What?' she asked him, taken aback and turning her head to look at him again. She couldn't believe he had asked her that. She couldn't believe he had stayed sat where he was when it was very clear she didn't want him there but most of all, she really couldn't believe he had asked her that.

'Did you really kiss Black?' he repeated, a demanding growl coming through in his voice this time.

'Why do you care?' she hissed in a whisper, cursing the damn topic for rearing its ugly head again. And besides, if there was one person whom she would have thought really wouldn't care if she had cheated on James, it was Severus Snape. He hated James. Absolutely detested, loathed and despised him. He would tie an anvil to his foot and push him off a cliff if he could. She hadn't spoken to him since she had started dating James but she felt sure he wasn't skipping around ready to offer his congratulations to them both. If a situation presented itself that could tear them apart she was sure he would support it for the worst possible outcome. She was sure he would have wanted her cheating to be true, no matter what light it shone her in. As long as it broke her and James up and hurt James in the process.

Severus was persistent. 'Did you really kiss Black?' he asked for the final time.

Lily desperately wanted to get rid of him. The simplest thing for her to do would be to move but Lily was stubborn. She had had herself set up nicely for the best part of forty minutes and she was damned if she was going to be the one to move just because Severus had insisted on becoming a nuisance. In hopes of making him leave, she answered his question honestly. 'Yes. I was drunk.' she said matter-of-factly before taking on her best stern 'head girl' face and saying, rather forcefully with an irritated tone, 'Now leave me alone. In case it's escaped your attention I'm trying to study.'

She carried on staring at him, trying to back him down into leaving but he still wouldn't do it.

From across the library, having just entered the room in search for Lily with a note from Dumbledore which he had received five minutes ago, James was halted by the sight of his girlfriend having what seemed to be a staring contest with her ex-best friend; someone who she had told him on their second date that she was no longer friends with. His stomach dropped to his shoes. He had no right to want her to stop this, to stop talking to him. They had been friends after all, long before he had started going out with her or before she even started liking him, and he couldn't tell Lily who to talk to. She made her own decisions. He didn't own her and he knew that. And he liked that. She was independent and stubborn and feisty and he liked her for that. But it didn't stop him hating what he saw. He started to make his way across to her silently and slowly.

'You don't drink.' Severus pointed out quickly. The Lily he knew had sworn not to touch a drop of alcohol for she knew what alcohol could do to a person. She knew how Severus' late father had abused the substance and then abused him. She knew the effect it could have and the damage it could do. She had sworn not to touch a drop when she was friends with him.

'Not anymore I don't.' Lily muttered in reply straight away.

'It's Potter's fault.' Severus declared, fully believing it. She wouldn't have drank alcohol if James Potter hadn't convinced her too, he was sure.

'No it's not.' Lily defied in defence of James, 'He didn't force alcohol down my throat; in fact he tried to stop me.'

'Have you slept with him?' Severus asked, unable to help himself, thinking back to when James Potter had hinted at that over the Christmas holidays when he dropped Lily off in the park. If Lily denied it he would believe her. Plus he would be able to rid his brain of those images that flashed before his eyes when he thought of her. Images of her with Potter, with Potter caressing her and embracing her and adoring her the way Severus longed to adore her. The way Severus longed to love her.

'What?' Lily said with a disbelieving gasp at his sick question. 'I'm not telling you that.' she said madly, angry that he would even dare to ask such a thing about her personal life with James, 'It's none of your business. Now leave me alone Snape.'

'Sev.' Severus corrected her, longing to hear her whisper the pet name she had had for him one more time.

'Snape.' Lily said defiantly, looking dead into his black eyes to try and convey the message, 'We're not friends.'

Severus didn't get that message though or, if he did, he paid it no heed. Instead, his black eyes darted between her enticing emerald green eyes and her soft pink lips which had a trace of shine on them, his dark heart speeding up. He went for it. He leant forwards to kiss her, aching to do so as he had wanted to do for so many years. Only he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder pulling him roughly back into his seat and away from Lily's desirable lips.

'What do you think you're doing?' James asked him with forced calm and raised eyebrows. He had to stop his hand twitching and reaching for his wand for he wanted nothing more than to curse Severus right now for trying to pull what he had just tried to do.

'Potter.' Severus said, shrugging James' hand off of his shoulder harshly and standing up to face him, to make sure that James had no higher ground. He stood in front of Lily in a way which would suggest he was guarding her from James even though, by rights, it should have been the other way around. After all, James was the one dating Lily, not Severus.

Severus and James stood staring at each other, loathing in their eyes as they glared. The people in the library near them, almost as if they were magnitised, stopped what they were doing and turned to see what they hoped would be a face off between their beloved head boy and Severus Snape. Lily didn't hope this though. She didn't even spring into action as she would have done to try and extract James from the situation. Instead, she looked despairingly around at the audience Severus and James had attained, to Severus and James, and then to her Charms revision, one thought occurring to her.

'Oh good lord I'm gonna fail my N.E.W.T's.' she said with a sigh.

'Were you trying to kiss my girlfriend?' James asked Severus in a deathly low whisper so that no one else in the library could hear, try as the might to strain their ears to. 'That's not cool bro.' he tacked on the end.

'James I thought we discussed the whole bro thing.' Lily said from behind Severus, leaning back in her chair and still staring at her failed Charms work as she talked absentmindedly to James. 'You can't pull it off.' she added.

It was true. It was the other week in that rare free period when Lily sat with James, Sirius Remus and Peter, the free periods James loved so much for he was in the company of those he cared for mist all at once, James had been having a conversation with Sirius about Sirius' constant switching of girlfriends. Sirius had said that he didn't want to be tied down and gooey like James was with Lily, (which caused Lily and Remus to laugh and Peter to titter nervously). Sirius said that he wanted to always be free like a bird so that he could fly high and achieve fame and success to which James replied with, 'you can fly as high as you like bro, you still gonna be lonely'. After that, Sirius, Remus, Peter and Lily had mocked him mercilessly for, try as he might, using the word 'bro' really didn't suit him.

James stopped glaring at Severus to look around at Lily with a small Sirius-like pout. 'But I thought-'

'No.' Lily cut him off, finally looking at him with a small pitying shake of her head.

'Aw.' James moaned.

'What do you want?' Lily asked exasperatedly, wondering if it was another announcement that his birthday was soon. Counting the one he had given her that morning, she would be up to a grand total of twelve reminders in a space of two days.

'Me?' James asked, pointing to himself and flickering his glance back to Severus, knowing it would be killing him just to see Lily talking to him. He wanted nothing more at that moment than to piss Severus off for attempting to kiss Lily but if he did do anything, like take her right there on the library table, it would just be too obvious. So he settled for subtlety. 'Nothing.' James went on giving Lily a winning smile, one which he knew would make her cheeks powder pink slightly, 'But Dumbledore wants to see us in his office ASAP Lilykins.'

'Don't call me that or I swear I will hex you.' Lily said, attempting to hide her blush by packing her things away.

'Ok.' James smirked, looking back to a murderous Severus with a gloating expression clear on his face. 'Sorry Lils.' he said.

'Evans.' Severus said quickly.

Both James and Lily stopped what they were doing, whether it be silently gloating or packing Charms revision away, to share a confused look.

'What?' Lily asked.

'It's Evans to you.' Severus said forcefully, glaring and sneering at James.

James blinked and looked around himself in an obvious dramatic fashion before sarcastically saying, 'I'm sorry have I gone through a portal to the past or something? Have I used a time turner without knowing it? That's quite hard to do…I'm sure I'd have remembered-'

'James lets go.' Lily said, cutting him off as she walked to his side swinging her bag over her shoulder, took his hand and started to lead him off.

'It's Evans to you.' Severus repeated harshly after James, wondering if he could provoke him to curse him right there and then, in front of Lily. It was a long shot. And it didn't work.

'Actually no.' James said, turning around, hand still in Lily's only refusing to be led any further whilst he enjoyed taunting Severus one last time. 'She's my girlfriend.' he stated, the one sentence crushing Severus visibly as he knew it would. He needn't have continued but he did. 'So I can call her anything I like.' he said with an infallible smirk, 'Except bro. I apparently can't pull off bro. Or Lilykins. She doesn't like that either.'

'James?' Lily said with raised eyebrows, tugging his hand gently to get them to leave.

James looked down into her eyes. That dangerous expression again. 'Yeah alright.' he said. Still, he couldn't help himself. He took his hand out of hers and placed it around her shoulders in a clear statement to Severus, kissing her temple before walking off with her, looking back over his shoulder to Severus to give him a jeering grin.

* * *

Later that evening James and Lily were sat in the common room on the cushy red sofa in front of the fireplace. They had been to see Dumbledore in his office earlier that day and he had asked them to compile a list of students who they believed would make suitable prefects for the following school year even though it was ages away yet. He had asked them now though because he knew their N.E.W.T's were approaching fast and they soon wouldn't have any spare time for they would be studying too much. Or at least, he assumed they would be. Lily definitely would but it was highly unlikely that James would even crack open a text book to revise for his exams. Still, irritatingly, he would probably sail through them with flying colours, no study necessary. They were compiling this list now.

After they had left Dumbledore's office, they had had a lesson and so, were unable to do it straight away. In fact, after they had left Dumbledore's office, they had been too preoccupied doing other thing such as lessons, studying, Quidditch or, for James, pigging out in the kitchens, to get the chance to even talk to each other, let alone take up an extra head duty. That evening was the first time they had gotten to talk, to be alone. And James had been stewing all day.

'I can't believe we have to do this.' Lily said, leaning back on the sofa and into the crook of James' arm where it was laid across the edge. She was holding four pieces of parchment in her hands which had the names of all the fourth year students in each house on them. She flipped through them and glanced over them, her brow furrowing. 'It's so hard.' she complained.

James, who had been stewing all day about what he had seen in the library, stared straight ahead. He didn't look at the list of names they were being asked to choose from. He didn't even bend his arm around Lily where she was leaning as he usually would have done to pull her in closer. He just let his arm rest against the back of the sofa, unmoving. 'It'll be fine.' he said robotically.

'Sure.' Lily said with a roll of her eyes, sighing as she looked over the list of Ravenclaw names again. There were some possible candidates.

Still, James wasn't looking. He was thinking. He had been over thinking. All day. Questions had been running through his mind making the situation worse and worse in his head than it actually was. He hadn't thought of the logical reasons or solutions to the questions he was asking himself. Why was Lily sat with Severus Snape in the library?' No answer of, 'maybe Severus Snape had sat with her' coming to him. Why was Lily staring at him? No answer of, 'maybe Lily was trying to tell him to leave her alone using her most powerful weapon; her eyes'. Why had Lily not pulled away when Severus had leaned in to kiss her? No answer of, 'maybe she was caught off guard and didn't know what was happening'. No. None of these answers occurred to him and he asked them over and over again in his mind. So, to find his answers, he asked Lily his questions.

'Why were you talking to Snape earlier?' he asked Lily.

'I wasn't.' Lily replied absentmindedly, not really paying attention to his question but reading the names of the Hufflepuff fourth years instead.

'Yeah you were.' James said, taking his arm off of the back of the couch and turning to look at her, an action which caused her to do the same thing.

Lily saw he was serious.

'In the library.' James prompted Lily to remember. 'He tried to kiss you.' he went on stiltedly though a slightly tense jaw.

Lily raised her eyebrows at him and tried to diffuse his obvious irritation. 'Jealous?' she asked him, not expecting any sort of admittance in reply. After all, he had never truly admitted that he was jealous when she had had to go on a fake date with Joshua Hunt.

'Yes.' James said simply.

Lily paused. No, she had never expected admittance. 'Oh.' she said, not realising that he would be jealous. There was nothing to be jealous of anyway. No more than with Joshua Hunt.

'Didn't think I'd admit it did you.' James said, knowing she didn't. But he was jealous and, now that they were over six months into their relationship, (wow, six months!), he saw no reason to try and hide any sort of envious emotions he had away from her. She deserved to know if something had bothered him to that extent. He expected her to do the same thing.

'No.' Lily said.

'Why were you talking to him?' James asked her again.

He didn't really know why he was jealous of this. He couldn't explain it. Severus Snape was no threat to him. He beat him in every department. He was better looking, taller, excellent Quidditch player, smarter, funnier, wittier, had a better personality than him by far, wasn't interested in practicing the Dark Arts, had no desire to become a death eater, (or wasn't one already), more charming, popular and, perhaps most importantly, he actually had Lily. But he still had a jealous feeling creeping into his stomach when he thought of how Severus had looked at Lily and leaned into her. Maybe it was because he knew Lily had been friends with him before. Maybe it was because he was slightly worried that, as they had been friends and he knew, (or at least suspected), how Severus felt about Lily, there could be something there. Or maybe, and this was the far more likely option for James, it was just a natural feeling you got when someone who you despised tried to snog your girlfriend.

'He was talking to me.' Lily assured him, moving closed into him and placing a small but soft reassuring hand onto his chest, 'I told him to go away.' She looked into his eyes, the hand on his chest feeling his heart rate speed up as she did so. She had to hold back a grin at that. She didn't know she could do that to him with just a look.

'Really?' James questioned, looking between her eyes with want that tug and snap feeling presenting itself again. He hadn't noticed his heart rate speed up.

'Yes.' Lily said.

James took a deep breath. 'Ok.' he sighed, sitting back and placing his arm across the back of the couch again. He took the name filled papers out of Lily's hand and, for the first time, scanned over them.

Lily took her hand off of James' chest and turned around to sit next to him, her legs tucked up to the side, her body curving into his as his arm fell around her shoulders. She leant her head on his chest and looked over the list with him, content at their position. This was the way it should be. A Tuesday evening, encircled by the beech wood scent of James, doing their Hogwarts head duties, not caring who was looking at them, not caring about anything else but feeling safe and comforted by James' strong arms. Right there, the war raging outside of the walls of Hogwarts, (there had been more and more reports of death eater attacks), couldn't touch her. She could focus on the more trivial things of life.

'James?' she said in a sing-song way which she knew would make James smirk.

'Yeah?' he responded, moving the list of Hufflepuff fourth year students to the back of the pile and starting to look over the list of Slytherin students.

'What do you want for your birthday?' she asked him.

'Nothing.' he said in return.

'You've got to want something.' Lily said with a roll of her eyes, not believing him.

'Nope I'm good.' James said, moving onto the Gryffindor list of fourth year students.

'Come on James!' Lily said sitting up and pouting at him, 'I have no ideas.'

'Then maybe you should try to get to know me a little better.' James smirked, holding out his hand for a hand shake, 'Hi. I'm James.'

'Don't be pedantic.' Lily said, lightly slapping his hand away.

James looked offended. 'I'm not.' he defended.

Lily paused and raised her eyebrows at him. 'You don't know what that word means do you?' she questioned.

James paused. 'No.' he conceded.

'What's up?' Sirius asked as he bounced onto the couch next to Lily and put his feet up on the small table in front of him, folding his arms behind his head, the complete picture of utter relaxation.

Remus ousted a fifth year girl who had been reading quietly out of the cushy armchair next to where Sirius was sat on the sofa and settled himself into it with his own book, whilst Peter sat on the floor the other side of the small table where Sirius feet were placed up.

'James won't tell me what he wants for his birthday.' Lily told them, expecting them to give her ideas.

'Oh right.' Remus said with a nod before opening his book and beginning to read.

Lily looked at him in shock. 'Are you not gonna help me?' she demanded.

'No.' Sirius said through an almighty yawn.

'Why not?' Lily asked, doing her best not to look repulsed by Sirius showing his tonsils to the whole common room. Lily's mum had always told her to cover her mouth when she yawned and now she knew why. It was rather unsightly.

'James doesn't want anything for his birthday.' Remus said as her turned a page in his book, 'He never does.'

'See.' James smirked, still looking over the list of Gryffindor fourth years. There were a lot of them. He didn't recognise anyone's name. Maybe he'd just close his eyes and point. Put whoever the almighty 'fate' chose up for the chance to be a prefect.

'But you said you loved your birthday.' Lily said, confused as to why he wouldn't tell her what he wanted.

'I do.' James said, holding out the piece of parchment, closing his eyes and pointing to the parchment. He opened his eyes but didn't get a chance to read who fate had chosen for Lily took the parchment off of him before he could.

'Then why don't you want anything?' Lily asked him with a small whine present I her voice. She put the papers the other side of her, out of James' reach so that he would focus on her as she was focusing on him, amusing no end as she was now the person shirking their head duties instead of him. A very odd role reversal. James made no attempt to hide his amusement, showing it clear one his face as he smirked at her. Lily didn't let it bother her and just continued with, 'Presents are the best part.'

'Not for me.' James shrugged, 'I just like to celebrate my birthday.' he said before motioning around to his friends and continuing with, 'This lot always pull something awesome together.'

Lily looked around at them as well. Remus was reading his book, Peter was staring at Sirius' feet which were right in front of him as if he was having a staring contest with them and Sirius was winking over at a pair of sixth year girls who giggled at his attention being focused on them. They weren't paying any attention to hers and James' conversation anymore.

'Well they can do that but what can I do?' she continued on, turning her head back to face him, 'What do you want for your birthday?' she asked him again.

James looked around the common room as if looking for ideas, as if maybe he would find something around him that he wanted. His gaze landed on her and he smiled. He beckoned her into him as if he was going to tell her a big secret.

She leaned into him, thinking he was finally going to tell her what he wanted for his birthday. She waited with anticipation, butterflies starting to fly about in her stomach as she felt his warm breath tickling her ear. She heard him take a small breath before he finally whispered the single word. 'You.'

He pulled away, staring at her with a smile tugging up the corners of his mouth. Lily couldn't look him in the eye. She was going extremely red; she could feel it; the burning warmth spreading through her cheeks, the butterflies in her stomach now rampaging through her. She now leaned into him and through her embarrassment managed to breathe out, 'James I-'

But James cut her off before she could finish to ease her obvious discomfort. 'Not like that.' he said quietly with a quick entertained laugh as he pulled Lily into him so he could whisper in her ear again. 'My, my, my you _do_ have a dirty mind don't you Miss Evans?' he murmured.

Lily was sure she was turning redder, hearing the grin in his voice. She tried to control her blush, aware that Sirius had now focused his attentions over to her and James, listening to what they were saying. Thankfully, he was unaware of what had caused Lily to flush so much.

'Then what did you mean?' she asked James, unable to look at him for he was holding her against him, his head still so close to hers that she could still feel him breathing near her ear.

'What I said.' James replied simply, kissing her cheek and shifting them both so that he could see her eyes and look into them as he said sincerely, 'As long as you're with me it's sure to be the best birthday I've ever had.'

'What about that time we threw you a party in Dumbledore's office?' Sirius inputted.

'Oh yeah.' James nodded with fond remembrance, 'That was good. Strong second.'

'You threw him a party in Dumbledore's office?' Lily asked in astonishment, raising her eyebrows. She'd never heard this story before.

'Yeah.' Remus added in, closing his book and tossing it lazily onto the table in front of him over Sirius' feet. It slid across the table and onto the floor next to Peter. Peter picked it up and put it back on the table dutifully. Remus didn't seem to notice and just continued with, 'Very select guest list.' in a way of explaining why Lily hadn't known about this party beforehand.

'Did Dumbledore mind?' Lily queried, wondering how on earth they had managed to get into Dumbledore's office in the first place. They had had no idea of the emergency bypass the previous year when they had needed it so they must have had the password. How they had gotten a hold of that she had no idea. But then again, they were the marauders. They could get a hold of anything they wanted if they wanted it badly enough.

'Of course he did.' James scoffed, 'We were in his office. Broke this antique model of the solar system he had you see.'

'Yeah.' Sirius said, 'Venus rolled away.'

'And Peter swallowed Pluto.' Remus added.

'We threw Mercury and Jupiter out of the window.' Peter put in.

'And Prongs kept Uranus for a laugh.' Sirius laughed.

James gave a chuckle at Sirius last statement before he said, 'Dumbledore docked us fifty points and gave us all detention three times a week for four months.' knowing she would be wondering whether or not they had been caught.

'Then why did you do it?' she asked them all curiously.

'It was James' birthday.' Remus shrugged.

'We had to do something.' Sirius said.

'And you thought breaking and entering was a good way to celebrate?' she questioned them slowly.

'Well…' Sirius started, looking around at the other three marauders. Remus shrugged. Peter looked lost. James nodded his head which led Sirius to his answer. 'Yeah.' he said.

Lily rolled her eyes. 'Idiots.' she said.

* * *

**Thanks for reading**

**Next update on the 20th of July. **

**Sorry it's a long gap and sorry this is just one chapter but I am almost at the end and I want to make sure it's good! I hope, when you read it, (if you want to that is! :p I won't hold it against you if you don't but you may find all of the cookies in your house missing! :p ), you'll think it's good too! Eeek! Excited! :)**

**Thanks again**

**Galindaba**


	68. Chapter 67

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello readers!**

**Early update today especially for Lily153 who's birthday it is today! 18th of July! Happy Birthday! :)**

**Heres Chapter Sixty-Seven**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Sixty-Seven**

The thirtieth of March was a lovely spring day with a warm spring breeze blowing gently through the castle grounds as a light sun shone in the baby blue sky. It was James' eighteenth birthday, the last one he would have at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and the celebration of the day was extravagantly huge. His birthday fell on a Thursday so, the first thing he and the marauders had done was, at breakfast, claim that no Professor was to give anyone any homework that day. When Professor McGonagall objected, before James and Sirius could begin to argue their case, Professor Dumbledore had reminded her that, the previous year, on Valentine's Day, she had promised them a homework free day; a day which they could choose. They had waited over a year to use their 'free pass'. Dumbledore thought they had gusto. The only other thing they did that morning was go talk to the house elves in the kitchen.

James, Sirius, Remus and Peter skipped school that day and went down to Hogsmeade. James had tried to convince Lily to go with him, claiming that she would complete his day if she went with them, but Lily refused to miss school. Instead, she promised him that she wouldn't tell anyone where he and his friends had gone even though it was against her better nature, wished him a happy birthday and sent him on his way with a long, lasting kiss which had Sirius, Remus and Peter wolf-whistling at first but shifting uncomfortably at the end. So the boys had gone to spend the day in Hogsmeade, only returning in the evening for dinner and, perhaps more importantly, James' birthday extravaganza.

Sirius, Peter and Remus had invited the whole school and the whole school came. Well, not exactly. Only the Gryffindors, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were invited through way of announcement in the great hall at dinner time by Sirius. Before dinner, Sirius, with the help of Peter, had managed to gather the whole of the Slytherin house in the dungeons by informing them via extremely convincing counterfeit notes that their head of house, Professor Slughorn had a special treat for them that none of the other houses in the school could have. It was like drawing moths to a flame. Only the flame was false and the Slytherins ended up being locked down in the dungeons, unable to get out due to some very complicated and impressive magic, (plus some Hogwarts inside knowledge), by Sirius and Peter. And they couldn't be helped by the Professors either. Remus had done the same sort of thing with them.

Remus had sent extremely convincing counterfeit notes instructing all the Professors of the school that Professor Dumbledore wished to speak to them in his office. Again, it was moths to a flame and all the teachers of the school progressively made their way up to Dumbledore's office only, once they were inside, they couldn't open the door to get out. Dumbledore was able to open the door and he knew this but, for some reason, pretended he couldn't and let the boys carry on with James birthday party.

With the Slytherins and Professors out of the way, James' birthday extravaganza began. The marauders had taken over the great hall, the entrance hall, the first two floors of the castle and the grounds, including the black lake. They set of fireworks in the castle and they bounced off of the walls until they finally until they exploded outside over the black lake. Remus rearranged the floating candles in the great hall to spell out 'Happy Birthday James' which Sirius later rearranged to say 'Happy Birthday Specky Git'. Two of the long tables in the great hall were covered in a delicious buffet of jelly and butterbeer, the marauders having convinced the house elves to do them this one favour earlier that morning. On the table at the front of the hall where the Professors usually sat, Remus and Peter had set up a wizarding gramophone and were playing music, enchanting it so that it kept going on a loop. The other two tables in the great hall the marauders had designated as 'dancing tables' which people clambered on and off of when they fancied dancing to the repetitive music.

If you didn't want to stay in the great hall to listen to the music, dance, eat or drink, you could always go out to the entrance hall where the marauders had charmed the floor so that it was bouncy. It was like a giant trampoline. But if that didn't capture your fancy there was always the first and second floor of the castle. James and Sirius had waxed the floors and stairs and had stolen all of the mattresses from the Slytherin dorm rooms for a couple of floors of mattress surfing fun. Quite a few people enjoyed that. But again, if none of this appealed to you, there was always something else you could do outside of the castle.

They had taken over the black lake so you could skim stones across it, dangle your feet in the water or use one of the boats which Remus and Peter had 'borrowed' from the boat houses. James and Sirius had broken into the Quidditch stores and nicked all of the schools brooms and Quaffles for those who wanted to fly about. Then there was the huge wreck of chairs and tables which all four of the marauders had taken from all the classrooms on the fourth floor and thrown out of the windows into a pile which people had taken to climbing, (Remus had secured it so that no one would get hurt). After that, it was just good old fashioned fun talking and laughing with your friends.

They were able to keep their party going for four hours, from seven o'clock when dinner started, to eleven o'clock when Dumbledore finally let it be known that he could exit his office. He, along with the other Professors of the school broke up James' birthday party. At the time, Sirius had been mattress surfing with a Hufflepuff sixth year girl, (not in the dirty sense to his dismay), Remus had been rallying the boats on the black lake and Peter had been bouncing on the entrance hall floor. James had been with Lily in the great hall, stood atop one of the 'dancing tables' surrounded by other couples slow dancing to the last song of the evening holding her close against him, his arms tightly wound around her waist, her arms loosely hung around his neck, a content smile on his face as her head rested on his shoulder. There, with her, he knew. It was his best birthday ever.

The school was sent to bed but Dumbledore had excused James, Sirius, Remus and Peter from clearing the mess up their party had caused. They scarpered quickly before they changed his mind laughing and joking as they climbed up to the Gryffindor common room, discussing what they were going to do for April fool's day. Sirius suggested doing something to the Slytherins but James just said, 'Nah. Done to death. Besides, who knows how long it'll be before the teacher realise that they're all locked down in the dungeons. They might not even be around on April fool's day.' (It would take eleven hours for the teachers to realise Slytherin house had gone missing).

It took a few more suggestions before they decided what they were going to do and, surprisingly, the idea had come from Peter. Sirius and James hadn't liked it at first but when Remus backed it up saying that it was a simple but elegant plan, they soon changed their tune. They decided to do nothing. Do nothing because the whole school was expecting something. Watching them all, whether at Hogwarts or Hogsmeade, (for April fool's day also happened to be on the day when the next Hogsmeade visit was), wait on tenterhooks, flinching or jumping, spending the day on fear of what the marauders were going to do, would be extremely amusing for them. They were chattering excitedly about it in whispers as they climbed up to their dormitory. When they got there, James found a card on his bed and his owl Sox flying around the dorm room.

'What's Sophie doing here?' Sirius asked nonchalantly jumping onto his bed and lying down with his hands behind his head.

Remus rolled his eyes at Sirius' use of the name which he had given to James' owl before James had had time to name her himself.

'Birthday card from mum.' James said, ignoring Sirius' blatant attempt to annoy him. He opened the card and read the inside. 'That's odd.' he stated.

'What?' Remus asked as he sat down on his bed and started to pull his shoes off.

'Mum wants to meet me in Hogsmeade this Saturday.' James said with a small frown. In all the years he had been allowed to visit Hogsmeade, his mother had never once suggested meeting him. Not that he would have in his earlier years because it would have been seen as embarrassing, but maybe he would have done after his dad died. Still, she had never suggested it which could only mean one thing. 'Must be important.' James muttered.

'Must be.' Sirius repeated, 'Want me to come with you?'

'Nah.' James said, 'She doesn't say if you can come or not so-'

'Best leave it Sirius.' Remus finished for James, now taking his socks off.

The four boys got ready for bed quickly and settled into their beds. They would have gone straight to sleep for they were all tired, (James having woken them all up at four o'clock that morning from birthday excitement), only James seemed to have other ideas. Not only had he forced them to wake up that morning, he was now preventing them from going to sleep now thanks to his own personal dilemma.

'Ah crap.' he said, sitting up and running a hand through his hair.

'Wet the bed again?' Sirius asked with a joking smirk.

'Again?' James laughed, 'I think you're confusing me with Pete.'

'Oh.' Sirius yawned, 'Sorry. Still dry Pete?' he said loudly across the room.

'Yes.' Peter answered begrudgingly. He had wet the bet once in first year because he was homesick and Sirius had never let it go.

'No wet dreams?' Sirius asked.

'Shut up Padfoot.' Remus muttered reprimanding over to him before asking James, 'What's wrong Prongs?'

'I was meant to go into Hogsmeade with Lily on Saturday.' he said with a sigh, rubbing his eyes which he scrunched closed.

'Why don't you just take her with you?' Remus suggested.

'He's not taking me' Sirius said, 'Why would he take Evans to see his mum if he won't take me?'

'Because she's his girlfriend?' Remus said as if it was obvious, 'Cause he's met her parents so it might be nice for her to meet his mum? Because he'd already planned to go to Hogsmeade with her? Because after hearing about his girlfriend which we know from experience is a topic James will go on and on about, his mum might want to be introduced–'

'Nah it's alright.' James said, cutting Remus off of his points and ending the conversation with, 'I'll just tell Lily why I can't go.'

And with that he laid back down in his bed, a clear symbol to Remus and Sirius that he had stopped this discussion. But just because James had stopped talking didn't mean the subject was dropped. In fact, it had just gotten interesting. Remus and Sirius sat up, leaning on their elbows as they glanced at each other sharing a look that they both knew had the same question mixed in it. Had James actually told Jane Potter about Lily?

* * *

Friday evening, after the Prefects meeting, Lily met Hestia outside of the Transfiguration classroom. Hestia had complained that Lily was ditching her for James the next day for the Hogsmeade visit and had demanded that they have a girly night to make up for it. Lily had agreed immediately, knowing that Hestia didn't like the idea of being left alone for a Hogsmeade weekend and was a bit depressed that she now no longer had a boyfriend. Also, Lily felt a bit guilty over that, Hestia having broken up with him because he had spread some gossip about Lily, James and Sirius, so she thought it was the least she could do to spend a girly night with her. What she didn't know though was that she would soon be free to spend the next day with her as well.

Lily began to walk away with Hestia when James, who she hadn't spoken to today about anything other than head duties, came out of the Transfiguration classroom after her as if he had suddenly remembered something, which he had.

'Hey Lils wait up!' he called after her, jogging down the corridor to catch up with her for she had walked a fair way away already.

Lily turned around, as did Hestia, confused and curious to what James wanted. 'Hey what's up?' she asked him, wondering what he had to tell her. What he had to tell her that he couldn't have told her only moments ago when they were alone in the Transfiguration room sorting out the Prefects patrol rota for the week.

'I forgot to tell you before,' he began, (Lily thinking _ah, that's why._), 'I can't do Hogsmeade tomorrow.' he continued.

'Oh.' Lily said, a bit deflated. She was saddened by this. She didn't know why she was so saddened by this as she had spent the whole evening with him yesterday on his birthday and she had already been alone with him for more than an hour just before. Yet, all this time didn't seem to be enough. She felt as if she needed more time with him. Obviously he didn't. Unless there was another reason why he couldn't do Hogsmeade. She decided to find out, trying not to sound needy as she said, 'Ok. Why?'

'I'm me-' James started, about to tell her that he was meeting his mum instead. He was sure she wouldn't have minded. In fact, he was sure she would probably find it sweet or endearing and he would probably earn himself some brownie points for caring for his mother so. But still, he didn't tell her. He didn't know why he didn't tell her just like he didn't know why he hadn't told his mum about Lily yet. He searched and searched his head for a reason why he hadn't introduced them to each other but couldn't find one. Still, he wasn't planning on introducing them anytime soon. He wasn't planning on telling his mum about Lily either. He had no idea how to bring it up in conversation so he just left it. Plus he wasn't exactly sure what his mums reasons were for wanting to meet him so he didn't know if it would be a suitable time to tell her he had a girlfriend.

James looked back at Lily who was waiting for an answer. He didn't give her one though. All he said was, 'I can't say exactly. I'm sorry.' He saw her face had dropped slightly and he hated himself for it. But once again didn't tell her. Instead, he stepped forwards and placed his hand comfortingly on her cheek, tipping her head up slightly to look into his eyes as he went on to say, 'It's important though. I wouldn't cancel on you if it wasn't. You know that right?' in the most sincerest voice he had in him

'Yeah of course.' Lily nodded.

'Awesome.' James smiled, relieved that Lily seemed fine with this. 'Thanks Lils. You're the best.' he said, kissing her forehead quickly before saying, 'See you later.' and turning around to walk away.

'Bye.' Lily said unenthusiastically after him. 'That was weird.' she said to Hestia as soon as he was out of earshot down the long corridor. Hestia didn't answer. She tried again. 'Don't you think that was weird?' she asked her best friend, turning to look at her and raising her eyebrows at what she saw.

Hestia stood staring after James, her head tilted to the side slightly, the hints of a smile on her lips and her eyes trained on his behind, watching him walk away. 'Mmm.' she hummed absentmindedly.

'Hestia!' Lily said, hitting her friend on the arm in reprimand for staring at James in such a fashion right in front of her. She was used to girls staring at him this way but never Hestia. After her recent break up Lily didn't think Hestia would look at anyone in that way for a while, let alone James.

'What?' Hestia said innocently, 'He's got a nice arse!'

Lily paused in a slightly amused shock. 'That's my boyfriend.' she pointed out.

'And?' Hestia asked, not seeing the problem.

'Stop checking his arse out!' Lily instructed.

'Why?' Hestia questioned. She was only living vicariously through her best friend. She didn't have a boyfriend anymore and she saw no harm in looking. It wasn't like she would do anything about it. She had some of her famous un-rewritable unwritten rules about this sort of thing.

'Because he's my boyfriend.' Lily said.

'And his arse is your property?' Hestia asked with a small smile, challenging Lily to admit it, something which she knew she wouldn't do right out.

Again, Lily paused. 'Well…' she began unsurely. She technically didn't _own _James. Any part of him. People gawped at him enough anyway so she should be used to sharing the view of him. It just seemed different when it was Hestia and she felt she could stop at least one person looking at him the way she did. The way, by rights, if people had any respect for her relationship with him, only she could.

'Have you touched it?' Hestia queried suddenly.

'Hestia!' Lily said, blushing faintly pink, not wishing to share this information with her, especially in a corridor where anyone could over hear them. She had learnt her lesson after what had happened at the Quidditch match. After that she had become more like James, determined to keep their personal life personal. She wasn't going to tell Hestia what she did with James in private, so she said nothing. So Hestia assumed.

'You have haven't you!' Hestia teased with a bantering grin, 'Is it firm?'

'I'm gonna stop talking to you now.' Lily said seriously.

'Come on give me details!' Hestia insisted.

'I'm walking away now.' Lily stated, doing exactly what she said.

'Lily!' Hestia called after her, 'Take it as a compliment!' She started to walk after her with her arms out in innocent disbelieving question, whilst calling out for the whole castle to hear, 'Your boyfriend has a fit arse!'

* * *

James went to meet his Mum in Hogsmeade the next day in the Three Broomsticks, not knowing why she wanted to see him or what she was going to say. He had decided that morning though, if the tone of the visit was right, he would tell her about Lily and maybe introduce them if his Mum wanted, but only if the tone was right. If it wasn't he wouldn't for it might seem inappropriate. As it was, the tone wasn't right and it would have seemed mighty inappropriate for him to go fetch his girlfriend at that moment. Not that he had time to do so though because, fifteen minutes into Jane Potter telling James why she had asked to see him, James had stormed out of the pub. To anyone watching, it might have just seemed like a teenage hormone fuelled strop but to James, his walking away from his Mother when he did was perfectly justified. He was angry and upset at what she had told him and he couldn't bear to stay with her any longer. So he left before he said something he regretted.

He made his way back to Hogwarts, hands thrust deep in his pockets, not completely aware of where he was going or who he was passing. He was just walking. He surprised himself when he ended up in his dormitory. When he was there, not knowing why, he kicked his bed and picked up one of his Quaffles throwing it as hard as he could against the bathroom door which flew open by the force of it, the latch loosening. He then flopped onto his bed, sat on the edge, his elbows on his knees, his head in his hands. He had no idea that Sirius had followed him up from the common room and had witnessed his physical anger.

'Hey mate.' Sirius said warily, walking into the room and sitting on his own bed, concern on his face for his best friend, 'You alright?'

James didn't answer. He ignored Sirius and kept his head in his hands, his eyes staring blankly at the floor. He felt as if he should be crying. A natural reaction would be to cry. But James didn't cry. James hadn't cried since he was nine years old. So he was angry instead.

'Prongs?' Sirius said, trying to prompt James, hoping maybe he just hadn't heard him the first time and wasn't ignoring him, 'Prongs?'

Still James said nothing.

'James what's up?' Sirius demanded.

James looked up at the sound of Sirius using his real name. He shook his head and sighed, licking his lips and looking away momentarily before announcing, 'Linda's dead.'

Sirius deflated. The Potter's House Elf had died. The Potter's loved their House Elf, especially James. Linda had been the one to look after him when his parents were at work which, when he started Hogwarts, coming back only for the summer holidays, was most of the time. No wonder he had kicked and thrown things. Sirius didn't know what to say so he just asked softly, 'You ok?'

James looked at him in disbelief. He was really angry now. He raised his voice. 'No I'm bloody well not ok!' he yelled at Sirius, 'You think I'm ok? She was like family! She _was_ family!'

'I know-'

'My family doesn't hold house elves in such low standards as yours!' James continued to shout, standing up and not caring that Sirius was nothing like his family, that he had disowned his family and their ways just as much as they had disowned him. But that didn't occur to James through his grief filled rage and he continued to yell. 'We loved Linda!' he said, 'We appreciated what she did for us! We respected her! At least I did!'

Then he stormed out of the room; stormed out on Sirius just as he had stormed out on his mother. Usually, if James stormed away or walked away or stalked away from his friends, his friends would let him get on with it. James was known to just disappear if he didn't want to talk to anyone. Normally, none of the marauders would be able to find him. The first few times he had done it they had tried to but hadn't succeeded. Then they made the marauders map and it had been easier to track him down but, in the end, James had become wise to what they were doing. From then on, if he wanted to disappear, he would take the map with him so they couldn't find him. There were just times when James really didn't want to be found. And if James didn't want you to find him, you wouldn't find him. And you just had to accept it. But this time, because this was a special case, Sirius didn't accept it and decided to track him down. Luckily, James, in such a volatile mood, had left the map and means for Sirius to find him with. But Sirius had decided that he wasn't going to be the one to find him.

Sirius took the map out of James' desk drawer and tapped his wand on it once, ink spreading out from the tip where it made contact with the parchment. He scanned over the map and saw the dot labelled James Potter moving swiftly through the castle, no particular destination apparent. After he found James dot, he searched for another, spotting it immediately in the library. He folded the map back up and put it in his back pocket along with his wand before exiting his dormitory on his way to the library.

When he got there, whispers immediately rang around the silent room. Sirius Black was in the library. Something had to be wrong. Sirius Black didn't do the library. Many doubted he knew where it was. Yet he was there and, not stopping as he usually would have done to wink at the girls who were staring at him, he made a beeline for the one person he believed James would talk to; Lily Evans. If James wouldn't talk to Sirius, Sirius believed that Lily would be the only other person he would.

'Lily?' he said, sitting down next to her.

Lily looked up in surprise from the book she was reading, her finger marking the place she had gotten too. 'Sirius?' she said in innocent astonishment, 'What's wrong?'

Sirius sighed. 'It's James.' he said, sounding rather ominous.

'Why what's wrong?' Lily asked immediately, her stomach dropping to the floor and an aching in her heart as she thought the worst possible things, as she thought he might be hurt. She'd never felt anything, any worry like this before. It was intense.

'Can you go talk to him please?' Sirius asked her, taking the map out of his back pocket and giving it to her, the parchment folded in such a way that you saw James' dot straight away as if its sole purpose was to find him. 'He won't talk to me' Sirius continued, 'He'll talk to you though cause…I know he'll talk to you.'

'Ok.' Lily answered with no hesitation, but with one more question. If she was going to talk to James about something which he wouldn't even talk to Sirius about, she needed to know, 'What's wrong?'

* * *

James was in a corridor in the west of the castle. He was leaning one shoulder against the wall, his head also resting against the stone with his arms folded and his legs crossed. He was looking out of a large window which overlooked the grounds; the black lake, the beech tree and edge of the forbidden forest. Hagrid's hut was obstructed from view but James knew it was there. He stared out of the window, lazily and unfocused on the students enjoying the light spring weather. James was wishing it would rain. He wished the April showers they were so used to would make an appearance so that he could clear his head. He just needed a walk in the rain. But instead of rain, he got a pain. A pain in the form of Severus Snape.

'Potter.' Severus sneered at him as he moved into his peripheral vision, his wand already out in his hand as if he was expecting a duel. He stood in front of a stiff suit of armour that was holding a machete. The armour was in front of a royal looking tapestry which, James knew, had a broom cupboard hiding behind it.

James saw this but didn't want to give him the satisfaction of being provoked and with the way he was feeling, he would probably do a lot more than just curse the slime-ball. He'd be lucky if he didn't kill him. James took a breath to calm himself. But Severus kept staring at him, forcing him to react with harsh words. 'Oh piss of Snivellus.' James spat at Severus, not looking at him fully.

Severus saw that James wasn't taking his wand out. He needed him to. He needed him to curse him, a curse with visible effects preferably or he would never be able to prove to Lily that James Potter hadn't changed. 'Gonna make me?' he taunted, trying to bait him, 'Hex me?'

'If you don't leave in the next five seconds, yes.' James said honestly and aggressively, his hand now itching towards his own wand which was in his back pocket.

'I doubt it.' Severus said with an evil leer, knowing what to do to get under his skin. He just needed the right reference and, luckily for him, he had it. 'You couldn't even curse me the other week in the library.' he said.

'Five.' James said, pushing himself off of the wall and turning to face Severus, his face stone.

'Remember.' Severus continued, 'When I was with Lily.'

'Four.' James counted down, reaching round into his back pocket.

'And I leant into kiss her.' Severus went on, getting his reaction.

'Three.' James said through gritted teeth, his wand in his hand, a dark look in his eyes.

'And she didn't pull away.' Severus sustained.

James was provoked. he would swear to it. He shot a curse, a burst of white light, out at Severus; a stinging hex which hit him square on the left arm, causing it to swell alarmingly fast. Severus didn't seem to mind the searing pain it caused him. In fact, he seemed to derive a sick pleasure from it but James didn't know why.

'What happened to five seconds.' Severus taunted with a sneer.

'I lied.' James snapped, throwing his wand into the air once and catching it fluently, allowing himself to be pleased at his handiwork momentarily before barking back at Severus, 'Now piss off! The sight of you makes me sick!'

But Severus didn't leave. He stayed, his left arm swelling and said with an evil curl of his lip, 'The sight of you probably makes Lily sick. Why do you think she didn't have any objections to me trying to-'

'I swear on Merlin's _grave_ if you don't get out of here I will end you.' James cut in in a deathly quiet voice which threatened Severus' very being. He hated what he was saying. It made his skin crawl. It made him want to kill him. He knew it wasn't true because Lily had told him so and he trusted her. But Severus' words still made him feel nauseated.

Severus knew he was getting to him. He simply gave him a taunting sneer which sent a glimmer of a provoking smile through his sallow face. He was breathing heavily as he stood staring at James, aggravating him to the point where James could stand it no more. James gave a quick harsh flick of his wand and the still suit of armour that stood behind Severus dropped its machete. The sharp blade fell and skimmed Severus' right arm, ripping the material of his robes, (for Severus never wore muggle clothes), and grazed his skin causing it to bleed but only slightly. Against his will, Severus cursed at the pain yelling, 'You arrogant twat!' out at James.

'Leave me alone or I swear I'll do a lot more than let a suit of armour attack you.' James said back to him, still in that low but threatening whisper, more threatening than if he were to shout. He scowled at Severus and Severus scowled back.

'James?' came a soft voice from around the corner.

James' face dropped its scowl at Lily's voice and he couldn't help but close his eyes to savour it, his guard dropping knowing that Lily was near.

Severus' guard also dropped but not because he heard Lily's voice, because he noticed James' face. He knew that look. He gave that look. He knew it was the look he had on his face whenever he was alone and thinking of Lily. He knew.

James regained his composure quicker that Severus did and, fast as a flash, James stunned Severus and walked quickly over to him. He reversed the stinging hex he had cast on his left arm and he healed the skin that had peeled off when the machete had hit him, removing all evidence that he had cursed him at all. He then hurriedly, with the useful aid of magic, swept back the ancient tapestry to reveal the broom cupboard behind it, opened the door and levitated an unconscious Severus inside to hide what he had been doing from Lily. He had just enough time to let the tapestry swing back into place, stroll over to the window and lean on the stone sill below it before Lily came around the corner and saw him.

'James?' Lily queried tentatively, making sure it was him. Sirius had shown her where he was on the map and assured her he would stay there for a while yet but wouldn't let her take the parchment. So she didn't have the map with her and, even though her heart told her it was him, her head forced her to check.

James took a deep breath to compose himself before looking over his shoulder to confirm to her that it was him.

Lily walked forwards and stood next to him placing a gentle comforting hand on his arm. 'Are you ok?' she asked him softly, 'Sirius told me what happened. I'm sorry.'

James couldn't help but give a bitter disbelieving laugh at her apology. 'No you're not.' he said with a shake of his head, his mind returning to his anger over Linda's death rather than what he had now realised was a one-sided duel with Severus Snape. 'Nobody's ever sorry that a house elf dies.' he went on, turning his head to look Lily.

'I am.' she said truthfully.

James stared into her eyes, her emerald green eyes. 'You're about the only one.' he said, believing her.

'No I'm not.' Lily continued softly, taking her hand off of his arm so that she could lean her hip against the stone sill below the window. She looked at James and placed her hands over one of his on the window ledge. 'You're sorry.' she said, 'And your mum-'

'No.' James cut her off, shaking his head. 'Well yes, but…no.' he went on.

'What do you mean?' Lily questioned curiously.

James took a deep breath. 'My family,' he began, 'although probably one of the kinder wizarding families towards house elves is no better than the rest of them.' He sounded calm at first but slowly, as he spoke, his emotion started to show through his voice, 'That house elf gave her life to us, she was devoted to us and yet, still, my mum didn't think it…dignified to give her a proper send-off around 'eternally resting wizards'. She was given no coffin. No burial. No ceremony even. Just…burnt. Just burnt in the garden like a scarecrow on a bonfire. And I didn't even get to say goodbye.'

'Are you sad?' Lily asked hesitantly.

'No.' James said bluntly, 'I'm angry.' He took his hands off of the window sill where he was leaning, taking one of his hands from underneath Lily's hold and walked away from her. He stopped a few feet away, his back to her. He was facing the suit of armour, the machete it had been holding still on the floor. James stared at it.

'James,' Lily said from behind him, and James could feel that she had moved a bit closer. 'It's ok to be sad when someone you love dies.' she assured him.

'I know that.' James said, staring at the machete a couple of seconds before turning back around to face her. He ran a hand through his hair. 'I am sad.' he told her, not wanting her to think that he was completely devoid of that emotion even though he wasn't sure if he was sad at all. He felt too angry to be sad. 'I'm just…' he went on, shoving his hands in his pockets, 'I wish I could have said goodbye. Properly.'

'Well…' Lily said, taking a hesitant step forwards, 'It's not properly but, you could say goodbye now.'

'No.' James said immediately, dismissing the idea.

'James-'

'No.' James repeated strongly, 'I'm not saying goodbye to her here, when she's _not_ here. That's stupid.'

Lily looked a bit hurt. 'James I'm trying to help-'

'I know.' James said, cutting her off again. He looked at her and immediately regretted his abruptness, the hurt look in her eyes gaining a strange vulnerability which he'd never seen before. He'd seen her vulnerable before on a rare occasion but this was different. He didn't know why but he couldn't stand the thought that he had caused that expression in her eyes. He immediately took on an apologising tone and walked forwards to her.

'Lils, I know you're trying to help and you are helping.' he said before pulling her into him for a hug, circling his arms around her. He felt her lay her head against his chest and he kissed her hair, breathing in her flowery scent before resting his cheek on the top of her head. 'Just you being here, with me…' he continued, 'It helps. I don't know why but it does.'

'Really?' Lily said into his chest, her words vibrating against him.

'Yeah.' James said honestly, stroking her long deep red hair and closing his eyes, 'Believe me. You're doing enough just by standing here. I couldn't ask you for anything more.'

'Well I-' Lily began but was cut off by a crash emanating from behind the tapestry. She pulled away from James to look at where the sound came from. 'What was that?' she asked him, now spotting the fallen machete on the floor.

James, who still had his arms round Lily's waist just as she still had her hands resting on his arms, looked over his shoulder to look at the tapestry. He gulped guiltily, praying that that crash wasn't the sound of the stunning charm he had placed of Severus wearing off. He wasn't concentrating fully so it might have been. He couldn't risk, he didn't want Lily to see Snape emerging from that cupboard and telling her what he had done.

'Err…nothing.' he said, turning her around so that she was gripped to his side, his arm around her waist. 'Come on.' he went on, 'Let's go outside. Maybe I can say goodbye to Linda there.'

And he led her away. But not before one last look over her shoulder at the suspicious machete that was still lying on the floor.

* * *

**Thanks for reading**

**Galindaba**


	69. Chapter 68

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello readers!**

**Heres Chapter Sixty-Eight**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Sixty-Eight**

It took James a couple of weeks to stop being so angry. He apologised to Sirius for what he had said to him, knowing he had crossed a line when he had referred to Sirius as still being part of the Black family. He wasn't. Not at all. If he could change his last name then James was sure he would do it because he hated being associated with them. So James had apologised the only way he knew how; he brought Sirius a load of food which Sirius took gladly, accepting the apology straight away when he saw that there was pie. And 'apology pie' as James had dubbed it.

Things went back to normal and, in every aspect of James' life, things seemed to be going well, moving along smoothly with no interruptions. He had apologised to Sirius and they were fine. He stood by Remus during the full moon, dutifully making valid excuses to Lily as to why they couldn't do the patrol, careful to avoid telling her anything about Remus' 'furry little problem'. He even tried to teach Peter some of the Transfiguration skills that he, Sirius and Remus had been learning over the past couple of years, being extremely patient when he couldn't do it and not sharing his opinions when he secretly thought that it was a good job he didn't take Transfiguration for he was useless at it. Lastly, his relationship was blossoming well. For all intents and purposes, he appeared to be the perfect boyfriend and, if people weren't jealous of Lily beforehand, they were when they saw how he was with her.

He took her for walks around the grounds in the evening with his arm around her, carried her bag when she over filled it with books and it became too heavy, walked her to classes, waited for her after her Ancient Runes class and stole sweet, passionate kisses from her in the hallways. When she went to study, he allowed and respected her space, never pestering her if she didn't want him there but, if she had been revising for an overlong amount of time he would take her some of her favourite sweets, (exploding strawberry bon bons), and a drink to make sure she kept her sugar levels up. The little things he did for her though wasn't why more people were jealous of Lily than before. No, it was the way he looked at her that they envied. Every girl wanted to be looked at like that by someone but James seemed to be the only one who could dish out these looks. He looked at her as if she was the only person in the world that mattered. There was such adoration and devotion in his eyes that every girl in the school would be sure to melt if he looked at them like that. Lily however, the girl who was going out with him, the girl who these looks were solely reserved for, didn't seem to notice or melt at his ardent gaze. Or if she did, she didn't let on.

So James Potter appeared to be the perfect boyfriend to everyone but he thought himself anything but. Ever since his house elf died, he had been feeling guilty. At first it started out as guilt over the fact that he couldn't cry at her death but then it stemmed out onto other things. Mostly the secrets he was keeping from Lily. Because he had never told her about Linda, he then started to think of all the other things he hadn't told her, which he had no intention of telling her even though the guilt it caused him was sometimes unbearable. Especially when she smiled at him, thinking that they shared practically everything with each other. He knew that she had shared more of herself with him than even Hestia, her best friend, and that just made it worse. Lily had told him her secrets yet he had told her hardly anything.

He hadn't told her where he had lived before the Christmas holidays and he hadn't told her about Linda until it was too late to meet her. These were now out in the open but his other secrets weren't. He hadn't told his mum about her. He hadn't told her he had met his mum in Hogsmeade when he received new of Linda's death, (though he suspected that Sirius had told her that). He hadn't told her why he needed to avoid having certain patrol dates, lying about the reason behind them all the time. He hadn't told her that Remus was a werewolf and so, by extension, he hadn't told her he was an Animagus. He hadn't told her that he had broken the law, that by all definition of the word, he was now a criminal. He would never tell her that and it killed him inside to think that she would never know a side of him that he was so proud of; the part of him that would do anything to help out a friend, no matter the cost. She would only ever know the side of him that used to bully her best friend, who she believed had changed for her. But now, that wasn't true, because, also since Linda's death, James had taken to cursing Severus again.

He hadn't planned on starting to, (what Lily's dad would say), bully him again, but Severus really didn't make it easy for James to walk away. He had followed him around for a few days after Linda's death, taunting him with the fact that he had almost kissed his girlfriend and she didn't pull away. At first, when James cursed him, it was just a reaction to what he was saying but, after a few days, Severus didn't have to say anything at all. All he had to do was be in the general vicinity of James when no one else was around and James would curse or hex him. He did it straight away so that Severus didn't have the chance to defend himself or, as James suspected he would do given the chance, throw the curse he had made up at him, (_Sectumsempra)_.

He had already thrown it at James three times over the past year; twice at Christmas when James managed to dodge it and once the previous school year when he hadn't been that lucky. It had hit him that time and it was the most physically painful thing James had had to withstand, and that included the injuries he had received after the Hogsmeade attacks. James justified his hexing of Snape by viewing it as a kind of pay-back for the whole of sixth year when he did nothing to defend himself every time Severus cursed him, (not just with his own spell), but, unlike in previous years when he had hexed, cursed and basically just tortured Snape, James felt guilty. Because once again, this was something he hadn't told Lily and he knew she wouldn't like it.

He hadn't told anyone actually. Of course Sirius, Remus and Peter knew about the menial hexes, tricks and curses that Severus had thrown at James the previous year and they also knew that James had done nothing to stop Severus cursing him because, at the time, he had been trying his hardest to get into Lily's good books and become friends with her. But they didn't know that James had started to hex Severus this year. They didn't know that Severus had used his own spell on him and had made his arm bleed furiously. No, they didn't know that. All they knew about that was that James had appeared with the sleeve of his usually clean and crisp white school shirt stained to high heaven in blood. They had asked what had happened but James refused to tell them, denying that there was even blood on his shirt in the first place. They had been kept in the dark about that for a year, yet another thing he was feeling guilty about and yet, another thing he didn't fancy sharing. He didn't know how they'd react to him keeping such things from them when their whole friendship was supposed based on loyalty and trust. He didn't want to find out what they'd do.

He pushed his guilt down though and just tried to act normally. He was very good at it. No one would have thought anything was wrong. He was still himself, looking at Lily in that devoted way, dropping sweets off for her in the library, walking around with his friends as if he owned the halls and just, sometimes, being a child. Like right now. He, along with Sirius, Remus and Peter, was walking through the halls of the castle with their school ties tied around their heads, playing an odd word game of all things.

'Fart goblin.' Remus said after a moment's thought.

'Gassy hippogriff.' Peter put in in a small squeak.

'Humping imps.' Sirius announced boldly.

'Humping imps?' James asked with a laugh as the four boys turned a corner on their way to the common room.

'Yes.' Sirius nodded, 'How do you thing imp's come to be?'

Remus and James stopped, Peter almost crashing into the back of them, and looked at Sirius in a slightly curious way.

'I swear if someone took a trip into your mind they'd be scared for life.' Remus said simply.

'I second that.' James agreed, 'Your mind is a weird, weird place.'

'Your go Pete.' Remus said, as they started to walk again on their way to Gryffindor tower.

'Insane giant squid.' Peter said, more certain this time than he had been before, finally getting the game that they were playing and becoming more confident in it. But his confidence was short lived thanks to his lack of knowledge of things to do with the alphabet.

'Giant begins with a G not a J.' Remus corrected him, unintentionally breaking his self-assurance.

'Oh…' Peter said, deflated.

'You're so smart Moony.' Sirius said batting his eyelashes sarcastically at Remus who just rolled his eyes.

'You're the master of spelling!' James joined in, adding a sigh to Remus' roll of the eye.

'All hail moony! Master of spelling!' Sirius shouted suddenly, throwing his fist into the air whilst James started to mockingly bow repeatedly as they carried on walking down the corridor.

'Jumping kelpie.' Remus said assertively to change the subject.

'Jumping kelpie?' Sirius asked as the four boys turned a corner, heading towards one of their secret passageways that was a short cut to the common room, 'That's tame Moony.'

'Better than half the stuff you come out with.' Remus said with a chuckle, stuffing his hands into his pockets as they neared the too small door which only Peter was really small enough to fit through.

'Too true.' James laughed.

'Like when you tried to convince me that Prongs was being told what to do by evil wombats.' Remus remembered.

'Evil wombats?' Peter questioned curiously.

'They're telling Prongs what to do.' Sirius stated as if he hadn't spoken truer words before in his lifetime.

'No they're not.' Remus said with exasperation, wishing he'd never foolishly brought this up already.

'Can't be too careful.' Sirius breathed with a suspicious sideways look at James who simply smiled.

Peter looked up between Sirius and James with a muddled look. From their expressions, he couldn't tell if this was a joke or not. Sure Remus had said it wasn't true but James and Sirius were very convincing. Peter couldn't help but ask, 'Are you being told what to do by evil wombats Prongs?'

'I'm not at liberty to say.' James said seriously to Peter raising his eyebrows once.

Remus shook his head at Peter's gormless expression and opened the door which would lead them into a large spacious passage and then, in turn, to a steep staircase that would lead them the seventh floor and the Gryffindor common room. James walked through the door followed by Sirius, ducking their heads down for it was quite low. Remus followed them through. From behind them, they heard the door they had just walked through open and close again. James and Sirius looked at each other confusedly before remembering the fourth marauder with them and started absentmindedly looking around for Peter. But he was stood next to Remus who had walked through the door after Sirius had. The four boys frowned at each other, Sirius counting them just to make sure that they were all there. When he finished counting, he turned around and saw who had followed them through the door.

He sighed with irritated exhaustion. 'Are you following us?' he asked Severus Snape harshly.

James sighed too, the need to hex Severus rising up as he stood in the same space as him. He tried to push it down but was unable to hold a comment in and said, glaring at Severus, 'He's been stalking me.'

Remus and Sirius grimaced, both wondering why this was the first they were hearing about this. Still, it didn't stop Sirius stating, 'That's creepy. You should file a complaint.'

But James, who was tired of hiding things and feeling guilty all the time, who couldn't help himself any longer for it was like an unhealthy addiction, simple sighed and said, 'Why should I file a complaint when I could just…' and then waved his wand, sending out a hex which hit Severus' arm, making it erupt in bleeding and pus filled boils.

James looked at the damage he had done, guilt settling in again, waiting and expecting Severus to try and throw something back like he usually did, but he didn't. He simply looked down at his arm and gave an evil smirk to himself before walking away, back through the door.

'Prongs.' Remus said, having to use his disappointed tone of voice, the one which he hadn't had to use in a while for James.

'What?' James shrugged, already regretting what he had said and the hex he had thrown. 'He provokes me.' James said in way of explanation, giving no further details as to why or how Severus provoked him.

'Provokes me too.' Sirius added, with what was obviously meant to be a cool nod of his head.

'How?' Remus asked exhaustedly.

'By following us.' Sirius replied simply as if the answer was clear to see.

Remus shook his head, disappointment in his eyes which always made Sirius and James feel bad for what they had done to Severus in the past. Remus didn't know if it still worked but it was worth a try. He turned his attention to James. 'How does he provoke you?' he softly demanded, 'I can't remember the last time you two duelled.'

'Just now.' James said cheekily, hoping that Remus would drop the subject, rolling his eyes in exasperation and walking away unhappily as he had done so many times in the past; disappointed at James for bullying someone and disappointed at himself for not being able to stop him. James wished and prayed that this would happen now for he had already started to feel guilty, an inescapable feeling within him these days. He knew the reason why but he daren't bring anything up with anyone. He figured there were two ways to ease his guilt; stop cursing Severus and tell Lily and his friends everything that had gone on, Severus throwing his own spell at him and what not. Or, just tell Lily everything. Everything he hadn't told her because that was where the main seat of his guilt slept. The secrets he was keeping from her killed him. He wanted her to know everything about him. He had never felt this way before. He knew. But he couldn't do either of these things because the drama that it would create and the drama that would follow just wasn't worth it. So he hoped Remus would just walk away. But he didn't.

'That wasn't a duel.' Remus pressed on, 'I meant the last time he threw a curse at you.'

'Dunno.' James lied. But he did. He knew the last curse Severus had thrown at him. The last successful curse he had thrown at him burned into the back of his mind. Or his arm. Again, not something James wanted to tell anyone. So he just said, 'Whatever.' with a shrug of his shoulders before covering his bases and saying, 'Just don't tell Lily.'

He didn't want Lily to know.

* * *

Lily was in the library studying and sucking on a strawberry exploding bon bon from the bag of sweets that James had dropped off for her. When she thought of this, she couldn't help but smile. When she tasted those sweets, she found her mind wondering and wishing she could be tasting him instead. Tasting him and smelling him and just being with him. But she had to study and he was a distraction. A much wanted distraction but a distraction nonetheless. And when N.E.W.T's were creeping up on her and her entire future career rested on how well she did in those tests, she couldn't afford to be distracted by him. So when she felt someone sit down next to her, she focused on her books and very calmly tried to tell him to stop distracting her.

'James you're gonna have to stop this.' she said, forcing down a smile as she thought of his smirking face as she tried to concentrate, 'You distract me, you know that. Distract me later. We can-'

'Not Potter.' came snide words from next to her.

Lily's hidden smile disappeared. She was glad she didn't finish that sentence. She didn't look up. Instead, she gave an irked sigh and continued to study, bitterly asking, 'What do you want Snape?'

'I just want to sit here.' Severus said. He sounded strangely happy. But his happiness didn't sound pure.

Lily sighed again, blowing the deep red hair out of her face. 'Fine.' she resolved, packing up her books, ready to move for she knew how James had felt last time this had happened. She didn't want him to feel like that again. His happiness was more important to her than her stubbornness to stay in a spot just because she was there first. She stood up and shoved her books in her bag. 'You sit there then.' she said to Severus, barely glancing up at him. 'I'm gonna go study somewhere…else.' Her brief glimpse at him stopped her in her tracks as something caught her eye and curiosity caught her mind. 'What happened to your arm?' she asked.

Severus' arm was red raw. The sleeve on his robe was bunched up near his elbow, allowing his injuries full display to the public eye. It was covered in lumps and bumps, all delightful shades of sparkling red and creamy yellow. He looked down at it and then back up to Lily with a glimmer of a smile in his black eyes. 'You noticed.' he said.

'It's pretty hard not to.' Lily pointed out, grimacing at the unsightly wound, 'It's bleeding. And it's got puss leaking out of it. What did you do?'

'I didn't do anything.' Severus said, standing up, standing close to her. His hooked nose was barely a foot away from hers. His looked deep into her emerald green eyes, soaking in their purity as he conveyed his message and said, 'Someone else did.'

'Don't.' Lily swallowed, taking a step back and shaking her head slightly.

'He did.' Severus said, truth oozing out of his words. He stepped forwards towards her.

Lily took two steps back. 'He wouldn't.' she denied with a small dubious laugh, not believing that Severus would stoop to this just because he didn't like James. 'He stopped this last year.' Lily said adamantly. She knew James had stopped this the year before. It was one of the reasons why she had given him a chance. If he had cursed Severus now…no. He couldn't have cursed Severus now. Not when she felt herself falling. Not when she knew where things with him were heading. James wouldn't jeopardise that. Would he?

'He's not changed as much as you think he has.' Severus stated, a hard expression creeping into his face as he saw the hurt in Lily's eyes over James Potter, 'He hasn't changed at all. He's still the arrogant git who you used to call-'

'Well I don't now!' Lily hissed at him angrily. How dare he try to remind her what she used to think of James. She knew perfectly well what she used to think of him. And she knew what she thought of him now. And she knew what she could be thinking of him soon. She shook her head again in denial. 'He didn't do that.' she stated, trying to sound sure of what she was saying, but doubt was now creeping into her mind. Perhaps she was just trying to find an excuse, an excuse because she was scared of how serious thing had been getting. Still, doubt presented itself.

'Check his wand.' Severus suggested, 'You'll see what the last spell he cast was.'

'I don't need to check his wand.' Lily said, swinging her bag over her shoulder, ready to leave, 'I'll just ask him.'

'And if he says he didn't do it?' Severus asked as she started to walk away.

'Then he didn't do it.' Lily said over her shoulder.

'You'd believe him over me?' Severus called after her, demanding the answer angrily for he couldn't believe it. James Potter was a proven liar and a bully and just an alright arrogant pain in the backside, whereas Severus, in his own view, wasn't.

Lily stopped and turned around to face Severus one last time. 'Any day.' she said truthfully, before walking away from him and out of the library.

* * *

'James, can I talk to you?' Lily said as she barged into the common room, walking straight over to where James was sat with his friends in their usual spot around the fireplace.

'Sure.' James said, oblivious to what was about to happen.

'In private?' Lily added.

James looked into Lily's eyes and became unsettled instantly. The expression she wore was all too similar to the one she used to wear when she used to berate him and tell him off for bullying someone. When she used to hate him. He glanced around at Sirius, Remus and Peter. They saw it too. James looked nervously back at Lily, wondering what on earth she had found out. It could be anything. After all, he had a stock pile of secrets and guilt that she could draw from. She could have found anything.

He took a deep breath. 'Ok.' he said, but was too scared to move.

'Now!' Lily said sternly, not waiting for him any longer and turning around to walk out of the common room, expecting James to follow.

James took one last look at his friends before standing up and following Lily out of the room. Remus and Sirius looked at each other as James left, the guilty expression in his eyes keying them into the fact that something was about to happen. Lily had found something out, something which James didn't want her to know. They only knew of one thing; Remus' 'furry little problem'. They immediately followed James out of the room.

* * *

Lily walked into a spare classroom trying to calm herself down. Severus had probably been lying. He would probably do anything to break her and James up, she knew how much he hated James. But there was still that little seed of doubt in her mind and unless she asked James for the truth, that seed would grow and grow until her relationship with him was destroyed. She didn't want that to happen, especially not now.

She heard the door close behind her and turned around to see James, as expected. He was stood in front of the door, as if ready to open it again, but his hands were in his pockets. Lily looked up into his eyes, an unmistakable trace of cautiousness and guilt there as he asked her, 'What's up?'

Lily took a deep breath. She could be imagining the look of guilt. It meant nothing and unless she heard true admittance from him, than this was just Severus trying to play games with her. She didn't know why she was listening to him in the first place, they weren't friends anymore. But she had listened to him and she needed to know.

'Just listen to me first ok?' she said.

'Ok…' James replied, his heart starting to beat faster as suspicions and suggestions of what she could say next crept into his mind.

'Snape came to sit next to me in the library again but before you ask he didn't try anything like last time.' Lily began, making things clear right from the get go, 'Anyway, I tried to move but I saw something on his arm and it was bleeding and leaking puss and, well I was curious so I asked what he'd done. And he said that you did it to him. He told me that as much as I wanted to believe it you've not changed at all. He told me that you still hex him and that you hexed him earlier today. But if you tell me that it wasn't you then I'll drop it. I'll believe you James. Did you hex him?'

She looked at him, wishing to see confusion in his eyes, wishing him to ask her why she would believe such crazy things when she knew who he was now, knew how he'd changed. She looked at him, praying and hoping because not seeing these things would hurt her more than physical pain. She didn't see any of these things It broke her heart so much it felt as if someone had literally taken a knife to her. She didn't know why. When James said nothing, a rip tore through her soul.

'James?' she prompted, giving him another chance, wanting him to speak and tell her it wasn't true. But he didn't.

'What do you want me to tell you Lils?' James said, 'I'm not gonna lie to you.'

Because James was tired of lying to her. Granted he would never have chosen to tell her this but now that it was out in the open, he saw no reason to continue hiding it, lying to her. He hated lying to her. She had put so much trust in him and he had repaid her poorly. Letting her know the truth about this, although it caused their first argument, was his first step into being completely open and honest with her like he so desperately wanted to be.

Lily wasn't happy. She hadn't wanted to believe what Severus had told her and yet, James wasn't denying it. 'So you…God James how can you still be pulling this kind of crap?' she asked him and angry astonishment.

'He deserved it.' James said simply.

'No one deserves to be hexed James!' Lily told him, her voice rising in volume.

'Snape did!' James said, fully believing it, 'The git had it coming.'

'The git had it coming?' Lily laughed in disbelief, 'For goodness sakes James can you hear yourself right now?'

'Yes.' James replied.

'I thought you had stopped this!' Lily said, becoming madder by the minute. She couldn't believe she'd been so foolish to believe that he had changed. She could have sworn he had. She thought that all of this had stopped at the beginning of their sixth year. He had had her fooled for over a year and a half now. But through all of this, she couldn't believe that her opinion of him could change so quickly because of one thing. And she couldn't believe how much it hurt her. Most of all, she couldn't believe that, even though she hated that he had started to do this again and all she wanted to say was that she couldn't be with him when he pulled this sort of thing, she couldn't. She couldn't walk away from him, from this, and so they were stuck in an argument.

'Well I took it up again.' James told her, a sarcastic note in his voice.

'Don't try to be a smart arse!' Lily said instructionally.

'I am smart Lily!' James replied, matter-of-factly and arrogantly, 'I'm smarter than you!'

Lily was speechless at that comment. He was calling her dumb? She wasn't dumb. She was just as smart as he was, even if she had had to work at it. Not everyone could skate through life, not picking up a book to study from in their life and still pass all their exams with flying colours. Some had to work at it because they cared more. But that didn't mean she was any less smart than he was.

James looked at her face and he knew he had overstepped. He had crossed a line. They were arguing about Snape and how James was cursing him. He shouldn't have said his last comment and the hurt look on Lily's face made James die inside.

'Sorry.' he apologised.

'I should bloody well hope you are.' Lily stated, trying to regain some of her composure.

'But not about Snape.' James added to make sure they were on the same page. Yes he felt guilty that he had been cursing Snape, but that was only because he knew Lily wouldn't like it and he hadn't told her about it. It wasn't because he thought he didn't deserve it, because after all that Snape had done to him the previous year James definitely thought he did. The menial hexes and the curses and tricks; changing his drink to ink, freezing his drink in his throat so he almost choked, stealing his things, breaking his bag, tripping him up and throwing his own curse at him. James was now getting payback for all of these things that Severus had done to him. He deserved it. Especially after what he kept saying about him and Lily in the library.

James' comment made Lily angrier than she had been before, the temper of a red-headed stubborn girl shining through. The pair began to shout at each other, their first argument reaching full scale. It could probably be heard from outside of the classroom they were in.

'Why not?' Lily demanded.

'Because anything I did wasn't without provocation!' James shot back.

'I don't care!' Lily shouted, 'I don't care at all! You're head boy and you don't just go around hexing people!'

'I'm not hexing people I'm hexing Snape. And only because he hexed me first!' James explained in a loud voice.

'Do you realise how childish you sound right now?' Lily put to him with raised eyebrows and a derisive laugh in her voice.

'I'm not being childish I'm telling you the truth and that's what you wanted.' James said, 'He hexed me first. It was just self-defence.'

'We're at Hogwarts! You don't need self-defence!' Lily yelled.

'All right fine so it was pay-back.' James yelled back, conceding to the point.

'You don't need to pay him back for anything, just be the bigger person!' Lily said, 'Let him get on with it! Walk away!'

'So you'd rather I just take it all lying down? You'd rather I go back to last year when I practically let him get away with murder?' James shouted at her in the heat of the moment. Then he realised what he said.

'What?' Lily asked with a frown, her voice dropping back to a normal volume. 'What do you mean?'

James avoided looking into her startling emerald green eyes, knowing that if he did, he would see that dangerous look, the one that made him tell her anything she wanted to hear. The look that made him literally want to rip his heart out and give it to her, now more than ever because he knew. Now was not the time to tell her though.

'Nothing.' he said, thinking he had effectively ended the argument. 'Forget it.' he continued, 'I won't hex him anymore.'

He turned around and put his hand on the door handle wanting to leave the room before he was forced to tell her all about this situation, the whole truth which would upset her. The whole truth which he had concealed away from her. He was about to open the door when a small hand grabbed his arm. Lily had walked forwards to stop him leaving.

'James! What do you mean?'she said as she turned him to face her, her hand still on his arm. She wanted an explanation. Perhaps there was more to the story than James hexing Severus as he used to do. Perhaps there was something that Severus hadn't told her. Her hope was reignited as she desperately wanted this to be the case

James looked down at her hand on his arm. His skin burnt at the touch of her and he focused on the beat of his heart speeding up and fighting the urge to touch her. He still didn't look her in the eye. 'Nothing.' he repeated.

'You can't say something like that and not explain it!' Lily said angrily.

'Well guess what? I am.' James replied, taking his arm out of Lily's grip and turning back towards the door to try and leave again.

'James if you leave this room without telling me what you mean I'll-'

'You'll what?' James said daringly turning back around. He looked into her eyes.

Lily's face softened at his eyes one hers. 'James. You have to tell me.' she said.

And James was gone. He had looked into her eyes. Tug. Snap. He was hers. Those eyes, that look, he couldn't deny her it. She had the right to know, he knew that. But he hadn't wanted to tell her even so. Now he had no choice. He would tell her anything now. She just needed to ask. And that was a dangerous situation to be in with the secrets he was keeping.

'Ok.' he said.

'Well?' Lily asked delicately.

'I'm getting to it!' James snapped before cursing himself internally and closing his eyes. He walked over to a chair and sat down, averting his gaze from Lily whilst he told her what she wanted to know. He didn't want to see the look in her eyes. He didn't think he could handle whatever expression she wore. He would lose himself to her, even more than he had already. He took a deep breath and began to tell her. Everything.

He told her how he had stopped cursing Severus so that they could become friends because it was the only thing he could think of to do. The only thing he could do to get her to give him a chance. He told her that even though he had stopped cursing Severus, Severus had never stopped cursing him. He told her of the menial things Severus had done and how he wouldn't retaliate and how he hadn't even let Sirius retaliate for him. How he had tried he hardest to not rise to the challenge. How he had taken it all lying down. He was fine telling her all this, no breaks in his voice. It was just informative. He glanced up at her once before he moved onto the worst thing Severus had done to him. This was what he was most nervous about and if he had the willpower to stop himself he would have done. But Lily had him under her control and he carried on. He had to look away from her again though to do so.

'Then the last thing he was _successful_ in doing which I didn't fight back at was that day me, Sirius and them made an invisible wall in the corridor.' he said with a sigh, 'I thought you just wanted to be friends and I told you I was fine with that but, well we both know I wasn't so I went to 'sulk' as you'd call it, on the Quidditch pitch. Don't know how he found me the stalker but he was asking what I'd done to upset you and I didn't know what he was on about and he got all worked up and Sox was there and he threw that curse he used on Avery in Potions out and it hit my arm and it hurt like hell and there was blood everywhere but still, I didn't fight back. So over Christmas when he threw it at me again I couldn't just take it all lying down anymore so I cursed him and-Lily?'

James had glanced up and she had gone. The door was open. He was suddenly alert. He stood up and walked out of the door saying 'Lily?', hoping she would just be out the door. She wasn't. Remus, Sirius and Peter were waiting there though.

Peter was sat on the floor crossed legged, Sirius was leaning against the wall next to the door frame and Remus was stood opposite him.

He looked around them, too involved in finding where Lily had gone to bother about why they were there and whether or not they had heard his first argument with her. He had seen nothing he had said that would make her be mad at him.

'Which way did she go?' he asked them.

Simultaneously, the three boys stood themselves up properly and pointed in the direction that Lily had stormed away in. They all looked rather anxious. They had heard snippets of James and Lily's argument but they had no idea what was really going on. They only had one question; did Lily know about Remus' 'furry little problem'.

But James ignored their nervous faces, looking in the direction they had pointed. To the right. Lily had gone to the right in the direction of the library, the library where she had spoken to Severus Snape. Snape.

'Ah crap!' James cursed in realisation. He darted off after her.

'Wait!' Sirius shouted after him, 'Prongs! What's going on? Wait up!'

He got no answer. James ignored him, too intent on following his girlfriend. So Sirius, Remus and Peter had no choice. They followed them too. They needed to know what was going on. And they would find out soon.

* * *

**Thanks for reading and once again, a huge happy birthday to Lily153! Hope you have a good day! :)**

**Galindaba**


	70. Chapter 69

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello readers!**

**Just an answer to a question left in a review, (thanks for the reviews by the way! :D ), Linda the house elf died of natural causes. I didn't want to make her death anything to do with Voldemort or the death eaters because I didn't want to do a Dobbyesque death for her. I think Dobby had a hero's death and didn't want to emulate it in anyway so I just thought I'd leave that situation alone. Hope that answers your question. :)**

**Anyway, heres Chapter Sixty-Nine, and it's only this chapter today guys. Sorry.**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Sixty-Nine**

'Shit!' James swore as he skidded to a halt at the entrance to the library. Remus, Sirius and Peter weren't far behind him and as James spotted Lily, so did they.

She was marching up to Severus Snape who was just sat staring at her watching her walk towards him. He didn't know what was coming. Nobody did. Nobody in the general vicinity expected their head girl to stroll up to her ex-best friend and slap him clean across the face leaving a small red hand print where her hand had made contact with his sallow cheeks.

James rushed over to her, Remus, Sirius and Peter hot on his tail. James just wanted to get Lily out of there before she did something she would regret like curse Severus Snape. James was regretting telling her anything in the first place. If it wasn't for that damn look, half the library wouldn't be watching them right now, hoping for a fight.

'You coward!' Lily was saying angrily to Severus as James arrived at the table.

He tried to take her arm to lead her away but she pulled out of his hold.

'You were all too happy to throw him to the wolves but god forbid you actually tell me the full extent of your involvement in this!' Lily snapped at him as Severus threw a glare at James who didn't seem to notice.

'What's going on?' Sirius asked with an urgent tone. He Remus and Peter still had no idea what was actually wrong. They were all heavily curious as to why Lily had slapped Severus. What had James told her that would make her that angry at him?

'Lily, please let's go.' James whispered to her, trying to take her arm again to lead her out but, once more, she pulled away from him.

'You don't know?' she asked Sirius astounded, ignoring James.

'No.' Sirius shook his head.

'Lily come on.' James tried again, 'It's not worth it.'

'Potter trying to be noble?' Severus asked snidely, still glaring at James and earning himself another angry look from Lily.

'No I'm trying to stop this lot from kicking your arse.' James muttered to him through gritted teeth, the ungrateful git.

'What's going on?' Sirius asked again.

James couldn't stop her.

'Snape used that god awful curse he made up on James.' she stated looking at Sirius before turning her head to harshly glare at Severus as she added, 'Twice.'

'Technically once-' James tried to put in.

'What curse?' Remus questioned warily.

'It doesn't matter.' James said with a shake of his head. He had told Lily and she had slapped Severus, but if Sirius knew, Severus would be lucky to live. And it wasn't like Remus or Peter would make any attempt to stop him. Plus, if news of what Severus had done got Remus angry enough, there was nothing to say that he wouldn't lend Sirius a hand, especially as they were quite close to the full moon. He'd still rather they not know. Lily had other ideas.

'The one he used on Avery in potions.' Lily told them.

Sirius, Remus and Peter all looked shocked. James had told them no such thing. The three of them looked to James, unable to believe it as James hadn't mentioned anything. They looked to him for confirmation, as if they'd never believe it if he didn't confirm it for them. When they looked at him though, he didn't need to confirm it. They could tell. All James did was roll his eyes and look away but they could tell. They all looked back to Severus who was looking sickly proud of himself. Double confirmation.

'You git!' Sirius said. He seemed calm but James knew otherwise.

'Remus, Peter, get him out of here.' James instructed his other two friends. They didn't move. Remus looked disappointed in James whilst Peter just looked a little bit scared.

'You could have killed him!' Sirius yelled, the calm that he had been faking disappearing instantly. He looked murderous, a look which wasn't helped when Severus decided to comment.

'Good.' Severus sneered.

'Remus!' James said warningly to Remus who stopped his disappointed gaze long enough to notice that Sirius was getting ready to take his wand out. Remus got there first and took Sirius' wand off of him, chucking it reluctantly to James, who pocketed it, before dragging Sirius out of the library with Peter's help as James wanted him to do.

James turned his attentions back to Lily who looked furious, shaking her head at Severus.

'How could you do such a thing?' she asked Severus, an angry expression on her face, her eyes narrowed in question.

Severus didn't answer.

'Lily leave it.' James said gently, 'He cursed me I cursed him. We're even.'

'He did more than curse me.' Severus spat, finally standing up when James spoke so that he could at least try to level him and stand his ground. He sneered at James, his lip curled upwards at one corner.

'Oh for Merlin sakes shut up Snivellus.' James said in exasperation, 'I'm trying to help you here.'

'I don't need your help!' Severus spat.

'Unless you want to be cursed by and angry red head, yeah you do.' James said in an obvious way, a note of sarcasm in his voice.

'I'm not gonna curse him.' Lily stated defiantly. She wasn't like that. She wouldn't curse someone just because she was angry or upset with them or, as James did, just because they were there.

'Good now let's go.' James replied, taking her arm more forcefully this time and assertively steering her towards the exit of the library and away from all the eyes that were still looking at them.

'No.' Lily said as James pulled her away.

'Lily-'

'No.' Lily repeated, snatching her arm out of James' hold as she had done before. 'I'll say my peace James and then I'll leave.' she continued, turning around and walking strongly back over to Severus who had sat back down in despair.

James sighed. 'Lily it's not worth it-'

'Prongs!' came Sirius' voice from the entrance to the library, 'Give me my wand!'

'Remus! I said get him out of here.' James shouted across to Remus who entered the library after Sirius, trying to retrieve him even before James had said anything.

'I'll curse the snivelling slime-ball!' Sirius yelled.

'Remus!' James said, as Remus grabbed Sirius' collar and pulled him out of the library by it.

James rolled his eyes at the situation he had created. This was exactly why he hadn't wanted to tell anyone. Damn Lily and that look, that very dangerous look of hers. He looked for her now and saw a different look in her eyes. It was one that he had never seen before on her, not even when she had hated him and told him off. There was a different glint in her eye and, although this was definitely not the look she gave James, it was still very dangerous.

'Lily-' James started as he approached where she was leaning over Severus Snape threateningly.

'If I ever find out that you've used that despicable curse on anyone ever again, whether it's James, Avery, a Hufflepuff first year or Voldemort himself, you won't be worried about James cursing you anymore. He'll be the least of your worries.' Lily said in a deathly quiet warning whisper to Severus.

'Lily-' James began again.

'And if he curses me again?' Severus questioned.

'Then take it.' Lily said defiantly, standing up, completely serious.

'What?' Severus snapped.

'What?' James asked.

Lily looked to James. 'Curse him all you like' she said. She turned to look at Severus to add, 'I simply don't care.' before stalking out of the library.

Both boys stood there shocked. Both for different reasons.

James was shocked because Lily had just given him permission to freely curse her ex-best friend. His Lily would never say that. So was she his Lily still, after all this? Did she still want to be with him when she knew that he had returned to his old ways, the ways she had hated? He desperately hoped she did. He would do anything. He knew. He couldn't be without her now. He couldn't go back.

Severus couldn't go back either. For almost two years now he had been clinging to the last dregs of his friendship with Lily, planning, scheming, trying to get her back. But nothing had worked. And his last attempt had failed miserably because James Potter had told her more that Severus had wanted her to know. And now Severus knew. Now he had to accept it. Lily would never be his friend ever again. James Potter had infiltrated her mind, body, heart and soul and she was now intoxicated by him. So much so that Severus knew he would now never be able to draw his Lily out again. Lily was now James Potters. Completely.

'Well Potter.' Severus said, breaking the shocked silent state that the pair of them had been in from Lily's last words, 'Seems like you've won.'

'Won?' James blinked, an appalled expression on his face that Severus would even think that. 'Lily's not a prize to be won Snape.' he said, 'Believe me, this is not winning.'

'But you've finally got your way.' Severus sneered angrily, 'She's no longer my friend because of you.'

'That was because of you.' James reminded him, 'I had no say in that. Lily makes her own decisions in case you've forgotten.'

'You can't say it's not what you wanted though.' Severus replied.

Neither one of the boys had drawn their wands. For the first time in their lives, for the last time in their lives, they just stood their conversing, both too dazed to do anything more than exchange words.

'What I wanted?' James laughed in disbelief, 'If I got what I wanted you'd leave her alone and accept that she's no longer interested in being your friend. She hasn't been for almost two years now. Accept it. She won't change her mind.'

'Again, isn't that what you wanted?' Severus asked him testily his eyebrows furrowing in an angry frown.

'No.' James stated simply, 'If I got what I wanted she wouldn't have ever acknowledged your existence in the first place. In fact if I got what I wanted you wouldn't exist at all.'

'Then do it!' Severus said suddenly, getting his own wand out and offering it to James, 'Give it a go! She's given you permission now.'

James looked down at Severus' wand. It was black and James couldn't help but think it suited his personality. He breathed deeply. He could easily take his wand and curse him with no ramifications except the gossip that would circulate around the school. But he didn't. For Lily.

'I don't need permission and she didn't mean that.' James said, pushing Severus' wand away, 'And I'm not gonna give you the satisfaction.'

James walked out of the library actually proud of himself because for the first time in a while, he hadn't risen to Severus' bait. He had done what Lily had told him to do and he had been the bigger person and walked away. He stepped out in to the corridor and immediately looked for Lily. She was pacing slightly.

'Lily.' he said, capturing her shoulders and turning her to face him. He looked into her eyes with apology and question.

'It's all right.' Lily said placing a soft hand on his cheek which told James not to worry about their relationship.

He closed his eyes at her touch, painfully wondering how close he would have been to losing her if their argument hadn't ended the way it had.

'We're ok.' Lily continued before pressing a soft kiss to his lips and walking away.

James opened his eyes and watched her go. She was still his. They we're ok.

'We're not.' Sirius said from behind him.

James turned to look over his shoulder. All three of his friends looked bewildered, betrayed and beyond disappointed that he hadn't told them about this, all stood with their arms folded over their chests. He looked between these faces and Lily's retreating figure. He looked at the ground and made his decision. He walked after Lily.

* * *

A week later, James was sat with Lily and Hestia in the library. He had been hanging around with them instead of Remus, Sirius and Peter having been able to successfully evade them for the past seven days. He still had not explained why he hadn't told them about the curse that Severus had thrown at him and he didn't want to. He didn't fancy being subjected to a load of irritated questions to which they would never like the feeble answers he was prepared to give. He knew that whatever explanation he gave would just be weak and not a good reason for there wasn't any good reason behind it. So he saw no point. He decided to just wait until they seemed like they were over it. Plus, getting to spend more time with Lily was a great incentive to wait his friend's annoyance out, even if the time he spent with her was filled by studying.

Strangely, James wasn't too fussed about studying. He didn't mind it. Sure it was never something he willingly chose to do but, as Lily wouldn't distract him the way he wanted her too, he thought he'd give it a go. And he was actually doing it. Not just pretending like he had done any time previously. At the moment, he was reading his Transfiguration book. If he was going to study, he'd study something he liked.

Lily on the other hand, wasn't studying. Yes it had been her suggestion for them to spend their free period studying rather than engaging in other activities like James had suggested, but she wasn't revising. All because James was. She hadn't actually expected him to study. She thought he'd just sit there doodling, running his hand through his hair as he usually did and occasionally glancing at her with that faraway look in his eyes that she had been noticing more and more these days. Hestia had told her what that look meant but she didn't believe her. She wanted too, it was just hard to think that James…well it was just hard to believe. Nevertheless, the fact that he had actually cracked open a book and was really reading it, for some strange reason, unnerved Lily. It shouldn't have as that was what she had been trying to get him to do since they returned from the Christmas holidays as their N.E.W.T's were only a few short months away, but it did. It wasn't the sort of behaviour she usually saw her boyfriend exhibiting.

'You're studying.' Lily said.

'Well done.' James replied in a quiet monotone, 'Always knew you were smart.'

'You never study.' Lily pointed out.

'Again,' James started with a sigh, looking up into her eyes now with a smirk, 'very observant. If you don't pass your N.E.W.T's it'll be a crime.'

Lily ignored his smirk. She knew him well enough by now to know that he had different kind of smirks and that that particular expression was hiding something. She knew what it was about; his avoidance of his friends. But she didn't say that. She thought she'd give him the courtesy of telling her himself. 'What's wrong?' she asked him, tilting her head to the side.

James looked back down to his book, knowing that if he didn't he would be entranced by her eyes, he would feel that tug and pull sensation and he would be powerless. He didn't want to be powerless. He thought he had lost enough of his pride this week and his ego was bruised enough already because he knew. He knew and it made him weak to her, for her. He just hadn't found the right time to tell her yet. Now was not the time. So he simply replied with, 'Why does anything have to be wrong?' as his eyes skimmed over his text book, taking in none of the words whatsoever.

'Because you're studying and you never study.' Lily said as if it was obvious. And it was. James never studied. He didn't need to.

James didn't answer. He just simply turned the page in his Transfiguration book and couldn't help but think that his suggestion of how they spent their free period together would have been much more fun and a lot less frustrating.

Lily bit her lip, waiting for a reply from James which never came. She looked over to Hestia who, although had got everything set out and ready to revise, had thought that sitting with her feet up on the chair next to her and painting her toenails would be a much better use of her time and the library's facilities. Hestia looked back at her and shrugged, giving Lily no help at all. Lily rolled her eyes and turned back to James. 'You're doing it to distract yourself.' she stated matter of factly.

'I wouldn't need to distract myself if you'd just distract me instead.' James said to her, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips as he glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes.

'But then you'd stop studying.' Lily replied.

'I'm gonna stop studying now anyway.' James said suddenly, closing up his book and tossing it across the table to the space just in front of Hestia who looked up from her very busy agenda of painting her nails to watch the couple in front of her. James then put his arm around the back of Lily's chair and leaned into her so that their faces were merely a couple of inches apart. He looked deep into her eyes. 'Staring at you is _much_ more interesting.' he said in a hot breathy whisper.

Lily's heart started to beat a bit faster and, as seemed to be the norm these days with her. Her stomach swooped as she breathed in the beech wood smell of him. She looked back into his warm hazel eyes, framed by his round-framed glasses. She felt herself turning pink. 'You'll make me blush.' she told him.

'Good.' James said, tucking a strand of her deep red hair behind her ear, 'I like it when you blush. Your eyes become more vibrant.'

'What?' she asked him. Lily's stomach was somersaulting so much she felt as if there was an acrobat from a circus setting up a practice studio inside her. That was a very odd thought. No wonder James kept telling her she was weird. She was weird when she had thoughts like that. Still, he wasn't looking at her like she was weird now though. Not at all. The look he was giving her was turning her pinker, she could tell.

'They do.' James continued, stroking her cheek gently with the back of his fingers before moving his index finger to trace the line of her lips. 'It's something I love about you.' he went on.

Lily's mouth fell open slightly, her breath now tickling James' fingers as he continued to trace the lips. Her heart exploded as he said that. She glanced at Hestia who gave her an 'I told you so' look, but she ignored it and looked back at James who immediately stared into her eyes.

_Don't kid yourself Lily! _she told herself sternly, _He didn't say it about you he said it about your eyes. He's probably said that about lots of people's eyes before. Don't read anything into it._

Still, she couldn't help but wonder. Take one word out of his sentence and he had said it. And that was all Lily needed to realise before knowing herself. She knew. She could also probably pinpoint the moment it had started to happen, the moment she had started to fall. But she couldn't tell him. Not when she didn't know if he felt the same way.

'I've got to go.' James said suddenly, averting his gaze away from her eyes where he had been entranced for the past five minutes, his hand on her cheek, his thumb taking over tracing her lips. He stopped that now and stood up.

'What?' Lily asked. 'Why? Where?' she went on, cursing herself for sounding so needy.

James smiled at her and leant down to press a soft kiss to her lips before standing up to say, 'Bye.' Then he left.

James walked out of the library thinking himself an utter coward. Cowardice seemed to be the theme of the week for him. He even couldn't man up enough to face his friends and just give them his feeble explanations even though he knew they'd never accept them. If he couldn't do that, how was he supposed to tell Lily he knew? It might have been easier for him if Hestia hadn't been sat across from them giving suggestive looks out as if they were sweets. Still, there was no denying it, he had been given an opening, the perfect opportunity and he had wasted it. He cursed himself internally.

_You complete chicken! _he told himself, _It's three words. Three tiny little words. I. Love. You. That's all you needed to say. Lily, I love you. How hard is that?_

He shook his head at himself and continued to walk down the corridor, stopping for nothing, feeling like nothing more than a walk in the rain, the gentle drizzle that was settling itself outside in a spring-time shower. He didn't' even stop when he heard Sirius shouting out his name behind him. If anything, he walked faster.

'Prongs!' Sirius shouted after James, he, Remus and Peter speeding up to try and catch him up. 'Prongs!' he yelled again.

Still James didn't stop. He carried on walking, wondering how on earth they had found him. He had the map so they had no idea of knowing where he was. How he wished now he had had the courage to tell Lily how he felt, then he could still be in the library with her rather than being chased down by his friends.

Sirius was becoming irate now, not liking it when James ignored him. So he tried a different approach. 'Oi! James!' he called, using his real name before throwing out a shield charm to the space just ahead of James so that he would walk into it and stop, not being able to go any further until Sirius took it down.

James walked into the shield charm. Twice, just to see if he could pass through the second time. When he couldn't, he turned around to say, 'Dude!' to Sirius in annoyance.

'Well you didn't stop.' Sirius stated, tucking his wand back into his back pocket as he Remus and Peter came to a halt in front of James.

'For a reason.' James replied, pulling his bag up onto his shoulder and shoving his hands in his pockets before walking away in the opposite direction.

'Why are you avoiding us?' Sirius asked him. He, Remus and Peter walked along side James, matching his speed.

'Who said I was?' James answered.

'The fact that every time we've tried to talk to you over the past week you've walked away.' Remus pointed out, 'That's the definition of avoidance.'

'So what?' James sighed, rolling his eyes.

'So why are you avoiding us?' Sirius questioned.

James sighed again as he came to a halt. He hung his head back momentarily before turning around to face his friends, who were stood around him in a semi-circle, and saying, 'Cause I don't fancy standing around whilst you lot gang up on me for not telling you that Snivellus…well, you know.'

'No we don't.' Sirius put in immediately, his irritation with James clear to hear.

Remus, however, was calmer. 'We're not ganging up on you James.' he said smoothly, trying to keep civility in the conversation. Sirius still had other ideas.

'You haven't told us why you didn't tell us what that slime-ball did to you.' he went on as if Remus had said nothing, 'We asked you on the _day_ and-'

'Sirius.' Remus cut in harshly to get Sirius to shut up. James would tell them nothing if he felt like they were badgering him into a confession of sorts.

'What?' Sirius asked arrogantly, 'I want to know why he didn't tell us.' he continued to Remus before turning to James who, surprisingly, was still standing in front of them. 'You tell us everything.' Sirius stated.

'No I don't.' James replied.

'Yes you do!' Sirius combatted.

'No I don't!' James stated in exasperation, 'I don't have to share every detail of my life with you Sirius!'

'Yes you do!' Sirius countered, 'We're best friends!' he said, as if that was the only point that needed to be known.

'Doesn't mean I have to tell you everything.' James replied.

'Yes you do!' Sirius went on, 'We signed a contract.'

James paused, looking at Sirius in confused incredulity. 'No we didn't.' he said.

Sirius also paused. 'Oh yeah…' he said in remembrance before brushing it under the rug, 'Well we should have signed a contract. Complete disclosure.' he ended proudly.

'Complete disclosure?' Remus questioned.

'Yeah.' Sirius grinned, turning to face Remus, taking his eyes off of James for the tiniest split second, 'Learnt it just for this.'

Remus rolled his eyes and shook his head in exhaustion. 'Instead of doing that maybe you should have been focusing on-'

'Prongs?' Sirius cut in. In the brief moment where he had turned his gaze to Remus, boasting about the new turn of phrase he had learnt, James had quietly disappeared, a skill which he had perfected over the years. 'Where'd he go?' Sirius asked both the remaining marauders; Remus and Peter.

'He walked that way.' Peter stated, pointing in the direction which James had casually strolled away in.

'Why didn't you stop him Wormy?' Sirius snapped, immediately setting off after James, tired of him just up and leaving when he wanted to talk to him.

'How was he supposed to stop him?' Remus asked with a sigh, following Sirius and motioning for Peter to do the same. They turned a corner and came into the corridor which James was walking along.

'Watch and learn.' Sirius said, whipping his wand out, throwing it in the air once and catching it fluently before effortlessly tossing out a sticking charm to the spot where James was walking. 'See.' he continued, summoning James' wand to himself non-verbally, 'Like that.'

James tried to move his feet. He couldn't. He looked over to Sirius frustratedly. 'Take this off.' he told him demandingly.

'No.' Sirius refused, tucking James' wand in his own back pocket so that he couldn't reach it, 'Not till you talk to us.'

'I don't want to.' James replied, running a frustrated hand through his hair.

'Why not?' Sirius pressed on.

'Because I don't want to!' James snapped back.

There was a pause where Sirius shook his head at James with narrowed eyes. If there was one thing Sirius couldn't stand, it was James snapping at him. He was his best friend and when he snapped at him, it hurt his feelings. He could cope with being yelled at, berated, cursed, being given detentions and any dirty looks that were thrown his way by anyone else, but if James did it, it was a whole other level of meaning to it. He didn't like it.

Remus broke the silence. 'James we're not mad at you or anything.' he said in a soothing and mature voice which should have calmed the situation.

'Speak for yourself.' Sirius scoffed, unable to help himself, folding his arms in an annoyed manner over his chest.

'We're not.' Remus said, turning to Sirius and giving him a warning look. James would say nothing if he felt cornered or that they were mad at him. And Sirius needed to realise this so Remus gave him a look to remind him of the fact, a look which ended with Sirius conceding. Remus turned back to James and went on. 'We just don't understand why you didn't tell us.'

'We could have helped you kick is arse-' Sirius said.

'We could have told Dumbledore for you.' Remus put in in an interruption.

'No.' James said, snapping again, 'See. That's exactly why I didn't tell you. I know what each of you would have done.' He turned to Sirius. 'You'd have gone off, hell-bent on revenge.' he said to him. He turned to Remus. 'You'd have tried to get me to tell Dumbledore.' he told him. He turned to Peter lastly. 'And you'd have…well I'm not actually sure what you would've have done.' he ended, a small look of confusion flickering across his face briefly before he turned back to Remus and Sirius to say, 'In fact, if I was going to tell any of you anything, it would have been Wormy.'

Peter looked proud of himself.

'Why?' Sirius retorted in disbelief shooting a slightly disgusted look at Peter, 'He wouldn't have done anything.'

Peter retreated slightly to James' side away from Sirius', as if he needed protection from him and James was the one who could give it to him.

'Exactly.' James said, ignoring Peters move towards him. It wasn't like he could move away anyway, even if he had noticed. He was still stuck to the floor where he was thanks to Sirius' sticking charm. Sirius was good at those. He'd cast a load of permanent ones in Grimmauld place before he had run away. James knew he hadn't cast a permanent one on him but it sure felt like it. It was strong.

'What?' Sirius asked in confusion

'I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to do anything.' James explained, giving out the feeble reason he had to his friends, finally, 'I didn't want to do anything about it.'

'But you hexed him earlier this week. Before you told Lily what he had done.' Remus stated.

'That was for a different reason.' James said with a shake of his head, shrugging it off.

'What reason?' Sirius demanded.

'Just a different reason ok?' James replied, starting to lose the calm he had forced over himself at thinking about this. Thinking about the mental torture Severus had given him from when he had almost kissed Lily in the library and she hadn't, as Severus had kindly pointed out to James, pulled away. 'It doesn't concern you.' James continued.

'Does it concern Lily?' Sirius asked.

'Yes. Alright.' James snapped, 'And I'm not gonna tell you what it is so drop it.' He hadn't told his friends of Severus' and Lily's encounter in the library, the one they had had the time before, the time before she had slapped him. He didn't want them to know of his jealousy. He had only just gotten over his pride enough to admit it to Lily. His ego wouldn't let him admit anything of the sort to his friends.

Sirius looked at James dead in the eyes and James stared back, both boys being stubborn and wanting the other to give in first, to get their own way. In the end, James won.

'Fine.' he grumbled moodily, folding his arms and looking away huffily from James as if he were nothing more than a five year old.

'So why didn't you want to do anything about him using that curse you before?' Remus said, continuing the conversation from before.

'What would be the point?' James shrugged.

'His expulsion?' Remus suggested, though he knew what James would say to that. Even if it was Severus Snape and he had used a curse on him that could have killed him. James would never want to be the cause of someone's expulsion. He'd much rather be expelled himself, and there were a few time which he had been close to being so.

'No.' James said, as Remus knew he would, 'I wasn't gonna be responsible for that and I got healed anyway so does it really matter?'

'Yes.' Sirius put in, scoffing slightly, 'And that excuse is stupid.'

'Sirius.' Remus warned. He really wasn't helping matters.

'Why didn't you tell us before?' he interrogated James.

'Because I didn't.' James replied, the calm of talking to Remus disappearing and the irritation of talking to Sirius coming out.

'Because of Lily?' Sirius said.

'Yes ok!' James broke, snapping once more at his best friend because he had riled him into a confession. 'Because of Lily.' James repeated, 'Because I worked so hard to get her to be my friend that year and I didn't want anything to ruin it.'

'You telling us wouldn't have-'

'Yes it would have.' James breathed bringing his hand to his forehead, 'And even if it didn't, I didn't want to risk it at the time and afterwards it seemed pointless.'

'Not pointless.' Sirius muttered stubbornly.

James brought his hand down from his forehead. 'She used to be his best friend.' he spoke slowly, emphasising a point which he hated to admit, 'That doesn't just go away. And if I had told you and you'd have got Snape back and you'd have told Dumbledore, if we'd have gotten him expelled, who's to say that she would have still gone out with me this year?' he challenged them. A question which was impossible to answer for no one knew the answer and short of a very special time turner which could take them back months, they would never find out.

'But you've told her now.' Peter said meekly, contributing his first words to the conversation.

'And you're fine.' Sirius continued.

'You've not broken up.' Remus pointed out.

'I know that.' James said through slightly gritted teeth, trying desperately to ensure he didn't lose his cool again. But Sirius didn't make it easy.

'If you could tell her why couldn't you tell us?' he asked of James demandingly.

'She asked.' James replied simply running a hand through his hair.

'We asked.' Sirius retorted.

James shook his head. 'You don't get it.' he said.

'No I don't. Sirius replied plainly.

'She asked.' James blurted out, pushing his glasses into the bridge of his nose repeatedly, 'When she asked…I can't…I'm…ahh…'

Sirius leaned over to Remus. 'I think he's gone mad.' he whispered loudly.

'No.' Remus began, clicking into what was really going on with James now. He looked at him questioningly before carrying on with, 'He's in-' before being cut off by a look from him.

James had shot Remus a warning look, not to finish that sentence. He hadn't told Lily this yet; he didn't want to tell anyone before he had told her. So he wasn't going to let Remus blurt it out to Sirius and Peter, Sirius especially who would most likely make fun of him for being in love in the first place, let alone what it did to him. James could be the strongest person in the world with the most amazing will power but being in love gave him a weakness. A weakness for Lily which Sirius wouldn't necessarily understand and until James knew if Lily felt the same way, then he didn't wish to share his weakness with Sirius. Or anyone for that matter. He obviously had no control over Remus though. Remus was too perceptive sometimes.

'Infatuated with her.' Remus said to finish his sentence, obeying the wishes James had conveyed to him silently, 'He's infatuated with her.' he repeated to make his point stronger.

'What does that mean?' Peter asked.

'It means infatuated Peter. Just let one go for once.' Sirius snapped making Peter cower back towards James slightly who was trying to move his feet.

'Do you know what it means?' Remus asked Sirius.

'Well no but-'

'Will you take this damn charm off of me or at least give me my wand back so that I can do it!' James suddenly hissed at Sirius, looking extremely frustrated and angry that he was unable to move.

'Not until you tell us why you could tell her but not us.' Sirius said pedantically.

'Look I didn't actually want to tell her anything either.' James admitted, 'I didn't mean to lead her into the question. I was more than happy to take this to my grave. It's just when she looks at me like that I can't deny her anything. If she asks me something I have to tell her the answer. I can't lie to her.'

And then suddenly, they were no longer talking about why James hadn't told them about Severus cursing him. It was suddenly a different conversation all together. A more serious one as well.

'Does that mean you've told her?' Sirius whispered, lowering his voice to talk about this topic. They were in an open hallway after all, one where anyone could walk past and over hear them. They all needed to be careful now.

'No.' James replied, looking at his feet. 'I haven't told her that. I won't tell her that.' He paused. 'At least I don't think I'll tell her that.' he continued, looking up cautiously to Sirius.

'Prongs-' Sirius started, taking on the warning tone Remus usually held for him.

'If she asks me outright I don't know if I can lie to her.' James explained. And it was true. If in some way, Lily actually asked the question, 'is Remus a werewolf' or 'are you an illegal animagus' or something similar using that look of hers and how he now felt about her, James had no idea if he would be able to be strong enough to deny it. There was a lethal combination to it.

'You're gonna have to.' Sirius stated as if James had no choice in the matter.

'I don't know if I can.' James said slowly.

'Let's just hope we never have to find out.' Remus, who had stayed silent when this topic had been brought up, put in.

James looked over to Remus, begging for him to understand his position. 'Remus-'

'Look I say we just forget about all of this now anyway.' Remus interrupted, clapping his hands together once in a final sort of way and looking away from James, 'Forget about all of it. It's done now and who's to say we'll ever find out about the other?

They were returned back to Severus Snape's curse.

'So we all agreed?' Remus asked, 'Just let it go?'

There was a pause where Sirius and James looked at each other. It was all down to those to really. They silently agreed but Sirius said out loud, 'If anything happens again-'

'I'll tell you.' James agreed.

'You'll tell us everything?' Sirius questioned.

'Not if it has something to do with Lily.' James said, creating a boundary, 'Lily's off limits. Anything to do with her is my business, not yours.' he finished, making it very clear that he meant it. He wasn't going to stand for their privacy as a couple to be invaded by his friends just because Sirius wanted to know everything that was going on. He was going to ensure that he and Lily had personal space, especially now. He didn't want things with her to be up for discussion. Ever. If he decided to talk to them about it than that was a different matter. But they just couldn't expect him to tell them everything. Sirius couldn't expect him to tell him everything.

'We respect that.' Remus said with a nod of understanding.

'Yep.' Peter chimed in.

Sirius paused, thinking it through. He sighed eventually. 'Yeah sure.' he conceded, 'But everything else ok?'

'Whatever.' James said with a roll of his eyes. 'Now take this damn charm off of me.' he demanded, trying to move his feet unsuccessfully.

Sirius, once again, thought for a moment. One thought ran through his mind. Punishment. He looked at Remus and Peter to follow his lead. 'Nah.' he said, and led the other two boys away with him leaving James stuck to the floor in the middle of deserted corridor without his wand. He would be there for a while.

* * *

**Thanks for Reading**

**Update on the 26th July**

**Galindaba**


	71. Chapter 70

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello readers!**

**Sorry to say that I'm going on holiday for a couple of weeks and won't be able to update so, at least for two and a bit weeks, this will be the only update. Sorry. However we are into the final stretch of the story and the bit that I've planned from the bieginning and really wanted wanted to write is coming up and I just LOVE it! Well, of course I do otherwise I wouldn't have written it! So stay tuned for that cause, just, please! :)**

**Anyway, here's Chapter Seventy, and it's only three chapters today.**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Seventy**

Lily was sat with Hestia in the common room in the Gryffindor tower. Hestia had been trying to convince Lily for the past ten minutes to go into Hogsmeade with her the next weekend instead of James. She tried to ignore her incessant jabbering on and read the book she was holding in her lap, (Changing Places by David Lodge), but Hestia was making that rather hard for her to do. Hestia's voice bit through her reading so Lily was forced to listen to her begging. She was very reluctant to agree to go to Hogsmeade with her because she had already made plans to spend some alone time with James but, after ten minutes, her reluctance was wearing thin and all she could think of was the Hogsmeade trip she had taken with the marauders and James and the conversation she had had with Sirius at the bar. She had to be careful that she wasn't doing the same thing to Hestia. So she gave in and told her that she would rearrange her plans with James so that she could go with her instead. She wished she hadn't though as, straight after Hestia had gotten her own way, she started to test what else she could convince Lily to do; namely painting her nails.

'Sod going to write for the Daily Prophet Hestia! You should go for Witch Weekly.' Lily said with a laugh as Hestia pushed three different shades of nail polish towards her, trying to get her to choose a colour. 'I can see it now; 'Which Shade?' by-line Hestia Jones.'

'What's a by-line?' Hestia asked, pushing another three shades of nail varnish towards Lily.

'You want to go into journalism and you don't know what a by-line is?' Lily frowned, scanning her book for the place she had left off.

'Am I meant to know?' Hestia wondered before going off on her nail varnish tangent, 'Which colour do you want? Dusty rose. Fruity berry. Or sunset sky?'

Lily glanced up, not finding her place in her book, so that she could chose a shade. 'They're all pink.' Lily said, seeing no difference in the colours whatsoever, 'And a by-line is what tells the reader who wrote the article.'

'Isn't that just my name?' Hestia asked.

'No it's a by-line.' Lily replied.

'My name?'

'By-line.'

'My name.'

'Hestia.'

'My name.'

'I'm not wearing pink nail polish.' Lily said, brushing away the subject of a by-line for she could tell that Hestia was just going to be awkward about it. She went back to trying to find her place in her book, unable to remember which sentence she had just read. She would have to read the page again. She got started.

'They're not all pink.' Hestia sighed, picking up one of the small bottles and examining it, 'This one's fuchsia fruit.' Hestia placed it on Lily's book.

'Pink.' Lily stated as she picked up the nail polish and gave it back to Hestia.

'Second opinion? Ah good!' Hestia said suddenly, looking over Lily's shoulder and spotting help, 'Oi! Potter!'

Lily shook her head and went back to reading her book, salvaging the small amount of time she had in her grasp whilst Hestia tried to convince James to come over and chose her a shade of nail polish.

James looked around to see who had called him. When he saw it was Hestia he ummed and ahhed about whether to go over there, thinking she'd just want to talk about the upcoming Quidditch game and the rigorous training schedule he was putting them through. He thought she'd just want to complain. So he stayed where he was, lounging back and relaxing with his friends at the opposite end of the common room to Lily and Hestia.

Hestia didn't give up. 'It's about your girlfriend!' she shouted across to him, a couple of other people who weren't part of the conversation now paying attention at the mention of the relationship between their head students. People still had a fascination with them. It was odd.

James sighed and looked at Sirius with a roll of his eyes and stood up. As he stood up Sirius made a whipping sound and action which made Remus chuckle, Peter titter and James stick his finger up at them all.

'What's up?' he asked Hestia and Lily as he approached them, leaning onto the back of the sofa where Lily was sat. He was stood over her, creating a slight shadow on the pages of the book Lily had been attempting to read. She closed it now that he was there.

Hestia frowned. 'So you'll close your book for him and you'll come over here for her but neither of you will do it for me?'

James looked down at Lily and Lily lifted her head and turned around slightly to look at James. They silently agreed. They turned back to Hestia. 'Yes.' they said in unison.

'Charming.' Hestia grumbled.

James sighed. 'What did you want Jones?' he asked impatiently.

'I want you to pick a shade of nail polish for Lily.' Hestia replied, picking up all three bottles and holding them all out in the palms of her hands so that James could look at them and pick one.

James didn't even look at them. 'You called me over here for that?' he questioned in disbelief, 'Why?'

'It's important.' Hestia said with a slight whine and a pout.

'I could have been making magical breakthroughs in the way of Transfiguration over there!' James said, 'Which is more important?'

Hestia blinked once, her face unmoving, no clear expression on it. 'Just pick one.' she said.

James raised an eyebrow before sighing and saying, 'Erm…the pink one.'

Hestia paused again. 'They're not all pink.' she said.

'Yeah they are.' James replied with a confident nod of his head. He was looking at three very small bottles of pink liquid in Hestia's rather large hands. For a girl she did have rather large hands. Maybe that was why she was so good at Quidditch. He'd never noticed that before. It was odd.

'Told you.' Lily muttered quietly.

Hestia narrowed her eyes at her before giving in. 'Fine.' she said before turning back to James and asking, 'Which pink?'

'None of them.' James said. He had no idea why girls had to paint their nails. What was the benefit? Boys didn't do it. He felt the same about make-up. Guys didn't wear it so why did girls have to? He was just thankful that Lily hardly wore any, taking the natural approach and the bare minimum. She wasn't like the other girls he saw wandering the school hallways, the ones that used to follow him around, (they had stopped doing that so much now he was with Lily and had been for just under nine months). They had always been smothered in makeup, so much so that he and Sirius used to joke that they wore so much because their bottoms were so heavy and they needed to balance themselves out to prevent falling backwards. It never stopped Sirius snogging every single one of them though.

'Ha!' Lily said happily to Hestia before tipping her head back to look at James above her, 'My knight in shining armour. Thank you!'

James looked down at her with a confused smile. 'You're welcome?' he replied with a questioning lilt in his voice.

Lily grinned up at him and fluttered her eyelids which he chuckled at before stroking her hair once affectionately.

'Lily you have to pick a colour.' Hestia said, demanding Lily's attention back to her.

'What do you think?' Lily asked James, still looking at him, not even glancing down once to Hestia.

James looked back into her eyes and gave a crooked smile. 'Green.' he said simply, 'Green to match your eyes.'

Lily smiled back at him, a faint blush creeping into her cheeks as he stared intensely at her.

'Aww sweet.' Hestia cooed falsely, 'But I don't have green.'

'Then I guess nothing is the answer.' James smirked at her, earning himself a derisive glare.

Hestia glared at him for a couple of seconds before looking at her watch and realising it was time to go to her divination class. 'I've got to go.' she said, turning to Lily, 'Meet me after?'

'Sure.' Lily shrugged noncommittally, not realising that her neither here nor there attitude towards Hestia's simple request had upset her slightly.

'Pick a shade for when I get back.' Hestia went on as she picked up her bag and left the common room.

'I will.' Lily sighed as she watched Hestia walk away. She leant her head back on the sofa onto James' hand and rested there for a couple of seconds before she felt James' warm breath near her ear.

'Do you wanna come up to my room?' James whispered to her.

Lily sat up and turned around so that she was kneeling up on the couch facing James. She placed her hands softly on his chest and looked up into his hazel brown eyes which had the familiar glint of mischief sparkling in them. 'Thought you were making major breakthroughs in the magical ways of Transfiguration?' she asked him coyly.

'That can wait.' James smirked, 'Do you want to come up to my room or not?'

'Any specific reason?' Lily asked curiously, knowing what she hoped the answer would be. She wanted James to have something to tell her. A good something.

But James never let on why he wanted them to go somewhere private. He simply tucked a strand of Lily's deep red hair behind her ear, looked into her eyes and innocently said, 'Just to spend time with you.' as an answer.

Lily smiled at him and nodded her head. She got off of the couch and walked around it to meet James where he took her hand and trailed her behind him as they began to climb the spiral staircase up to the boys' dormitories.

As they climbed the steps which would lead to James' room, Lily couldn't help but think what this must look like to all the other Gryffindor students in the common room. Seeing their head students disappear hand in hand up to James' dormitory where they would be completely alone, (for Sirius, Remus and Peter were still in the common room downstairs), undisturbed and where there were four available beds. Safe to say, Lily knew what they'd all be thinking. She knew they'd be judging them and assuming what was going on but, strangely, Lily didn't care. Because if this was all a way for James to get Lily on her own so that he could tell her what she wanted to hear from him, then those judgements being made about her wouldn't matter to her. Because she would know how James felt.

They reached the seventh year's dormitory and James opened the door to lead Lily in. He closed the door tight behind them.

'Your rooms a tip!' Lily laughed as soon as the door was shut.

James shoved his hands in his pockets and stood next to her, giving a shrug of his shoulders as he looked around his dormitory. 'We're guys.' He said in way of explanation.

'Does that mean your room has to be a tip?' Lily asked him with questioning raised eyebrows.

'Kind of yeah.' James smirked, winding his fingers back into hers and leading her over to his bed, navigating his way expertly over the unopened books, the Quaffles, beaters bats and multitudes of empty ink bottles and scraps of parchment. He sat them both on his bed and, almost instinctively, the pair got themselves comfortable. James put his arm around Lily and Lily rested into his chest, her ear to his heart beat so that she could hear the gently thud of it, knowing that just by being close to him this way would speed it up exponentially.

They just sat there for a couple of minutes in each other's company before James gave a sigh, a sigh of contentment for him but Lily heard something else in there.

'Are you alright?' Lily wondered, unthinkingly pulling up his shirt slightly to gently draw circles on his stomach.

James smirked at this and answered truthfully with, 'I'm fine.' He watched her fingers draw for a couple of seconds before following up his reply with a question of, 'Why?'

Lily paused in thought and action, her fingers resting on him, making sure she thought about what she wanted to say before she said it. 'It's just that…' she began her fingers starting to circle again, 'Since that business the other week, you've seemed a bit off. In your own world.' she said pausing, hoping with her next words that she would lead him into saying what she wanted to hear, 'Have I done something to upset you or-'

'No.' James said quickly. He started to sit up properly so that he could talk to Lily more directly, 'Merlin no Lily.' He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and looked into her eyes as he continued with, 'You could never upset me.'

Lily's breathing got a bit deeper, thinking James was soon going to tell her those three words she wanted to hear from his lips. She tried to lead him into it one last time. 'Then what's wrong?' she asked him.

James frowned unthinkingly as he said, 'I just want to tell you something.' He started twizzling the ends of her deep red hair in his fingers, taking his eyes off of hers to look at what he was doing.

Now Lily was unsure. Now she didn't think James wanted to tell her that he loved her. Now she thought he had something else to tell her, another secret perhaps. She didn't like the idea of that, especially after the last time he had told her a secret. But nothing could be worse than that could it? Still, the simple action of James averting his eyes from hers made her wonder if he was keeping anything else from her. She no lingered focused on whether James wanted to whisper those three words to her. She was much more curious about whether he had any other secrets he was concealing away from her.

'This isn't another massive secret that you've been keeping from me is it?' she questioned, 'One that's going to make me angry or go and slap someone again is it?'

'No.' James replied, looking back up to her eyes with a more pronounced frown than last time. He had no idea where she had gotten that from. He was just trying to work up the courage to tell her how he felt about her. He wasn't going to reveal any horrible secrets. Nothing of the kind.

'Good.' Lily said with an inward sigh of relief, something that made itself to her face, 'Because I don't want there to be any secrets between us anymore. None at all. I've told you everything, you've told me everything, we're good.'

James averted his gaze away from hers again, only this time for another reason. He couldn't see that look in her eyes, the one that made him spill his guts to her because the secret he was keeping wasn't his to tell. He wasn't allowed to tell her anything about Remus or the fact that he was an illegal Animagus, no matter how much he wanted too.

Lily got a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach and a tear, more painful than the one that had torn through her when she found out about the hexing and cursing that had been going on between James and Severus, ripped through her. And she knew why this time.

'You've told me everything.' she stated again, hoping for a different reaction from James than the one she got. The reaction he gave her confirmed that he was keeping a secret from her. 'Right?' she asked again, grasping at straws that weren't there, 'James is there something you want to tell me?'

James was silent for a moment. _Yes. Yes,_ he wanted to say, _I am keeping something from you. I broke the law. I break the law at every full moon because I'm an illegal Animagus and I go down to the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade every month with Sirius and Peter, who are also illegal Animagi, to keep Remus who is a werewolf company. That's what I'm keeping from you. But I love you. I love you and I don't want to ever lose you. _That's what he wanted to say. But he couldn't say it, any of it. So he settled with, 'No.' not looking directly at her.

Lily gulped and closed her eyes, knowing he was lying to her and hating the feeling that that fact gave her. 'James-' she began but was cut off by James' lips crashing down on hers.

It was all James could think of to do. He knew she wouldn't drop it so he had decided to distract her. And it worked. Lily's mind had been wiped blank as soon as James' lips had made contact with hers. She lost herself to him.

Their kiss became more and more intense. James forced her mouth open to slip his tongue inside. He cupped her face in his hands and sat them both up before allowing his hands to sweep into her hair. He ran the hand not in her hair down her shoulder and arm and Lily, through an instinct she had never felt before, moved over so that she was straddling him, her hands winding into his messy, tousled hair. James sat up more to try and get closer to her, his left hand sneaking under her school shirt whilst his right hand held onto the nape of her neck, pushing her lips into his. Lily's hands unthinkingly, travelled to his tie and began to undo the loose knot that James had done it up in. She took it off of him and tossed it onto the floor to join the mess of the room. James let a moan from the back of his throat escape him, feeling that he wasn't as close to her as he wanted to be. To correct this, he flipped their position, lying Lily down gently beneath him, still kissing her the entire time. If they weren't at Hogwarts…

* * *

'I'm hungry.' Sirius whined twenty minutes after James had left their group to go and see what Hestia had wanted from him. He hadn't returned. Not that Sirius had noticed yet.

'You're always hungry.' Remus replied. He had his feet up on the table and was reading a book. His comment back to Sirius had been offhandedly given out.

'How about we go to the kitchens?' Peter suggested meekly, knowing that Sirius would want to do this. Peter liked the idea of being given praise for it though, not that he would get it.

'Let's go to the kitchens Moony.' Sirius said as if Peter hadn't spoken and it was his idea.

'Alright.' Remus sighed after a couple of seconds, closing his book and tossing it onto the table his legs had just been on.

'Alright!' Sirius said joyously, standing up too and then noticing that they were still one man short. 'Hey where did Prongs go?' Sirius asked Remus.

Remus frowned. Sirius couldn't possibly be so dense that he hadn't noticed that his best friend had disappeared up to their dormitory with his girlfriend. Then again, perhaps he had just been too absorbed in silently flirting with the sixth year girl across the common room through way of suggestive looks to even take an interest in the whereabouts of his best friend. Really both suggestions were completely plausible but still, Remus couldn't quite decipher which one was true. He decided to tell him where James was anyway.

'He went upstairs with Evans about twenty minutes ago.' Remus said.

'Twenty minutes eh?' Sirius wondered suspiciously with the raise of one of his eyebrows. He then stood up, brushed down his robes, winked at the girl he had been throwing insinuate looks at for the past twenty minutes before setting off in the direction of the boys dormitory.

'You're not going to interrupt them are you?' Remus asked.

'No.' Sirius called back innocently, 'Just gonna ask if they want to come to the kitchens with us.'

'Padfoot!' Remus reprimanded even though it made no difference to Sirius' actions. He still climbed the staircase.

Smirking to himself and unable to wonder what he would walk into fine his best friend doing, Sirius made the short journey up to the seventh years dormitory and opened the door, immediately making a scene as soon as he saw James and Lily on James' bed.

'Ah! My eyes! My eyes!' he said loudly, throwing his hand over his eyes but peering through his fingers at James and Lily as they stopped kissing and turned to see what an earth was going on.

As soon as Lily saw Sirius pretending to not stare at them, in fact, as soon as she realised he was in the room and the dishevelled state of slight undress that she was in, she sat up and pulled the sides of her shirt across herself to cover up. James had been successful in undoing her school shirt just as she had been successful in undoing his. James however, wasn't particularly fussed about what Sirius had walked in on and stayed lying on his bed with his shirt open, looking at Sirius with exasperated raised eyebrows.

'Get a room!' Sirius continued, lowering his hand from his eyes.

'We have one.' James stated coolly, 'You're in it.'

Sirius paused and looked at James with an unreadable expression. 'This is my room.' he stated.

James sighed at his pedantic best friend, running his hand through his hair as he did so before placing it down onto Lily's thigh. 'What do you want Sirius?' he asked him, raising his eyebrows and wanting nothing more than for him to disappear so that he could continue with what he viewed as extremely good progress with Lily, even if it had started out as a way to distract her from asking him about his secrets.

'We're going to the kitchens.' Sirius said, lowering his hand from his eyes and grinning at the prospect of food, 'Wanna come?'

'No.' James said straight away with an, 'are you kidding me' expression. He was being given the choice of going to pig out on food or continuing to snog his girlfriend. Really, which one did Sirius expect him to pick?

'But…food.' Sirius pouted.

Then again, this was Sirius. Nothing was more important to him than food. It was his first and only love. James however, had felt a different kind of love and he wouldn't give it up for anything.

'I'm good thanks.' he said with a nod of his head, a clear cut signal for Sirius to leave him and Lily be.

Sirius didn't leave however, intent on being a nuisance to James because he knew what his best friend wanted to be doing right now instead of talking to him. And really, Sirius just liked to bug and frustrate people.

'Cause you've just been eating Evans?' Sirius asked, referring to the reason he knew wasn't the reason why James didn't fancy joining him on a trip to the kitchens at this moment in time.

'What happened to Lily?' Lily asked, picking up on Sirius' use of her last name but nothing else. Definitely not the not-so-subtle insinuating looks he was shooting towards James.

'Swaps and changes.' Sirius shrugged.

'I wasn't eating her I was kissing her.' James defended, starting to move his hand over her thigh, unable to keep it still where it was.

'Looked like eating from here.' Sirius replied, pretending not to notice anything.

'Then move.' James said through gritted teeth, wanting nothing more than Sirius to leave the room.

Sirius stood in thought for a second before stepping to the side. He tilted his head to the side. 'Looks like eating from here too.'

'Padfoot.' James warned.

'Kissing, eating. What's the difference really?' Sirius joked.

'Padfoot.' James said again.

'I'm going.' Sirius sighed, sensing his fun was coming to an end. He didn't always like to admit it or even pay attention to it, but Sirius always knew when he had gone a step too far. Still, he put in one last comment as he walked through the door, calling over his shoulder, 'Remember Prongs! Your Mum said never to play with your food!'

As he walked out of the dormitory door and began to take the decent down the spiral staircase, he heard a thud behind him. He turned around and saw James' shoe land just outside the room having just hit the wall opposite the door. Sirius smirked and chuckled to himself. James must have been really annoyed at him for interrupting his snogging session with Lily. James had never had any real violent tendencies. Sirius must have really pissed him off to make him throw something.

Sirius headed down to the common room where he met back up with Remus and Peter and then the three of them together made their way down to the kitchens. When they got there, as usual, they were greeted by the masses of house elves who worked there, their arms laden with food for them. Also as usual, Remus took what he wanted, thanking the house elves, Peter timidly did the same, also thanking the house elves just as Remus had, and Sirius took the rest, already too busy stuffing his face to give his thanks to the magical creatures, not that they minded. The three boys then sat down, ate, laughed and joked for around ten minutes before the portrait door swung open and James walked in, Lily in tow behind him, the pair holding hands as if it was the most natural thing in the world to them and, truth be told, it was.

'Hey!' Sirius spat in a surprised voice through a mouthful of food, crumbs of cake flying out and scattering themselves across the table. He swallowed his food, thankfully, before continuing. 'Thought you weren't coming down to the kitchen? Thought you were too cool for us.'

'I am.' James stated arrogantly with a smirk, sitting down opposite Sirius and next to Remus. Lily sat next to him, flicking a few of the crumbs which had flown from Sirius' mouth across the table and away from where she was sitting. Remus offered James a chocolate éclair and James passed it on to Lily who took it with a grateful smile at Remus. James didn't eat anything.

'Maybe too cool for Wormy.' Sirius said, jerking his thumb towards Peter who was sat next to him, digging happily into a bowl of trifle, before gesturing between himself and Remus. 'You're not too cool for us though.' he stated to accompany his hand gesture.

'Nah I'm too cool for you.' James said with a nod, wrapping his right arm around Lily's waist. He paused before looking thoughtfully at Remus. 'Maybe not Moony but definitely you.' he said turning back to Sirius with a teasing smirk.

Sirius narrowed his eyes. 'I hate you.' he said.

'At least the feelings mutual.' James grinned.

Sirius chucked a piece of muffin into his mouth before turning to Remus. 'What does mutual mean Moony?' he asked him, inadvertently spraying him with food.

Remus looked at Sirius disgustedly, brushing some of the crumbs which had landed on his robes away. 'That you're an idiot.' he said simply.

Sirius stuck his tongue out petulantly at Remus before turning to James who was being fed a mouthful of chocolate éclair by Lily. He was going to ask him a question but the sight in front of him disgusted him just as much as him spraying mouthfuls of food across the table disgusted Remus. James had taken a bite of Lily's éclair, a bit of the cream staying in the corner of his mouth so Lily had wiped it away with her thumb and ate it herself whilst James smiled and winked at her. Sirius didn't do relationships. And James and Lily were so clearly in one. He turned away and pulled a face at Peter who tittered appreciatively.

Remus decided to move the conversation along. 'So why did you decided to come down to the kitchens and eat with us less than cool folk?' he asked James.

'That dufus made Lily laugh.' James said, taking his arm off of Lily's waist to throw a lazy gesture out to Sirius.

'Awesome!' Sirius said, paying attention again now that he had been mentioned. 'How?' he questioned.

'The eating comment.' Lily said with a slight breathless chuckle.

'Oh.' Sirius said, 'Cool. You gotta admit though, it did look a lot like eating.'

'I wouldn't know.' James responded, pulling a bowl of jelly towards him which had just been placed onto the table by one of the passing house elves who knew of James' fondness for the wobbling dessert. 'I wasn't watching.' he continued, digging a spoon into the bowl.

'I'll get you a mirror next time so you can see.' Sirius offered.

'Thanks but I think I'll pass.' James said, taking a mouthful of strawberry jelly.

'Alright.' Sirius began in a sing-song voice, 'But you'll regret it.'

'I doubt it.' James scoffed.

'You will.' Sirius said.

'I won't.' James said.

'You will.' Sirius said.

'I won't.' James said.

'You will.' Sirius said.

'I won't.' James said.

'This could go on for a while.' Remus said with a sigh to Lily as James and Sirius carried on with their childlike back and forth. Remus stood up and moved to sit the other side of Lily to engage her in a conversation, letting James and Sirius get on with their nonsense. 'How's N.E.W.T's going for you then?' Remus asked Lily.

Lily, Remus and Peter got into a conversation about their upcoming N.E.W.T's a conversation which mainly consisted of Remus and Lily reassuring Peter that he knew more than he though he did and that there was no need to worry about failing all his tests. They convinced him that, even if he didn't get O's in all his subjects he was sure to at least pass them all. Their conversation lasted for twenty minutes whilst Sirius and James underlined it with their continuous stubborn rhythm of 'you will' 'I won't'. It went on for a while before James was pulled out of his infancy behaviour by Lily.

'Oh crap.' she said suddenly.

'What?' James said, turning to face her, an automatic look of concern covering his face over her swearing.

'I win.' Sirius said happily.

'Doesn't count.' James muttered to him in an offhand comment before turning back to Lily.

'What's the time?' she asked him for conformation.

'Err…' James said, shaking back the sleeve of his school robe to check his watch, 'Twenty to four.' he stated, 'Why?'

Lily started to get up. 'I told Hestia I'd meet her after her Divination lesson.'

'Oh.' James said disappointedly. 'Do you have to?' he asked taking her hand and drawing on the palm of it.

'Yes.' she said, stood to the side of him now, 'She's already miffed that I spend more time with you than her. She's banned me from talking about you before twelve.'

James chuckled once with a small shake of his head, still drawing patterns on the palm of her hand. 'It's Sirius all over again.' he joked.

'What?' Sirius asked, caught off guard by the mention of his name, his mouth open and showing the generous helping of food he had just given himself.

'See you later.' Lily said, ignoring him and kissing James on the lips in a goodbye. She pulled away from him and left the kitchens. James watched her go.

When the portrait door to the kitchens had swung shut, James turned back to the table and dug into his jelly once again.

'So how's things going with you two then?' Remus asked James, getting up and walking around the table to grab a plate of sandwiches from the side. From there he sat next to Sirius.

James was about to nod and swallow his mouthful of jelly to give a reply but Sirius beat him to the punch.

'Oh it's definitely going well for our Jimmy-boy here.' he said with an insinuating grin and bob of his eyebrows, 'They looked really cosy upstairs.'

James swallowed his jelly deeply and, even though he knew what Sirius was getting at, he still felt the need to ask, 'What's that supposed to mean?'

'You know.' Sirius replied, humming after his response, leaving little to the imagination about what he was suggesting. If it wasn't obvious beforehand, as it wasn't to Peter, it definitely was now.

'I'm not talking to you about this.' James stated out of respect to Lily.

Really he wanted advice on the subject but not in this context, not in the kitchen with a crowd of house elves mulling around them. Not with Peter present, for he would be no use on the subject, and definitely not whilst Sirius wasn't taking it seriously. He'd probably talk to them a bit further along the line about it. Possibly. Possibly not. Really what help would they be? Sirius had never been in a relationship, didn't do emotions and had never experienced feelings like James had for Lily so he didn't know about the strings that were attached for James on this subject. He just looked upon it as sex. Remus had also never been in a relationship but, unlike Sirius, would probably understand the emotional baggage that James and Lily carried with them. He was wise to people's feelings, especially the ones James harboured for Lily. So he would be helpful in that part but as he had never ventured into the physical aspect of it he probably wouldn't be much help there. Peter had done nothing, felt nothing and had never been given the chance too, always being seen as the tag along dumpy boy of James Potter and Sirius Black so, he really would be of no use to James. But who was to say James would use any of them.

'Why not?' Sirius questioned, 'It's guy talk.'

'Is it?' Peter asked innocently, unsure.

'Yeah it is.' Sirius assured him, being a lot kinder towards him than he usually was. 'Guys always talk about what chick they've scored with.' he explained.

'Not once have we done that.' Remus said from next to him.

'That's cause I was the only one scoring.' Sirius pointed out before turning to James, obviously expecting support as he said, 'Now there's two of us. Right Prongs?'

James sighed and pushed his bowl of jelly to the side, unable to continue eating saying, 'Look it's lovely to know that you're so interested in my sex life but I'm still not talking to you about this.' as he did so.

'Why not?' Sirius baffled, 'I'm your best friend!'

'You may be my best friend but sometime I seriously just want to kick you in the face.' James replied in all seriousness.

Sirius frowned. 'You couldn't get your leg that high.' he said.

'Wanna try me?' James smirked.

Sirius paused, studying his best friends smirking face and taking in the fact that he was avoiding this topic of conversation. He sat back on the bench from where he had been leaning forwards, drawing only one very obvious conclusion. 'You haven't done it yet.' he said.

James didn't bat an eyelid. 'I'm still not talking to you about this.' he shot back without missing a beat.

'Why not?' Sirius scoffed, 'How long you been together now?'

James took a deep breath, not liking the implications that Sirius was putting forwards very subtly, the implications that he was being stupid and for not, as Sirius would put it, 'scoring' with Lily yet. 'That's not the point-' he began.

'How long?' Sirius questioned.

'It's still not the-' James tried to continued, once again being interrupted by Sirius.

'How long?' Sirius pushed again.

James sighed and pulled his bowl of jelly back towards him. 'Eight months and twenty one days.' he reeled off as it was the time of day.

Sirius scoffed again. 'You got timings as well?' he asked sarcastically.

'What?' Peter asked, confused and oblivious to the fact that Sirius was taking the micky out of James for knowing exactly how long it had been, to the day, since he had started going out with Lily.

'You know,' Sirius said to him, starting to clarify, 'hours, minutes, seconds-'

'Shut up Padfoot.' Remus instructed in interruption.

'Anyway,' Sirius went on, ignoring Remus completely and getting back to his point, 'if you've been together that long then why-'

'There are rules about it at Hogwarts you know.' Remus put in, trying to save James from this conversation lasting any longer. He clearly didn't want to talk about it and why Sirius couldn't grasp onto that point Remus did not know.

'Moony, Moony, Moony.' Sirius said with a slight chuckle, shaking his head and clapping him on the shoulder, 'Since when have we ever paid attention to the rules.'

'Maybe you should pay attention to this one.' Remus said with a nod of his head, 'If you're caught you can get suspended or expelled.'

'But for a good reason!' Sirius said seriously, his eyes widening. He bobbed his eyebrows once at Remus before turning back to James and saying, 'So do it!'

'I said I wasn't talking to you about this.' James stated clearly, deciding there and then that he would not be talking to Sirius about this ever. Not if all he was going to do was say, 'do it, do it, do it'. He didn't need that. If he was going to do it he would. He didn't need his best friend telling him too. 'It's personal between me and Lily,' he went on, 'and what did I say?'

'Lily's off limits.' all three of his friends said in a choral monotone with Sirius adding, 'We know!' onto the end as if it was the bane of his existence. This wretched rule that James had forced them into agreeing too. It was absurd. What were they supposed to talk about?

'Then move on.' James said.

Still, Sirius continued, just trying to annoy James into the conversation. 'Is it cause she doesn't want to or you?' he asked.

'Sirius.' James warned.

'Natural curiosity.' Sirius shrugged.

'Sirius.' James warned again.

'You know what else is natural?' Sirius insinuated raising his eyebrows again as he always did when he was in a suggestive mood.

'Just whack him one.' James told Remus.

With no hesitation, Remus whacked Sirius around the back of his head, messing up his perfectly neat hair.

'Hey!' Sirius said, more concerned with fixing his hair then rubbing the sore spot from Remus' harsh hand.

'He told me too.' Remus said simply with a shrug.

'If he told you to jump off of the astronomy tower would you do it?' Sirius queried.

'Maybe.' Remus smirked, 'To get away from you.'

* * *

**Thanks for reading**

**Galindaba**


	72. Chapter 71

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello readers!**

**Just repeating, sorry to say that I'm going on holiday for a couple of weeks and won't be able to update so, at least for two and a bit weeks, this will be the only update. Sorry.**

**Anyway, here's Chapter Seventy-One.**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Seventy-One**

Herbology was a long and boring lesson, especially in the morning. Hardly anyone concentrated and those who did were always put off by the fake snores and laughter coming from the marauders in the corner who, even though they were just as tired as the rest, always managed to be awake enough to mess about and pull childish pranks such as trying to feed a mandrake to a tentacula plant. (They were all given detention for that and Remus and James were told that, as figures of authority in the student body, they should know better.) Their jokes always managed to make the class a bit more alert though, if only for five minutes. Still, it was probably five minutes more than Professor Sprout would have usually gotten out of her students first thing on a Thursday morning.

The lesson dragged on and the whole class was greatly relieved when it had ended, even those who were considering taking Herbology further on into a career. As soon as Professor Sprout began to give out the homework, the class started to pack up, barely listening to what she was saying meaning that, for their next lesson, half of the class would have no idea that they had homework due. Still, after a long class, even for the teacher, Professor Sprout decided not to stop them. She would deal with it next week. She let them go quickly and they all left hurriedly, bringing great relief to both her and the class.

The Gryffindor's dispersed into their separate groups to walk back up to the castle or through the grounds, all keen to make the most of their break. The marauders headed over to their beech tree. Alice left Lily and Hestia to go meet up with Frank who was walking a little ways ahead of them, making their way to the entrance hall which was crowded with students. Hestia and Lily strolled casually behind the group, not too bothered about getting inside quickly as it was a nice day and not too keen to be caught in the crowd. Hestia was rambling on about the assignment they had just been given but Lily wasn't listening.

'..and then I thought we could go on to say how the tentacula plant needs dragon dung as its fertiliser because otherwise the roots will seize up.' Hestia was saying, 'I'm sure that's what Sprout said anyway. And then I thought we could-' she suddenly noticed Lily wasn't listening to her but instead in her own world glancing over to the marauders who were playing with sparks across the grounds. Hestia sighed in frustration. Lily was constantly doing this to her these days. 'Then I thought I'd dress one up in a tutu and make it dance with a hippo.' she said, in a sort of test to see whether Lily was actually listening to her. As she expected, she wasn't. 'Lily?' Hestia said once before giving her a gentle shove and repeating, 'Lily?'

'Yeah?' Lily said, caught off guard and snapping back into reality. She blinked at Hestia twice. She looked unusually dazed.

'Are you ok?' Hestia asked concerned, 'I'm talking to you about the homework we were just set and you're not paying the slightest bit of attention to me. Too busy staring at your boyfriend.' she mumbled.

'We were given homework?' Lily queried, ignoring Hestia's last comment.

'Alright.' Hestia said, stopping their slow walk, 'That's it. What's wrong?'

'Nothing.' Lily lied, shaking her head.

'Lily.' Hestia replied with a knowing sigh. She stared at Lily questioningly for a couple of seconds before Lily said something.

'You don't want to know.' Lily shrugged, trying to start walking again, only Hestia pulled her back.

'Yes I do.' Hestia said, 'I asked didn't I?'

'Yes but you don't want to know.' Lily contradicted, an air of impatience around her, 'It's about James and you banned me from talking about him before twelve and its, oh look at that, quarter past ten.' she went on sarcastically, pretending to check her watch.

'This is an exception.' Hestia said, folding her arms and rolling her eyes before adding, 'And you made me sound like a real bitch just then.'

'Hestia!' Lily reprimanded, scolding Hestia's language.

'Well you did!' Hestia defended, 'I never said it like that. It's just you've been going on about him an awful lot lately because you think he may lo-'

'Shh!' Lily interrupted quickly, shutting Hestia up as quickly as possible and looking around them to see if anyone was within earshot. Namely James. He wasn't no one was.

'What?' Hestia said in confusion as to why Lily had just stopped her from finishing her sentence.

'Just shh.' Lily said plainly and quickly.

'Why?' Hestia asked, still extremely confused.

Lily paused, thinking through all of Hestia's little unwritten rules which she had spoken about in the past when their conversations veered off onto tangents. There were a lot of them and sifting through them, remembering them all was more of a hassle than anything else to Lily. Still, if she could remember one tthat could possible pertain to her situation, Hestia might drop it and actually focus on the situation that Lily had presented; James keeping secrets from her. She thought back over their years of friendship and of all the rules Hestia had given her, (and that number was great), the only thing she could actually remember was 'you can't rewrite an unwritten rule it's unwritten'. And she couldn't even remember if that was one of Hestia's rules or something she had said as a sarcastic retort. She was stuck. So she made something up.

'Isn't it bad luck or something?' she said, hoping Hestia might possibly agree and keep it as an unwritten rule or, by any great stoke of look, hoping it was already an unwritten rule. It wasn't.

'No.' Hestia said.

'Oh.' Lily replied, feeling a bit deflated and thinking that Hestia would now continue off onto tangents about rules and love etc. Her problem would never be sorted now. She would never get the advice she craved.

But Lily sorely underestimated her best friend for as many un-rewritable unwritten rules that had occurred to Hestia in that moment, as much as she wanted to get inside and repaint her nails after Herbology,(for they had been chipped by wearing her dragon-hide gloves), and as much as she wanted to go and get something to eat, (for Sirius had, once again, nicked her toast that morning), Lily's distant state of mind concerned her. She was obviously worrying about something and, even though Hestia was slowly becoming tired of Lily's flourishing relationship with James Potter as she had no-one herself, she couldn't not try to help her. She was her best friend. It was her job.

'What's wrong?' Hestia asked, truthful concern colouring her voice and appearing on her face, 'Why are you going off into your own world?'

Lily studied Hestia carefully. 'I can tell you?' she questioned, 'Even though it's about James and it's before twelve?'

'Yes.' Hestia sighed in exaggerated exasperation. Seriously, why would she ask if she didn't mean it? Hestia was not particularly one for saying things falsely. 'I'm your best friend,' she continued, 'it's what I'm here for. To support you no matter what. Even if it is some annoying ramblings about your boyfriend.' she added afterwards, muttering it under her breath, not expecting Lily to hear. Only she did.

'Hestia.' Lily exhaled, 'I'm not telling you if you're going to be like that'

'I'm not.' Hestia said, making out like it was a joke though she wasn't quite sure if that was entirely true, 'I'm listening. Go on.'

Again, Lily studied her face, ensuring that she was completely serious before telling her what the issue was. 'Ok.' she said cautiously, 'Well…god this sounds stupid now but...I think James is keeping a secret from me.'

'A secret?' Hestia repeated, 'Seriously?'

'Yes.' Lily answered.

'But I thought you were going to declare a no secrets rule after all that stuff over Snape etcetera, etcetera.' Hestia pointed out.

'I did.' Lily said, relaxing into the conversation, now sensing that Hestia was taking this subject completely seriously which, after all, is all she really wanted. Because if she hadn't then she would be unable to receive the advice she so desperately sought. 'Which is why I think he's keeping something from me.' she continued.

'Well, have you asked him what it is?' Hestia said, trying to swipe the obvious suggestions of what to do out of the way first before moving onto her more…creative ones.

'Yes.' Lily said indignantly, rolling her eyes at the easy suggestion. It was stupid. But at the same time, it got her thinking. She may have asked him, but he never had given her an answer. They had moved onto other activities. 'Well…I tried.' Lily started to say, 'But he…well we…he distracted me.'

'So you started to snog instead.' Hestia said bluntly.

'You're so crude sometime Hestia, you know that?' Lily said. She hated the word snog. It sounded almost piggish. It sounded like the words snort or oink combined which, generally, were words she associated with pigs. So whenever someone said the word 'snog' instead of a kiss, she would just get the vivid image of a pig in her head. And more often than not, the pig would be modified to look like a cartoon with mop like hair and a straw hat. Wow. James was right. She was weird.

'That's not crude Lily it's being honest.' Hestia said, taking her turn to roll her eyes, 'Being crude would be if I were to say-'

'Ah ah. Ah ah.' Lily said, cutting Hestia off and holding her finger into the air. They may be seventh years now, eighteen and everything, but did that really mean that they had to be crude all the time? Yes it was more socially acceptable at their age, much more so than if they had been speaking like this at age thirteen, but still; it was sometimes just a bit too much.

'Fine.' Hestia gave in, returning to her original point, the simplest soloution in the world, 'But just ask him.' It really was simple and why Lily hadn't tried to do it again Hestia would never understand. It also meant that Hestia's creative ideas would have to wait to be used. She just didn't know they never would be.

'And if he won't tell me?' Lily questioned.

'Ask him again.' Hestia shrugged, 'He'll tell you eventually. He can't deny you anything. It's sickening really.'

'What?' Lily laughed. That had to be false. James denied her things. Didn't he? Actually, come to think of it, he never did. He always gave her exactly what she wanted. He spoilt her. She was spoilt rotten by him. Even more so recently. But she'd never realised before. Others had though. Hestia especially.

'It's true.' Hestia said, 'He will give you anything you want and he will tell you anything you want to hear. Like at breakfast this morning. When we were walking down to breakfast he kept saying how much he wanted a muffin and when we got to the table there was only one left and then halfway through he still hadn't eaten it and you decided, 'hey, I fancy a muffin'. So you asked him if he really wanted it and, everyone could tell he did but one look into your eyes and that odd pouty type face and he gave it to you even though he didn't actually want too.'

Lily raised an eyebrow at the example. She could think of better ones. Her birthday for example when he had given her practically everything but the sun. Still, the example Hestia had chosen had given Lily cause for doubt. 'But that's a muffin Hestia.' she said, 'A secret is hardly the same thing.'

'Maybe not but he'll still tell you it.' Hestia said with another shrug, 'Believe me. Get him to look into your eyes and he'll be putty in your hands. I've seen it.'

Lily didn't know if that fact was true. 'I haven't.' she said.

Hestia shook her head. 'Trust me.' she said.

* * *

James had just left the dinner table to go and take a walk with Lily around the grounds of the castle leaving Sirius alone with Peter. Remus was on his way having just needed to whip to the library to look something up. So it was just Sirius and Peter, always an awkward situation for Peter held Sirius in reverence but was a tiny bit scared of him whilst Sirius hardly had the time of day for him. Still, that didn't mean he wouldn't talk to him if he was the only one around. Unfortunately he wasn't the only person there. Hestia Jones was too so she had the delightful pleasure of being first in line for Sirius to talk to.

'So Jones-'

'Please don't talk to me Black.' Hestia cut him off.

'You don't even know what I'm gonna say!' Sirius exclaimed.

'I don't care.' she said.

'What if it was to make you an offer you couldn't refuse?' Sirius questioned, ripping a piece of bread and stuffing the larger half in his mouth.

Hestia grimaced at him. 'Believe me,' she said, 'if it's an offer from you it will be all too easy to refuse. In fact, you gross me out so much I'm even considering getting my divination book out and studying.'

'So you've never considered getting with me then?' Sirius asked, rather surprised.

Hestia paused. Every girl in the school had considered it. She was no different but still, considering was a completely different thing to doing. And she would never 'do' Sirius. She'd seen him eat. She knew where that mouth had been. It was disgusting. 'No.' she said shortly.

'Fair enough.' Sirius shrugged, 'Guess you're stuck with Pete then if you don't like completely perfect guys with great hair, fit body's, personality, skill, charm, skill, (in the other sense eh Jones!) and just all round awesomeness.'

'I like guys like that.' Hestia said honestly, 'Just a shame you aren't one.'

'Ouch! Jones you wound me!' Sirius said, clamping a heart over his chest.

'Seem to remember Potter doing something similar to that to Lily.' Hestia said, picking her bag up off the floor, 'Please don't start doing what he did to her to me.'

'What's that?' Peter asked meekly, finally joining the conversation, finding his confidence and courage at long last to speak.

'Follow her around, ask her out every day, feed her corny lines and basically be an annoying twat.' Hestia said, 'Then again, Blacks already an annoying twat so-'

'Hey!' Sirius butted in as Hestia smirked and flicked through her book to the page she had folded down in the corner, 'I am not an annoying twat!'

'Then what would you call it?' Hestia challenged.

'I would call it being awesome as I am just that.' Sirius stated smugly, 'Awesome.'

Hestia just rolled her eyes and started to read her book.

'Wouldn't do any of that to you anyway Jones.' Sirius said, shoving the rest of his bread into his mouth, 'You ain't worth it. Besides, got a lot more fitter girls than you trailing after me and as you're Lily's friend, it'd be wrong cause, let's face it, it'd never work out between us. I know it's hard to hear. Hard to hear that you'll never get to experience the complete and total package, (package eh Jones!), that is Sirius Black but hey! You'll get over it.'

'Already am.' Hestia stated.

Sirius scowled. 'Besides,' he said, 'Following girls around, asking them out every day, feeding them corny lines That's Prong's thing. He's the pansy in the group.'

Hestia scoffed.

'It's true.'

'What's true?' Remus asked Peter as he sat down, holding a weird object that he had just confiscated from a fifth year Slytherin.

'That Prongs is the pansy in the group.' Peter replied, dutifully filling Remus in on what he had missed.

'No more so than Sirius.' Remus laughed, 'Prongs may be a pansy when it comes to Evans but at least he can handle firewhisky.'

Hestia snorted with laughter over this. It was funny that the boy who built himself up to be awesome in every aspect of his life and physical being couldn't handle the one drink teenage boys prided themselves on drinking.

Sirius again scowled but, instead of moving onto a conversation which he knew would just mock him and his inability to handle the alcoholic drink, changed the subject, ignoring Hestia's snort. 'What's that?' he asked pointing to the object Remus had with him.

'Dunno.' Remus replied honestly, 'Confiscated it off of a Slytherin. No idea what to do with it though.'

'Want my advice?' Sirius smirked.

Remus hesitated before saying slowly and cautiously, 'Sure…'

'Handle every situation like a dog.' Sirius said with an affirmative nod, 'If you can't eat it, play with it or pee on it, just walk away.'

Remus stared at Sirius with raised eyebrows. 'You are disgusting Padfoot.'

Sirius just grinned.

* * *

James and Lily were walking around the grounds of Hogwarts hand in hand as they usually did after lunch. Their walk wouldn't be long today as they had a Transfiguration class straight after and neither of them wanted to be late for it. James wouldn't have minded for any other subject but he excelled in Transfiguration and enjoyed it so, for this, he joined Lily in wanting to be on time. Plus McGonagall scared the bejeezers out of him sometimes and, as their N.E.W.T's were only one and a half months away from beginning, he didn't really want to take the chance to cross her. Not that he didn't enjoy it sometimes. She was fun to wind up. But, no matter what anyone else thought, he did understand the importance of his N.E.W.T's. He wanted to be an auror. He wanted to do his father proud. He wanted to make his mum proud. He wanted Lily to be proud of him. He needed his N.E.W.T's. So Lily and James' walk wasn't to be long today. But that didn't mean that their conversation was sparse. In fact, it was quite deep. They were talking about the war.

The war had been building outside of the walls of Hogwarts for quite some time now and, it seemed, from the articles printed in the daily prophet, it had started to rage, hitting what all would wish would be its peak. But people knew it wasn't. They knew it would get worse. They just didn't know how. There were already deaths and disappearances and tortures reported every day, all involving Voldemort's death eaters but, oddly enough, hardly ever involving Voldemort himself. However, when the report did include Voldemort or, as he was refered to, he-who-must-not-be-named, you could always guarantee that it was for a horrendously brutal death of someone important or a particularly strong protestor. Only then, it seemed, would he consider you worthy enough to kill you himself. That already scared people. But something had increased their panic. And it was plainly a sign. And this was what James and Lily were talking about in deep discussion.

There had been an article in the paper that morning that, recently, over the place where somebody killed by Voldemort or his forces resided, there was a sign in the sky; the dark mark. A spell had been created that meant, when cast, the clouds above where the dead body lie would morph into a skull with a snake protruding from the mouth. It symbolised Voldemort and people were now becoming even more terrified than they already were. James and Lily were discussing, strangely, that if someone they loved had been killed by Voldemort whether they would prefer to come home and see the mark or not. James said he would prefer to see the mark. Lily on the other hand, wouldn't.

'At least you'd be prepared for what's inside.' James said reasonably.

'Yeah but then you'd know what had happened specifically and that would be worse, surely.' Lily argued.

'I don't know.' James said, 'I mean, either way it's bad. Someone you love has died and, even if the dark mark wasn't above your house you'd still know it was Voldemort. The only difference is, when the dark mark is there, you know what's coming. You can prepare yourself for seeing it, finding them. Otherwise you're just going into it blind and I think it's even more of a shock.'

'It'll be a shock either way.' Lily said all the while thinking this was an odd topic to be discussing. It was odd discussing it with such detatchment. But, then again, withing the walls of Hogwarts, they were detatched from the situation, from the war. But that didn't mean Lily wasn't prepared for going out into it. She had to be prepared, more so than James. She had considered every possibility because she had had too. Because she was muggleborn. She was a mudblood.

'I know that.' James replied, with a roll of his eyes, 'I just mean that you wouldn't expect it. If the marks there you would.'

'So you'd prefer to see the mark above your house?' Lily questioned, 'Or mine?'

'Lily.' James warned, snapping into the fact that now, they were no longer holding a rationalised discussion. They were now in personal territory, applying it to themselves. And he didn't want to do that. He wanted to live in Hogwarts, in the delusional safety it had provided them with for a little bit longer. But Lily was different.

'Well come on James, out of the two of us whose house is that mark more likely to appear over?' Lily asked with a slight tone of exasperation appearing in her voice.

'Lily will you please stop?' James instructed her, stopping their walk and turning her to face him. 'Please don't talk about it like that.'

'Well how else am I meant to talk about it?' Lily said, 'It's more of a threat to me than you and-'

'That's not the conversation we were having.' James cut in.

There was a tangible silence in the air between them. They just stood looking at each other, James trying to convey to her his urgent request for her to stop talking about it all in this way. It seemed to him as if she had resigned herself to the fact that the dark mark would appear over her house in the near future anyway and he didn't like it. He felt like she was almost giving up, even though that wasn't the case. She was simply, as James had said seeing the mark would force you to do, preparing herself for the possibility of some sort of similar event even though she knew she would fight tooth and nail before she let it happen.

'I'd never want to see that mark over your house.' James said seriously after a long pause. He stepped a little bit closer to her and tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear, watching his hand as it went before looking into her eyes. 'And that mark won't _ever_ appear over your house because I won't let it. It'll never happen to us.' James continued, as if he were certain that would be the case. As if he were certain that Voldemort wouldn't touch them, which of course, he couldn't be sure of at all. But he had to believe it. He couldn't bear not to. It was too hard.

Lily sensed the conversation stopped there. It had too as there was a ferocity in James' eyes over this subject, a hardness that had covered them which, if truth be told, scared her a little bit. She continued to look into them though, unable to pull her gaze away from those emotional hazel eyes under his glasses. His eyes had captivated her. And that reminded her.

'Hey what did you mean yesterday?' she asked suddenly, going straight for it. No time like the present.

'What?' James asked, caught off guard by the sudden change of topic. A topic which he wasn't too clear on.

'Yesterday.' Lily said, trying to remind him. She explained; 'We went up to your room and we were talking and I said how we don't have any secrets and you clammed up and I asked you if there was anything you wanted to tell me and you said _no_-'

'Then I meant no.' he cut in in a hard voice which clearly told her to drop it.

Lily paused at his quick response. She was still looking into his eyes and he was still looking into hers. 'But you didn't though.' she said, trying to hold the gaze, 'Cause I went to ask you again and you kissed me to shut me up.'

'I kissed you to kiss you.' James said, his eyeline dropping to her lips, the hand that wasn't holding hers beginning to fiddle with her hair, twirling it around his finger and running it through them.

Lily noticed. She paused again. 'No,' she began again, 'you didn't you-'

But once again she was cut off because James had pressed his lips to hers. He stayed there until he felt her relax. Then he began to move his lips against hers, knowing she would do the same. He stepped closer to her and took his hand out of hers so that he could snake it around her waist and pull her closer to him. But he shouldn't have because that action alerted Lily to the fact that she was becoming distracted, as she had been the day before, and she pulled away from him.

'You did it again!' she said with a slight disbelieving laugh.

'Did what?' James shrugged, playing dumb but still not looking her in the eyes. He couldn't risk Lily asking him about the secret he was keeping from her, the secret that wasn't his to tell, and giving him that look which would force him to spill the beans. He couldn't risk experiencing that tug and snap feeling she gave him because if he did he knew he would be powerless against her and he would have no choice but to tell her about Remus and his, Sirius' and Peter's illegal activities. So he just averted his gaze.

'Kissed me to shut me up.' Lily said, 'Why do you want to shut me up?'

'I don't.' James said, brushing the hair back from her face again and cupping her cheek with his hand and he stepped forwards to her again. 'I just want to kiss you.' he went on, bending his head down, focusing on her lips, in a move to kiss her one more time but Lily wasn't playing ball. She pulled out of his hold and stepped away, a good couple of feet.

'Why did you invite me up to your room yesterday?' she demanded.

'Your lips look so good right now.' James said.

'James.' Lily warned.

'They entice me.' James said.

Lily sighed exasperatedly. 'James-' she began to say when her attention was once again diverted. 'Entice?' she quieried, 'Where did you learn that word?'

James smirked, his distraction working. He stepped forwards towards her again and ran his hand down her arms to her hands which he took. 'Wouldn't you like to know.' he said cheekily.

Lily broke a small smile. 'Actually I-' then she stopped, realising what he had done. 'Hey!' she said, pulling away from him again, 'No. No. Stop distracting me.' she went on, bringing her hands up to her temples in frustration before quickly bringing them down again and asking, 'Why did you invite me up to your room yesterday?'

'Just to spend time with you.' James said, daringly looking into her eyes as he was telling her the truth for this question. 'I told you that.' he pointed out.

'You're not telling me the full story.' Lily stated, no room for contradictions, as she bluntly said, 'I think you have a secret.'

'I don't.' James said quickly, his eyes falling again.

Lily noticed his eyeline drop. She stayed staring at him though, a silence between them again, even more tangible than the last.

'I _don't_.' James repeated, rolling his eyes and looking above her head to try and make it appear as if he was looking at her when he wasn't.

'I don't believe you.' Lily replied stubbornly, folding her arms and fixing him with a stare, trying to force him to look at her.

James sighed. 'I don't have a secret Lily but I do have to go.' he said, suddenly deciding.

'Why?' she asked, unable to believe that he was ducking out on this conversation, a conversation she so clearly wanted to have.

'I just do. See you later.' he said, moving forwards to give her a kiss goodbye, only she turned her head away from him.

Lily didn't want to kiss him now. Not when he was so clearly hiding something from her and insulting her intelligence by trying to make her believe otherwise.

James sighed again. 'Lily.' he said, staying where he was, ready to kiss her. But she just turned her head further away from him stubbornly. James stood up straight. 'Fine.' he threw at her harshly before muttering, 'See you later.' and walking away, leaving her there in her stubborn state.

* * *

Severus was lost. Lost in a state he couldn't describe. He had nothing to cling on to now. He had said it before, he was going to let her go and move on with his new life, become a death eater fully, heart and soul into the work, but something had always dragged him back, dragged him back to her. Now there was nothing. He had a thoroughly empty void in his heart but still, he couldn't seem to let go. He didn't know what it was. She had a hold over him even though it was clear she wanted nothing to do with him. She had slapped him for Merlin's sake! If that wasn't a sign then he didn't know what was. He knew she had gone, she was no longer his, she was James Potters. But he would always be hers. Always. He couldn't help it. He didn't want to be now. He _wanted_ to let her go. He just couldn't and he didn't know why. He needed help. But he knew that there was no one to give it to him. He was alone. Lost and alone.

He still stared at her, though more infrequently than before, as they sat in Ancient Runes for the last period of the day. He couldn't help it. He couldn't help that he loved her. He couldn't help how much he loved her. He had no control of it and, before, when there was still a small chance, no matter how delusional it was, he hadn't minded. He had loved his love for her. It was the best part of him. Now it was a weakness. It had always been a weakness considering the path of life he was taking and her blood status but now it was even more of a weakness because he knew now he couldn't control it in anyway. It was just there. A weight that dragged him down and depressed him for he knew she would never feel the same way. Not towards him anyway. Perhaps towards James Potter though.

That was how bad things had gotten in his mind now. Severus couldn't even bring himself to call James a git or a twat or a toe-rag, not even in his mind. He didn't even try to curse him because he knew he wouldn't retaliate and, really, there was no point. It wouldn't even touch Lily anymore. James Potter had permission to hurt him, not that he used it; trying to be upstanding now as head boy and, Severus suspected, for Lily. But Severus still loathed him, hated him even. He just couldn't be bothered to show it anymore. He couldn't be bothered with anything. He felt completely drained emotionally. It was draining to see the girl you love fall in love with someone else. It was heart-breaking and depressing and had forced him out of that terrible state of denial into a state of pure nothingness. He felt as if he was floating in blackness, even though he swore he couldn't feel anything. He could see no future for himself. Not even as part of Voldemort's ranks. Perhaps if he was actually out there with them he would but here, at Hogwarts, there was nothing for him. He had perhaps known that for a while but hadn't wanted to accept it. He hadn't accepted it now. But he did understand it.

He understood she didn't want him. He understood that. He didn't like it, he didn't accept it but he no longer denied it. He understood. She wanted nothing to do with him though he wanted everything to do with her. And that's how thing were sure to stand for the rest of his life. He wanted to love her. He wanted her on his arm the way she was on James Potters. He wanted to hold her like he did, to kiss her like he did, to caress her like he had. He wanted to know what she felt like. He dreamed about it. He wished she had chosen him. Him to give herself to. She had as good as confirmed that she had given herself to James Potter over Christmas when he had cornered her in the library, the time before the time she had slapped him. And James had taunted Severus with the fact in the Christmas break before he had cursed him. Perhaps if he had known that she was still innocent and had never gone _that_ far with James then maybe his level of depression may not have been as deep as it was. For he was depressed. Thoroughly empty. And he knew there was nothing he could do about it whilst he was a Hogwarts.

Hogwarts. That was another thing; he would never use his N.E.W.T's for anything so why he had to do them he didn't know. He had lost motivation there too. Usually, in the past, his motivation was competition. He had actively competed against James Potter, trying to beat him for personal satisfaction but now he didn't. He had had friendly competitions with Lily, trying to get better grades than each other. But now he didn't. He didn't do anything now to be fair. He only put effort into one subject and that was Defence Against the Dark Arts but only because it was the only subject in the school that was remotely related to the Dark Arts which had always fascinated him. He put no effort into Potions but, then again, he didn't need to. He still got the best marks in the class. He put no effort into Herbology. He was failing that. He put no effort into Transfiguration and was failing that also, thoroughly annoying McGonagall who urged him to try and do better as she knew he could. He was failing Ancient Runes and Charms too. He just couldn't be bothered. With anything. And that was a dangerous place to be.

He sat behind Lily staring at her deep red hair cascading down her back, pushed back by a white headband. He was lost in her hair. And yet, he wasn't. He knew it was still fantasy, a fantasy he didn't particularly want to have but, what other option was there. He felt he had none. His mind wouldn't let him do anything else. So until the bell rang signalling the end of the lesson, he just stared at her.

When the bell did ring he stood up and left the class, no desire for food even though it was dinner time. He couldn't even find the desire to protect himself emotionally against James Potter picking Lily up from this class, kissing her in welcome and taking her books off of her before walking her down to dinner. He would just let it happen. He knew it would. After all, his plan to split them up, to prove that James was still nothing but a bully had backfired on him horribly. It hadn't ripped the couple apart at all. In fact, they had seemed closer than ever. Or so he thought before he walked out of the lesson to see, not James Potter, but Peter Pettigrew waiting for her instead. Now, either Severus had been transported into one seriously freaky Friday on a Thursday or things weren't all lollipops and rainbows in James and Lily's relationship at the moment.

When he saw this though, the thing that got Severus the most, wasn't the fact that this could be seen as a way in, but the fact that he didn't want to use it. He wanted to make sure Lily was ok, obviously, but he didn't want to try and sabotage her relationship anymore. He just wanted to leave it alone, like he was forced to leave Lily alone. He couldn't see if she was fine as much as he wanted to, but he found that he didn't actually want her to be unhappy with James. He wanted her to be blissfully happy in fact, even if it was with the one person he loathed and despised most in the world. And if she wasn't, he had no desire to play upon it. He wanted the relationship to run its course on its own and, if they broke up, they broke up. He hoped that would be the inevitable outcome. But if they stayed together, moved in, got married, had kids, he wouldn't begrudge her that if that's what she wanted. He just wanted to move on and leave her alone. That wasn't saying he could, but he wanted to.

* * *

Later that day, deflated by her failed efforts of trying to get James to tell her his secret, Lily trudged upstairs to her dormitory. She had only got to ask him once. She was too pissed off with him to try asking again during their transfiguration class in which she had plenty of opportunity to do so as they were doing a practical, and she had to rush of to her Ancient Runes lesson after that. Then, when she had steeled the confidence to try and ask him again after her Ancient Runes class, she couldn't find him. He hadn't picked her up afterwards as he usually did, instead sending Peter to tell her that he was working on some last minute Quidditch drills with Sirius and couldn't get away. It had frustrated her but now she was just deflated. She had had enough of the day and wanted nothing more than to sit in her room and read a book. When she got there she found Hestia sitting on her bed painting her nails which was the norm with her. She walked into the room and flopped backwards onto her bed in deflation.

Hestia looked up. 'Did you ask him?' she asked her.

'Yes.' Lily replied to the canopy above her bed, unable to help herself thinking back to the canopy above James' bed at his house, (if you could even call it that), and the six holes that were there as a result of Sirius' antics. Still, it didn't break a smile. She was too troubled in her mind.

'And?' Hestia pressed on.

'He didn't tell me.' Lily sighed.

'Did he look into your eyes?' Hestia queried.

Lily frowned in thought. 'No.' she said, unable to believe it herself. He hadn't looked into her eyes. He had looked anywhere else but he had avoided her gaze, averted his eyes. That couldn't be a coincidence.

'Then keep asking.' Hestia said, returning to her nails, 'He'll tell you. Eventually.'

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	73. Chapter 72

**Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Hello readers!**

**Just repeating again, sorry to say that I'm going on holiday for a couple of weeks and won't be able to update so, at least for two and a bit weeks, this will be the only update. And this is the last chapter of this update. Sorry.**

**Anyway, here's Chapter Seventy-Two.**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Seventy-Two**

'James?' Lily called as she walked over to him, across the Hogwarts grounds, to the beech tree where he was almost constantly.

'Yeah?' James replied as she approached him.

'Can I-' Lily began, wanting to ask him if she could talk to him, to try and prise his secret out of him, only she was distracted. 'Is that a dog?' she asked.

Stood next to James was a scruffy large black dog with glittering familiar eyes. She studied it but it looked away as if it knew she was trying to understand where she recognised those eyes from. Of course, Lily didn't know that the dog wasn't actually a dog at all. It was Sirius Black in his Animagus form.

James and Sirius had decided that a good use of their time, instead of spending their Saturday revising for their N.E.W.T's as most seventh years were doing, (their N.E.W.T's being only over a month away from beginning), was to test Sirius' abilities as a dog, as Padfoot; seeing if he could play catch like a dog, catching a fanged frisbee in mid-air, (he couldn't) and seeing if he could sniff out certain things, tracking them. That he could do. James had hidden some Bertie Botts every flavour beans in the forbidden forest and Padfoot had brought them back in less than a minute. But, then again, perhaps that was just cause it was food. There were certain things, as either a human or a dog, stayed the same.

James looked down at Padfoot. 'Err…yes?' he said, trying to sound sure but the statement coming out as more of a question.

'Why do you have a dog?' Lily asked him. James didn't have a dog. You weren't allowed dogs at Hogwarts. You were only allowed either an owl, a cat or a toad. That dog was definitely none of them.

'I'm looking after it?' James said, again, his voice being coloured as if the statement were a question. Really it was. A question of whether Lily was going to buy this. He had never been caught so close before. And now, as she was asking questions, was not a good time to start having close shaves.

'For who?' Lily wondered, folding her arms. She could tell he was lying to her.

'Hagrid?' James said, trying to sound sure of himself. He wasn't sure if it was working. Usually he was a great liar. He could effortlessly make up a lie on the spot and make it sound completely believable. It was a skill you needed if you got into trouble a lot which, over the past seven years at Hogwarts, James had. It was just to her. Lying to her was hard for him to do. He doubted whether it was believable. He hated lying to Lily. It physically hurt him inside.

James' lie wasn't believable, and now, Lily definitely knew he wasn't being honest with her. 'That's not Hagrid's dog.' she said, raising her eyebrows.

'Yes it is.' James tried again.

'No it's not.' Lily argued.

'Yes it is.' James said. He had to continue with the lie now, no matter how pathetically formed. Even Padfoot could tell things weren't going well. He lied down and looked away from the embarrassing scene that was unfolding in front of his canine eyes.

'No it's not!' Lily said.

'Yes it is!'

'No it's not!' Lily repeated with an air of finality about her. She brought the monotonous argument to a close. 'Hagrid is over there and, oh look!' she said sarcastically, gesturing to Hagrid who was over near his hut, 'That's his dog with him.' She continued, motioning towards Fang.

James paused. He stepped away from Padfoot to the side of Lily. 'Then who does this bloody dog belong too?' he said, trying to get into a joke.

'That's what I was asking you.' Lily said, not taking the funny side. She was too mad. She didn't know why she had become this mad over a stupid little situation but, she guessed, it was because she already knew he was keeping something from her and he wouldn't admit it. This was just another denial of a secret.

'And what did I reply with?' James asked, still trying to play the joke.

'James!' Lily exhaled in frustration.

'Lily!' James said, just trying to get her back into her good-natured self. She wasn't in that state at the minute. He felt as if he was back in fifth year. She was telling him off.

'James. Why do you have a dog?' she questioned, no room for messing around in her tone of voice.

'Well I thought I was looking after it for Hagrid but obviously not so…'

'So you're sticking with that story?' Lily asked in disbelief.

'Yes?' James answered

Lily huffed a sigh and turned away, she began to walk away from him as she said, 'For gods sakes James how many secrets are you going to keep from me?'

James followed her, leaving Padfoot lying on the floor totally unmoving, bored with the situation now. 'I'm not keeping any secrets from you.' he said to her back.

They were walking quite quickly and were now quite a distance away from Padfoot. He probably couldn't hear them now. Not because of the distance but because he had started to chew his paw and was too consumed by that to care.

Lily rounded on James. 'Look me in the eyes and say that.' she demanded, trying to catch his eye. But he wouldn't look at her directly. His eyeline always seemed to be averted to over her head or her hair or the ground. He wouldn't look her in the eyes. And she noticed. 'You can't do it can you.' she said with a derisive disbelieving laugh. 'You are keeping something from me James.' she went on, 'And I'm gonna find out what it is eventually.' And with that she turned on her heel and walked away.

James didn't follow her. A lead weight had dropped in his stomach and had rooted him to the spot. She was serious. And he knew it. 'Ah crap.' he said.

* * *

Alice walked up to the seventh year girls dormitory which she shared with Hestia, Lily, (her friendship group now), Emmeline Vance, (her old best friend who she had fallen out with the previous year), and Mary MacDonald, (who had taken Emmeline under her wing when she and Alice had stopped talking). She hardly spent any time in her dormitory so didn't see her dorm mates that often. Of course she saw Lily and Hestia but they were more of a two and Alice was usually too busy with her boyfriend frank. As was Lily come to think of it. Alice suspected that if Hestia had a boyfriend still, she wouldn't hang around with Lily and James all the time. The three of them might not hang out at all. Perhaps on occasion but not all the time.

She didn't know why boyfriends seemed to consume so much time but for both her and Lily, that was the case. Perhaps it meant that their relationships would last. She hoped so. She and Frank had already talked about the future, what would happen after they left Hogwarts. She was sure Lily and James probably had too. They seemed solid, just as much as she and Frank even though they hadn't been dating as long. Alice took Divination but wasn't one to make predictions. Still, if she was, she would predict that she and Frank, and Lily and James would stay as couples for a very long time. Maybe even for the rest of their lives. But Alice wasn't one for making predictions. Not since a prediction in divination had torn her and Emmeline's friendship apart. She held no stock for them now. Common sense all the way.

She entered the dormitory to find Lily sat alone on her bed reading a rather thick book on, what she assumed was, Ancient Runes. The book had symbols on the front of it so there wasn't much else it could be really.

'Hey Lily.' she said in greeting.

Lily sighed. 'Hey.' she replied miserably. She had been having a horrible week so far. She was sure James was keeping something from her and lying about it. She had homework she hadn't done. It was too hot because the summer was on its way. One of the prefects had complained about the patrol rota so she'd have to pay extra special attention to it during the next meeting on Friday and she had stubbed her toe on the door, pulling a bit of skin off of it and making it bleed. She had healed it but it still stung.

'Are you ok?' Alice asked curiously, sitting on the edge of her bed.

'I guess.' Lily said, turning the page in her book and making a face. To her surprise, Alice broke a small knowing smile. So her misery made her happy did it? That was nice. She thought they were really good friends. Granted they didn't spend as much time together as she did with Hestia but Hestia was her best friend and Alice had a boyfriend. It was different. Still, her misery making her happy was a bit mean.

'Problems with James?' Alice asked, knowing the answer.

Lily had been wrong. 'How did you know?' she asked, silently abashed at her hasty conclusions.

'I have a boyfriend.' Alice stated simply, 'I know that face.'

'Oh.' Lily said, thinking Alice quite wise for recognising a simple expression. 'I thought Hestia might have told you.' she confessed.

'No.' Alice laughed, crossing her legs and shuffling more onto Lily's bed. 'She's a gossip but she hasn't told me this.' she went on, 'She can keep a few things to herself.'

'Yeah I know that.' Lily exhaled, closing her book and putting it on her bedside table, 'She knew about me and James for almost a month before anyone else did and she managed to keep that quiet.'

Alice raised her eyebrows.

'Surprising right?' Lily laughed in agreement.

'Yeah.' Alice exclaimed in quiet surprise, 'That was the biggest piece of gossip this year.'

Alice was extremely shocked that Hestia Jones, a gossip by nature, had actually been able to keep that one under wraps. But, she supposed, if Lily had asked her not to tell she wouldn't have. Hestia had a set of unwritten rules about friendship. She got angry if someone broke them and she stuck to them almost religiously. Alice didn't know what would happen if she or Lily broke these special rules of Hestia's. She would probably flip her lid. Lily had a temper because of her red hair but Hestia could give her a run for her money sometimes.

'People really don't have lives.' Lily concluded.

'No they don't.' Alice agreed. She didn't understand gossip. It didn't mean she didn't take part in it or it didn't interest her sometimes but she was never one to spread it or one to want to know the freshest story. She didn't understand gossip. 'So what's up?' she asked, shaking her head out of her thoughts and reiterating her original question.

'Mmm.' Lily hummed with a shrug, beginning to draw circles on her bed sheets, an odd habit of hers.

'I might be able to help.' Alice said nicely, 'I could have been through something similar with Frank.'

'Mmm.' Lily repeated her hum. She looked at Alice and saw the caring there. She gave in. 'Ok.' she resigned, 'Well, James is keeping a secret of some kind from me.'

'Yeah?' Alice pressed on, thinking there was more.

'Well…that's it.' Lily clarified.

'Oh.' Alice said in small surprise, 'Well he's allowed to keep secrets Lily. He can't tell you everything.'

'I know that.' Lily sighed, 'It's just that last time he had a secret I ended up slapping someone.'

'Well in all fairness Snape probably deserved that.' Alice laughed. Lily had never had many violent tendencies, if any at all. It was rather funny that she had actually slapped someone. Especially as that person was her ex-best friend who none of them had particularly liked anyway. 'And if you think this secret might end up with you slapping someone again do you really want to know?' she asked her.

'I'd rather know than not know.' Lily said.

'I guess.' Alice nodded, 'But still, you can't force him to tell you every little secret.'

'That's the thing.' Lily replied, stopping drawing circles with her finger and leaning forwards slightly, 'I don't think it's a little secret. I wouldn't mind if it was. I know he has little secrets but he tells me he has little secrets and he just flat out denies this.'

'So are you sure he's keeping something from you?' Alice queried to clarify.

'I think so yes.' Lily said, looking down, 'I mean, I keep asking him about it but he just tries to distract me then averts his eyes, goes silent and leaves at the nearest available opportunity.'

'And you're sure it's not just annoyance at you keeping on asking?' Alice continued to interrogate.

'I can tell he's lying to me.' Lily said, 'And…I don't think he wants to.'

'Ok.' Alice said, sounding business like, 'Want my advice?'

Lily nodded.

'If you really want him to tell you, and if it seems like he wants to but won't for some reason,' Alice said, 'stop asking him.'

'What?' Lily frowned.

'Trust me.' Alice said with a small smile, 'Here's what you do…'

* * *

'Hey.' James said to Lily Tuesday evening, swinging himself over the back of the couch in the common room and landing, sitting, next to her. She was reading a book. He kissed her cheek. 'Guess what I just saw?' he said to her immediately. He was happy because he had just seen something that he thought would thoroughly amuse her. It was funny enough to momentarily clear his mind of the constant line of questioning that Lily had been throwing at him since Sunday morning every time they spent time together. His mind wouldn't be oblivious to it much longer though.

James saw she didn't smile at his happiness which she usually did. She didn't even look up from her book to look at him. She wasn't happy he was there it seemed. He didn't want to be big headed or anything but his happiness was infectious. When he was happy, she was too. Usually. 'Are you alright?' he asked her warily.

Lily took a deep breath, remembering what Alice had said and fighting all her instincts to ask him what he was hiding from her again. 'I'm fine.' she said, unconvincingly.

James sighed. He couldn't tell her what he'd seen when she was in a mood. She wouldn't find it funny. She wouldn't find it funny that, further down the school, there was a boy who was asking one specific girl out every day with cheesy pick-up lines. She wouldn't find it funny that the girl didn't like the boy at all and took every opportunity to call him names in return and reject him. She wouldn't find that funny at the minute. Or ironic. She would just say that the girl got it right. Stay away from the boy. James wanted her to laugh. He didn't want her to say that.

'No you're not.' he said, 'What's wrong?'

Lily bit her tongue. Alice had told her not to ask him. She said to try and act normal around him. Then, when he saw she was back to himself and they had settled back into normality, catch him off guard and ask him then. It was a good plan. In theory. But Lily was finding it hard not to question him about the secret she knew he was keeping. She thought he was keeping. No. She knew. And he was lying to her about it. Wasn't he? Now she had doubts.

'Oh.' James said, keying himself into what was wrong with her. He was getting tired of this. He wished she'd leave it alone. He wished she believed him. He wished he was telling the truth. He wished he could tell her. He couldn't. He ran a hand through his hair. 'Is this still about that secret you think I'm keeping from you-'

'I don't think, I know.' Lily cut in, unable to resist now.

'No you don't-'

'Then tell me.' Lily begged, closing her book and looking into his eyes. He looked back. He dropped his eye line. He took her book. Her doubt was gone.

'Lily you asked me yesterday and the day before that and the day before that and the day before that.' James said, flicking through the pages of her book, looking at what he was doing, 'The answer hasn't changed. I'm not keeping anything from you.'

'You're not?' Lily said, not believing him.

'No.' James sighed in exasperation, still not looking at her.

Lily looked at him though. And she saw the guilty expression in his face. 'That's a lie.' she stated, taking her book back off of him and turning back to the page she was on.

Hestia had told her to ask him about it. Alice had advised against it. But she was now doing her own thing. She was going to solve the problem on her own because she knew James. She knew what he couldn't stand. She knew it from the years that he had asked her out constantly. She knew what she was going to do now. She wasn't going to talk to him. The silent treatment.

* * *

Professor Albus Percival Wolfric Brian Dumbledore. Headmaster at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Grand Sorcerer, Supreme Mugwump, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and, now, founder and chair of the resistance against Voldemort; The Order of the Phoenix. He was sat in his round office, as he so often was, awaiting the arrival of Professor Minerva McGonagall. He had asked to speak to her in her role as a Professor of the School, deputy headmistress and, perhaps most importantly, a member of the Order of the Phoenix, a secret resistance group against the forces that Voldemort had drawn up.

The Order of the Phoenix was off its feet now. It had various members, all willing to do their part to try and put a stop to Voldemort's tyranny, the death and destruction he was bringing. Each member had joined of their own free will. Dumbledore hadn't forced them to do anything. They all wanted to be part of the group. All of them. And they all knew the risks. They knew that they would now be constantly facing death. They knew they were in danger of being tortured, hunted down by Voldemort's death eaters and painfully crucified through curses, hexes and strong jinxes. They knew what they had let themselves in for. Dumbledore wouldn't have let them join if they hadn't understood. He knew what he was asking them to do; the people he trusted most in the world. He was asking them to risk death every single day, to put the lives of all they loved in danger. He had explained it all to them. And they had accepted it.

The Order of the Phoenix consisted of sixteen members including himself. There was Alastor Moody; a celebrated auror. Elphias Doge and Aberforth Dumbledore; people from Dumbledore's past, his childhood, his friend and his brother respectively. Mundungus Fletcher; a con artist extraordinaire. Arabella Fig; a squib. Benjy Fenwick, Marlene McKinnon, Dorcas Meadowes and Fabian and Gideon Prewett; ex-students of his who showed promising talent and, most importantly, who Dumbledore trusted. Sturgis Podmore, Caradoc Dearborn and Dadalus Dearborn; great wizards who were highly skilled and very trustworthy. Then Minerva McGonagall and Rubeus Hagrid; members of staff at Hogwarts. The Order was fighting fit and had been for a while.

They had been out trying to combat Voldemort's forces for six months now, since Christmas, and surprisingly, they hadn't been noticed. It wasn't because they weren't making a difference, though many of the members of the Order thought that to be true. Dumbledore assured them it wasn't though. He knew that if they hadn't been intervening in some of the attacks that had happened, the injury and death total would have been a lot higher than it was. He also assured them that it was good that they weren't getting recognition in the daily prophet because, if they were, it would defeat the purpose of their group. Safe to say, Dumbledore was happy with the way things were with the Order and how things were progressing. But he wasn't one to be foolish. He knew they could do better.

The thing that would make the most difference was a mole. He needed a mole in Voldemort's ranks, someone who they would be unable to corrupt, someone who was skilled at lying and concealing things, someone with high morals and, perhaps most of all, someone with a reason. But there was no one. None that he would ask that risk of. He wouldn't want to put anyone in that close a proximity to Voldemort who he knew was skilled at legilimens. If someone went that deep into the hornets' nest there would be a strong chance they wouldn't make it past the first day. So Dumbledore would have to think of other ways to try and circumvent Voldemort's movements. And the only way he could think of to do that, would be to talk to people who knew him, and talk to people who would know his mind-set. So he was making a decision. One which he didn't take lightly, one which he wished he didn't have to make, something his didn't want to have to do. But something he knew had to be done.

He was leaving the school for a few days, perhaps even weeks depending on how talkative people were. He would be going to talk to people who knew Tom Riddle. He would be talking to his old class mates, the ones that hadn't followed his command and had been lead into the dark arts. The ones that supported his choice, knew some of his motives but had decided to just support him from a distance. Dumbledore would have to use veritaserum and memory charms to get them to talk. He would have to manipulate their minds, take information out of them against their own free will. He didn't want to, but for the sake of the wizarding world, he would have too.

He would have to talk to his old employers. Those who had hired Tom Riddle willingly before he had become Voldemort. Hopefully, they wouldn't have made the connection between the boy who was dutiful and highly skilled and the wizard who people feared to speak of. Hopefully the information would be easy to retrieve from them because they wouldn't understand or know of its importance. But Dumbledore couldn't bank on that so he had prepared extra phials of veritaserum. It might be possible that he would have to take the same defensive and protective action against them as he would have to with Voldemort's old acquaintances, (for they could hardly be called friends). For if he was to talk to them, he would have to cover his tracks. Voldemort could not find out what he was doing.

The last person he needed to see did not know Voldemort. He would have heard of him, even where he was, but he would have never met him. However, Dumbledore knew that their mind-set would be similar. And he could perhaps help him get an insight into what might be going on in Voldemort's mind, what he's next moves might be. For he had most likely made these plans in his head. However, it would be no walk in the park to get him to talk. Dumbledore may have once been friends with Gellert Grindelwald but he had also defeated him and sent him to prison. He had turned his back on him because of what had happened to his sister. Because of what had happened to Ariana. Because Dumbledore felt enormous guilt about it. But he could prevent others dying if he spoke to Grindelwald and, even though it would be hard and painful and would torture his mind, he could put it to the back of his mind for the good of the wizarding world.

There was a knock at the door.

'Come in.' Dumbledore said serenely.

The door opened and Professor McGonagall walked into the room, the hardly wavering stern expression written across her face. She had probably just been dealing with some rule breakers or, far more likely, she had probably been dealing with Hogwarts head boy and his best friend. Still rule breakers but far more notorious for their pranks and sense of humour. At least for the past couple of years anyway. There was a tendency to overlook there constant disregard of the rules thanks to this. People still questioned Dumbledore for his appointment of James Potter as head boy but he had his reasons. He wouldn't disclose them but they were there. And if you stopped trying to find them, you would see them. Still, it baffled Professor McGonagall because she had to keep telling him off, even though he should know better by now. And, as predicted, she had just been berating him and Sirius Black about their latest exploits. Now she was here to talk to Dumbledore though, she pushed the mischief makers out of her mind and focused on the headmaster.

'Ah Professor McGonagall.' Dumbledore said, placing his fingertips together, 'Thank you for coming.'

McGonagall nodded her head in recognition of his thanks.

Dumbledore stood up and walked over to his phoenix, Fawkes, and began to gently stroke his head. 'I will be gone for a couple of weeks, perhaps more.' he informed her, 'There are things I need to find out and I can't find them out from the comfort of my own office.'

McGonagall stayed silent.

'I need you to take care of things whilst I'm gone.' Dumbledore said.

'Of course.' McGonagall answered.

Dumbledore looked across to her with a kind smile and one last statement. 'No one can know I'm gone.'

* * *

James rushed through the school. He had been in the kitchens with Sirius, wondering why on earth Remus hadn't joined them after his Care of Magical Creatures lesson. It had never occurred to him, at the time that he had gone straight to the Friday prefects meeting that was supposed to be run by James and Lily. Now he had remembered, it seemed obvious. Still, remembering this late meant that he was going to be walking in the room forty-five minutes after he had supposed to be there.

He usually didn't forget because Lily reminded him. But after a week of constant interrogative questions to which James had no answers for, she had just stopped talking to him. Completely. It was torture really. The past two days had been the worst. She would walk with him in silence to breakfast but, he suspected, if she wasn't walking that way with Hestia anyway, she wouldn't have even gone with him. She wouldn't even hold his hand. To back this suspicion up he had the rest of the day. She wouldn't walk with him after transfiguration classes, wouldn't talk to him during them. Didn't eat lunch with him, didn't notice him in Potions, Herbology, Charms or DADA. She would just blank him, giving him the silent treatment in hope that he would think twice and tell her his secret. When he had gone to pick her up from Ancient Runes she would just walk away, too annoyed with him for keeping secrets from her to even walk with him back to the common room. So, today, he didn't go and pick her up from Ancient Runes as he usually would have done on a Friday. If he had, he probably would have remembered the prefects meeting.

He opened the door quietly, but not quietly enough as everyone turned to look at him as he entered the room.

'Sorry.' he said to everyone, but more to Lily. However, she was the only one to ignore his apology. She rolled her eyes and returned to running the meeting, taking in the last requests for patrol dates. She took no notice of James, something everybody picked up on. No one knew what it was about though. The only thing they could think of, the last piece of gossip that circulated the school about them, was when Lily had slapped Severus Snape across the face, obviously over something James had done. People made up their own stories from there. The prefects, bar Remus, were no different.

Remus had no idea what was going on between the pair of them, but he knew better than to ask or draw his own conclusions about the situation. James had drawn a line. Asking what was wrong would cross it. So he left them alone, praying they'd figure it out sooner or later. James was always grumpy if Lily didn't speak to him. So her giving him the silent treatment was torturous, not only for him but for his friends too. They had to deal with him.

The meeting was long and arduous from then on. It dragged because there was an obvious tension in the room. James sat back from the meeting and kept glancing at Lily every few seconds, something which none of the prefects failed to notice. Lily just ignored him, ignored his presence. She had a stony face and, the one time that James decided to contribute something to the meeting, she cut across him and wouldn't let him talk. It was childish, she knew, but it made her feel better. Still, it meant that the atmosphere in the air was tangible. It was not nice to sit through and so, when the prefects were allowed to go, they all rushed out of the room as quickly as possible, but not before they had created their own versions of gossip.

When they left, and James and Lily were alone, there was silence. Their breathing was audible in the quiet room. It echoed around the stone walls. The slow ticking of the clock bounced off of the wooden desks in the room and the scratching of the quill Lily was using to write out the prefects rota was clear as a whistle. Not to mention annoying. It went on for five minutes until it was too much for James to handle. He didn't want to sit in a silent room with her. She was his girlfriend. They weren't supposed to ignore each other. They were meant to talk to each other, laugh with each other, joke, be sarcastic, make fun of, kiss and be with each other. This wasn't how it was supposed to be. He couldn't take her silence any longer.

'Lils are you going to talk to me?' he asked with a desperate sigh in his voice, a plea for her to answer him plainly present.

'Are you going to tell me what it is you're hiding from me?' Lily replied without missing a beat, turning her head to look questioningly at him.

'I'm not hiding anything from you.' James said in what had become is usual response to that question over the past week, his jaw tense because he was irritated, his eyes avoiding hers, looking anywhere else but the powerful green irises that stared back at him.

Lily looked at him a bit longer that she would have like to considering how irritated she was with him for lying to her and hiding things from her. When she did finally look away she sighed and turned back to the rota, asking him in a bored, 'because I have to' voice, 'What patrol do you want to do?'

James exhaled a deep breath. 'Lily-' he began.

'What patrol?' Lily repeated, making it clear that they were no longer talking about them. That discussion was over. They were now on business.

James was a bit more reluctant to make the switch from their relationship issues to head duties. But when he saw that she wasn't switching back, he tiredly threw out the days, 'Wednesday and Thursday.'

Lily looked over the timetable briefly. 'Can't do Wednesday.' she said, writing James in for Thursday. 'Megan has that slot.' she went on to explain shortly.

'Bump her.' James shrugged.

'No. She asked specifically for that one because she's got Quidditch and Birthdays and god knows what else going on.' Lily informed him, 'She needs to do that date.'

'Then I'll patrol with her.' James said.

'Lupin is patrolling with her' Lily pointed out.

James rolled his eyes. 'Give her the week off-'

'No.' Lily interrupted, annoyed that he was being so pedantic about a stupid patrol slot. 'Just pick another day.' she went on through slightly gritted teeth.

'I need Wednesday.' James sighed, running a hand through his hair and finally sitting up from where he had been slouching on his chair. He leant forwards on the desk, studying the rota over Lily's shoulder.

'Why?' Lily asked harshly, tossing down the quill onto the table. It skidded slightly over to James and he stopped it sliding any further by placing his hand over it, mid-motion. 'Why can't you just do Sunday?' Lily continued, not noticing anything to do with the quill and James whatsoever, 'Or Monday? Or Tuesday even? Why does it have to be Wednesday?'

'It just does.' James stated, pulling the rota towards him.

Lily stopped him. 'James-' she started in exasperation.

'Lily-' James smirked.

'No.' Lily cut him off quickly, looking directly into his eyes, and he into hers by force. 'Don't do that.' she said, 'Tell me why you so desperately need to do Wednesday.'

'Cause I can't do the other days.' James replied honestly.

'Why not?' Lily demanded, 'Quidditch?'

'No-'

'Then what?' Lily asked.

'I can't tell you-'

'Why not?'

'Because it's not my secret to tell!' James said suddenly, louder than he had been talking before. Immediately he dropped his eye-line from her eyes. He had looked into them longer than he should have. If he had been thinking he would have lowered his gaze ages ago. Now, he was sure, there were to be consequences. She now definitely knew he had a secret which meant that she now knew he had definitely been lying to her. Now he would have to ensure he worked twice as hard, concentrated even more on keeping Remus' secret. Because it really wasn't his to tell. He didn't have permission to release that information. Yet.

Lily paused. 'So you are keeping a secret from me?' she clarified, 'I knew it.'

'Lily I-'

'We've been together for nine months now, nine months yesterday in fact!' Lily said, the patrol rota for the prefects completely pushed out of her mind, 'We're not meant to have any secrets.'

James heaved a breath. 'I know that-'

'Then why do you have secrets?' she questioned harshly, 'What is it you're not telling me?'

James still didn't look her in the eye. He simply tried to explain in as little detail as possible. 'It's not my place to tell you. Other people are involved.'

Only one thing occurred to Lily when he said that. And it had nothing to do with the marauders. 'Are you…' she began hesitantly, swallowing hard, forcing the next words out of her mouth, '…cheating on me?'

'No.' James said immediately, hurt that she would think that first. They had been together nine months and one day. Why would he cheat on her now. Why would he cheat on her at all? He took her hand reassuringly, unable to resist. 'Merlin no Lily.' he said, brushing the hair out of her face and tucking it behind her ear, repeating the action again. 'Why on earth would I do that? How could you think that?' he asked.

'Well nothing can be worse than that in my mind so just tell me.' Lily said softly, unmoving from his hold.

James looked into her eyes and took a deep breath. He ignored that tug and snap feeling she gave him. It was hard to do. It almost broke him. He was so close to telling her but he didn't. 'No.' he said assertively. Or as assertively as he could.

'Fine.' Lily said, pulling out of his grip, taking her face out of his hand and her hand out of his. 'Fine.' she repeated, standing up and gathering her stuff. 'Tell me, don't tell me I don't care.' she muttered loudly as she swung her bag over her shoulder, still talking to James as he stayed seated. 'But don't expect me to be happy.' she stated, 'Don't expect me to trust you. And don't expect this to last much longer.' Lily finished, walking over to the door and out the room.

James' eyes widened and his stomach dropped. 'What?' he said. 'Lily?' he went on as he stood up. 'Lily! Lily get back here!' he said loudly, following her moments later out of the room. 'What the hell do you mean by that?' he called after her when he exited the classroom. But she had gone. 'Lily?' he called one last time, not expecting her to return.

He hit the door in frustration. 'Dammit!' he cursed.

* * *

**Thanks for reading**

**I will update on the 12th of August when I'm back from my holiday!**

**Galindaba**


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